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Environmental Management System Glossary

Description:

Glossary of terms for the EMS which is in conformance with Executive Order 13423, Strengthening Federal Environmental, Energy, and Transportation Management.

Publishing Organization:

Region 4

Last Update:

February 8, 2011

Program Site:

https://www.epa.gov/ems

Terms & Acronyms

	Term
	Alternative evaluation	Definition: A systematic evaluation of alternative ways to accomplish a task that reviews the cost, performance, and environmental impact of each alternative under consideration. Ideally, the range of evaluation would include alternative chemicals, products, processes, technology, work procedures, and disposal methods.
	Ancillary material	Definition: Material input that is used by the unit process producing the product, but is not used directly in the formation of the product.
	Aspect, environmental	Definition: Element of an organization's activities, products, and services that can interact with the environment.
	Assessment	Definition: An estimate or determination of the significance, importance, or value of something.
	Certification	Definition: Procedure by which a third party gives written assurance that a product, process, or service conforms to specified requirements.
	Compliance	Definition: An affirmative indication or judgment that the supplier of a product or service has met the requirements of the relevant specifications, contract, or regulation; also the state of meeting the requirements.
	Continual improvement	Definition: Process of enhancing the environmental management system to achieve improvements in overall environmental performance, in line with the organization's environmental policy. Note - The process need not take place in all areas of activity simultaneously.
	Corrective action	Definition: An action taken to eliminate the causes of an existing nonconformity, defect, or other undesirable situation in order to prevent recurrence.
	Effects	Definition: Refers to changes, actual or potential, caused by a chemical, activity, or process as it comes into contact with humans or the environment.
	Environment	Definition: Surroundings in which an organization operates, including air, water, land, natural resources, flora, fauna, humans, and their interrelation.
	Environmental aspect	Definition: Element of an organization's activities, products, and services that can interact with the environment.
	Environmental assessment	Definition: A systematic, documented, periodic and objective review by company management of facility operations and practices related to meeting environmental requirements. The assessment is a systematic, documented verification process of objectively obtaining and evaluating evidence to determine whether specified environmental activities, events, conditions, management systems, or information about these matters conform with selected criteria, and communicating the results of this process to management.
	Environmental management system	Definition: Organizational structure, responsibilities, practices, procedures, processes, and resources for developing, implementing, achieving, reviewing, and maintaining the environmental policy. Acronym: EMS
	Environmental objective	Definition: Overall environmental goal, arising from the environmental policy, that an organization sets itself to achieve, and that is quantified where practicable.
	Environmental performance	Definition: The measurable results of the environmental management system, related to an organization's control of its environmental aspects, based on its environmental policy, objectives, and targets.
	Environmental performance evaluation	Definition: Process to measure, analyze, assess, report, and communicate an organization's environmental performance against criteria set by management.
	Environmental performance indicator	Definition: A specific datum selected, such as volume of a chemical used, which will provide measurable information regarding progress toward meeting a specific environmental goal.
	Environmental policy	Definition: Statement by the organization of its intentions and principles in relation to its overall environmental performance, which provides a framework for action and for the setting of its environmental objectives and targets.
	Environmental target	Definition: Detailed performance requirement, quantified wherever practicable, applicable to the organization or parts thereof, that arises from the environmental objectives and that needs to be set and met in order to achieve those objectives.
	Function	Definition: Performance characteristic.
	Hazard	Definition: The ability to cause damage.
	Impact, environmental	Definition: Any change to the environment, whether adverse or beneficial, wholly or partially resulting from an organization's activities, products, or services.
	Inputs and outputs	Definition: Material or energy that crosses a unit process boundary. Example C Materials may include raw materials, products, emissions, and waste.
	Interested party	Definition: Individual or group concerned with or affected by the environmental performance of an organization.
	Life cycle	Definition: Consecutive and inter-linked stages of a product system, from raw material acquisition or generation of natural resources to the final disposal.
	Life-cycle assessment	Definition: Compilation and evaluation, according to a systematic set of procedures, of the inputs and outputs of materials and energy and the potential environmental impacts of a product system throughout its life cycle. Acronym: LCA
	Life-cycle characterization	Definition: Element of the life-cycle impact assessment phase in which the potential impacts associated with the inventory data in each of the selected categories are analyzed.
	Media	Definition: The means or substance through which something is transmitted, e.g., air, water, or soil.
	Objective, environmental	Definition: Overall environmental goal, arising from the environmental policy, that an organization sets itself to achieve, and that is quantified where practicable.
	Performance characteristic	Definition: Function
	Pollution prevention	Definition: Pollution prevention means reducing pollution or waste at the beginning of a process. The underlying theory to this approach is that if you don't generate waste in the first place, there is nothing to treat or dispose of.
	Prevention of pollution	Definition: Use of processes, practices, materials, or products that avoid, reduce, or control pollution, which may include recycling, treatment, process changes, control mechanisms, efficient use of resources, and materials substitutions.
	Procedure	Definition: A specified way to perform an activity.
	Process	Definition: A set of interrelated resources and activities that transform inputs into outputs.
	Product	Definition: Any good or service.
	Risk	Definition: This is the probability that something undesirable will happen from exposure to a hazard.
	Risk assessment	Definition: Risk assessment is the process of gathering data and making assumptions to estimate short- and long-term harmful effects on human health or the environment from exposure to hazards associated with the use of a particular product or technology.
	Root cause	Definition: A fundamental deficiency that results in a nonconformance and must be corrected to prevent recurrence of the same or similar nonconformance.
	Stakeholders	Definition: Those groups and organizations having an interest or stake in a company's EMS program (e.g., regulators, shareholders, customers, suppliers, special interest groups, residents, competitors, investors, bankers, media, lawyers, insurance companies, trade groups, unions, ecosystems, cultural heritage, and geology).
	Substitutes	Definition: A chemical, product, process, or technology, which may be substituted for another to perform the same function or achieve the same end result.
	Target, environmental	Definition: Detailed performance requirement, quantified wherever practicable, applicable to the organization or parts thereof, that arises from the environmental objectives and that needs to be set and met in order to achieve those objectives.
	Volatile	Definition: Ability to evaporate easily.
	Waste	Definition: Any output from the product system that is disposed of.

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