Dallas, Texas

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Planning
The overall goal of EMS planning is to set objectives and targets for improving environmental performance. The City does this by analyzing all of the possible impacts City operations could have on the environment and then selecting the highest priority items to focus on. An objective, for example, might be reducing air emissions; a target (something that can be quantified and measured) would be to reduce these emissions by, say, 10 percent per year. Along with this comes a commitment from City management to provide the resources necessary to achieve these objectives and targets.

Doing
Now comes the implementation phase. First, someone is appointed to manage the EMS (in the City’s case, it’s the director of the Office of Environmental Quality). This manager and others create a structure, which becomes the mechanism for telling employees citywide about the EMS, helping them understand that their jobs have impacts on the environment, and then helping them implement EMS procedures and goals in their various workplaces. This “doing” phase also includes communicating EMS goals to the community at large, having clearly written policies, procedures and records, and finally developing procedures for any emergencies that may occur: spills, emissions, accidents and such.

Checking
From time to time, the City will measure how successfully it is achieving its environmental objectives. Trained EMS auditors will routinely check the EMS to ensure that procedures are being followed and goals met. They will bring discrepancies to appropriate managers and employees. The idea here is not to punish, but to correct any problems and continually improve operations (a process of perpetual learning). It also recognizes good performance and anticipates problems before they occur.

Acting
There is a formal annual review of the EMS by senior management. The process depends on managers asking key questions: Are we meeting our objectives and targets? Are we saving money? What changes seem necessary to help the EMS function better? They may decide that changes to the EMS need to be made and “Act” to make improvements. These questions bring the entire process back again to the planning phase, and the cycle begins anew.

Environmental Management System

Dallas Leads Nation in Commitment To Municipal Environmental Management Systems

The city is committed to improving the environment. Truth is, no city in North America has made such a wholehearted commitment to a visionary environmental strategy that includes implementing an Environmental Management System.

Dallas’ commitment means J.R. Ewing’s hometown is now on the cutting edge of environmental protection and natural resource enhancement.

To undertake this idea of an Environmental Management System—EMS for short—is to make a revolutionary promise: a promise not simply to comply with laws and regulations, but to go beyond what’s minimally necessary and do the best work possible on behalf of the environment, the citizens and resources of Dallas. Indeed, use of an EMS is a promise to make environmentally savvy improvements continuously, in every city department, and within the job descriptions of every city employee. Perhaps surprisingly, it’s a promise often rewarded by not only accolades and environmental benefits but also by saving tax dollars.

While a handful of other cities have seen the value in the EMS model (Indianapolis, Scottsdale, even New York), none have taken on the concept on a scale as vast as the City of Dallas. Its EMS covers all 11 municipal departments, and each of its nearly 13,000 employees.

Indeed. In the words of Jill Jordan, Assistant City Manager: “As the city of Dallas, we are responsible for regulating many different environmental issues in the private sector—everything from used car lots to industrial sites that pre-treat wastewater and deal with storm run-off. If we’re requiring these companies to be environmental stewards, then we should demonstrate leadership by example. We should take care of the environment as well as we ask others to. In fact, we should probably do it better than the private sector. Our goal is straightforward: Get our house in order, know that it’s in order, and demonstrate to the private sector—and quite frankly to the other government sectors—what environmental stewardship is all about.”

“The suburban cities, and all of the other cities, they’re looking to the City of Dallas for our leadership,” Ms. Jordan concludes, “and so it’s a big responsibility that we all share.”