" We are the children of our landscape; it dictates behavior and even thought in the measure to which we are responsive to it." --- Lawrence Durrell
A university is a logical "meeting room" for serious thought and discussion about the environment. At Cal State Northridge, we are committed to go beyond thinking and talking about it. In July 2003, CSUN began to organize its successful, proactive environmental compliance practices under an internationally recognized program called an Environmental Management System (EMS). Our goal? Continual improvement to a level of uniform and sustained excellence in our programs. The EMS will serve as a guide to help us reach that goal in all areas -- educational, research and administrative.
At Northridge, the EMS has some important benefits; it will:
• Position CSU Northridge as a
national leader in academic
environmental performance.
• Protect the campus from
environmental liability.
• Ensure that the campus continually
improves its impact on the
environment.
• Contribute to a Learning-Center
University environment.
What is an EMS?
A systematic approach to evaluating CSUN's
impact on the environment makes sense, so does
determined effort to minimize that impact.
An EMS
provides
an ordered way for us to do both.
Key EMS Elements:
• Establishes an environmental policy.
• Identifies environmental impacts.
• Develops procedures to minimize impacts.
• Continuously self-monitors and self-corrects.
The Cal State Northridge EMS uses the globally recognized ISO 14001 standard as a model. EMS oversight responsibility rests with a campus advisory board whose members represent colleges and departments most affected by the program. The board is chaired by the dean of the College of Science and Mathematics.
