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NIH | Environmental Managment System About NEMS

About the NEMS

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The NEMS covers activities at NIH facilities in Montgomery County, including NIH's main campus in Bethesda MD.  The NEMS also covers NIH activities at the Bayview Campus in Baltimore, MD.  Other NIH sites have EMSs that are site specific to the activities at those locations. These sites include NIH's Rocky Mountain Laboratories in Hamilton, Montana, the NIEHS Facilityat Research Triangle Park, NC, and the National Cancer Institute at Frederick in Frederick, MD. 

What is the NEMS?

The NEMS is the process we use at the NIH to:

  • look at what we do
  • identify how our activities might impact the environment and public health
  • change how we do things to make sure we do as little harm to the environment as possible, and
  • encourage continuous environmental improvement.
NEMS Life Cycle Managment Review - Policy - Planning - Implementation and Operation - Checking and Corrective Action PolicyPlanningImplementation and OperationChecking and Corrective ActionManagement Review

 

Because the NEMS process requires us to look at everything we do, all employees are involved. NIH employees are responsible for doing their jobs in a way that is protective of the environment.  Being effective and responsible stewards of the environment and of natural resources is important to us, both in our mission to improve the health of the nation and as good neighbors in our community.

The NIH has had active environmental programs in place for many years. The NEMS coordinates all  activities related to environmental management at NIH and improves their efficiency and effectiveness.  We believe that this approach will ensure our compliance with legal requirements and also improve our performance on environmental impacts that are not regulated.

What is the NEMS Framework?

The NEMS was developed as part of the NIH’s commitment to the environment. It is implemented in accordance with Executive Order (EO) 13423, “Strengthening Federal Environmental, Energy, and Transportation Management” and is based on the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 14001:2004 standard for environmental management.  The NEMS framework consists of four phases: planning, doing, checking, and acting (or improving). This framework is often referred to as a Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle. This cycle involves setting objectives, tracking progress, and resetting objectives. Because the cycle takes place on an annual basis, the system goes through a continuous evaluation and improvement process.

How Are We Greening the NIH?

The leadership of the NEMS is the Sustainability Management Team (SMT).  The NIH Sustainability Management Team (SMT) provides oversight and direction for agency sustainability and for the NIH Environmental Management System (NEMS).  

All Institutes and Centers (ICs) at NIH have created IC Green Teams to help promote sustainability, identify environmental issues for their IC to focus on, set goals to address those issues, make changes in how activities are conducted, track the resulting improvements in environmental performance, and celebrate successes.​​​  Representatives from each IC take part in the NIH Green Team Leads Council which meets monthly to promote environmental outreach and set and implement greening objectives and campaigns for the year.

The Sustainable Lab Practices Working Group identifies environmental issues in the laboratory setting, sets goals to address those issues, implements goals, and conducts outreach to raise awareness.​​​