BALTIMORE, MD (January 15, 2003)—The Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE) and Maryland Technology Extension Service (MTES) will be offering an intensive Environmental Management System Implementation course for Maryland manufacturing companies located in the Greater Baltimore/Washington area. The course is scheduled to begin February 12 and only five businesses will be enrolled. There is no cost for participation.

The MDE/MTES program assists manufacturing organizations in implementing environmental management systems based on the international ISO 14001 standard. Program participants will be offered technical assistance in implementing cost-saving pollution prevention practices and technologies. Environmental Management Systems (EMSs) can create a major change in the way an organization identifies and manages its environmental impacts. Rather than looking solely at environmental regulatory requirements and how to satisfy them, EMSs encourage organizations to put procedures in place that continually bring environmental and other issues to the attention of management. Management can then make decisions among competing needs based on this information. Published in 1996, ISO 14001 establishes policy and procedural requirements for EMSs that address the regulated as well as unregulated environmental aspects of a facility. More than 30,000 organizations worldwide have registered their conformance to ISO 14001, but many more facilities have realized the benefits of implementing an EMS without taking the formal step to register their company.

Four, two-day workshop sessions, spaced six weeks apart are followed by specific work assignments and individual meetings with the program facilitator. The implementation phases are designed so that the organization puts the environmental management system in place at a pace that is manageable and that delivers measurable results from the outset.

For more information or to have your organization participate, call or e-mail Laura Armstrong at (410) 537-4119, Laura.Armstrong@maryland.gov; Paul Gietka at (301) 405-8593, pg26@umail.umd.edu; or Jim Schaarsmith at (703) 465-0415, jschaarsmith@erols.com.

###​