　　Members of SGIA may be familiar with some of the more frequently used acronyms that come out of the Government Affairs department: OSHA, EPA, VOCs…the list really goes on and on. Two that we increasingly hope more people recognize right away are EMS and ERP. The first acronym stands for Environmental Management System; the second, Environmental Recognition Program. Hopefully, these do sound familiar to you. Now, I’ll tell you why you should care.
　　SGIA developed an Environmental Management System model for our members to use in their own facilities. The basic framework of the EMS allows a company to achieve its own environmental goals through consistent control of its operations. What this entails is that the company first commits to an environmental policy and uses this policy as a basis for establishing a plan which sets objectives and targets for improving environmental performance. The next step is implementation of the plan. Once that step is completed, the company evaluates whether their goals were achieved or not. An EMS is supposed to benefit a company through their continual evaluation of their operations. It gives the company an outline for where they are supposed to see improvements and is set up so that if targets are not being met, those areas are easy to identify.
　　The Environmental Recognition Program was established by SGIA to recognize those companies who have implemented an EMS and who have achieved the goals set forth in them. It’s important to stress that the EMS a company decides on is really specific to their own operations. Two companies can have a 100% success rate for a year and have EMS’s that look completely different; it all depends on what goals your company sets out to meet. The ERP was set up so that SGIA member companies start their evaluation process at the beginning of the year and every two months, they sent in a completed evaluation form to SGIA to let us know how they were progressing in meeting their environmental targets. At the end of they year, those companies who achieve their goals were awarded the Environmental Recognition Award, announced every year at the National Environmental Health and Safety conference (NEHS for those of you keeping track of our acronyms).
　　In the spirit of continual improvement, we here at SGIA’s Government and Business Information department have evaluated our own progress with the ERP and its subsequent award. This year, we will be changing things up a bit. As you may have seen in other parts of the SGIA website, and in our member publications, the topic of sustainability is drawing much attention in the industry. Stakeholders throughout the specialty imaging world are having on-going discussions on what sustainability means and how people can achieve it. While there is yet to be a clear-cut universal definition, one point that has come up repeatedly is that there are many different ways for a company to be sustainable.
　　What we want to know now is what are YOU doing environmentally? You could be on the road to sustainability without even knowing it! Even if you do not have a formal EMS established, chances are your company is doing something that is helping you to reduce your environmental impact. What we would like is to have member companies contact us and let us know what they’re doing, and then recognize those companies who are taking strides in environmental improvement with the Environmental Recognition Award. Establishing an EMS may look like a daunting task, and environmental improvement does require some serious commitment. You might be doing all that work without an EMS, so it’s time to recognize you for your efforts.
　　So don’t be shy! Send us your ideas and give us updates on your progress! Your achievements can help to inspire many other companies to improve their environmental records, too.