Systems, Standards, and Certifications for Environmental Management

Students will analyze and apply common environmental management systems, which can be used to ensure and improve quality during the management of a wide range of environmental operations. They will synthesize this knowledge via a project which establishes portions of an environmental management system. Students will execute the plan-do-check-act cycle to improve quality. They will evaluate options to minimize environmental impacts using root cause analysis and generalize common system components that are necessary for an environmental organization to achieve its objectives (establishing environmental policy, establishing performance objectives, monitoring results, evaluating performance, understanding and managing risks, etc.) Course assignments will allow students to practice systemizing and standardizing environmental management processes to improve performance (common procedures, data management, analytical methods, performance monitoring, etc.) Throughout the course, students will discover that management systems beyond subject matter expertise are necessary to do well in environmental careers.