National Renewable Energy Laboratory
Environment, Safety, Health & Quality
Environmental Management System
Credit: Bob Fiehweg
NREL's Environmental Management System integrates various components of environmental protection—such as the environmental policy, programs, procedures, objectives and targets—into NREL's management processes and daily activities throughout the laboratory. The purpose of the Environmental Management System is to foster environmental stewardship and improve NREL's environmental performance. Environmental review of planned new and modified projects at NREL is coordinated with safety and health hazard identification and control assessment processes.
Environmental Policy Statement
NREL is committed to sound environmental management that serves as an example to others and supports the laboratory's mission to protect natural resources through research, development, and deployment of renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies. To this end, NREL is committed to:
- Pollution Prevention
- Continuous Improvement
- CampusWater
- Electricity/Natural Gas
- Transportation
- Materials
- Environmental Management
- Education/Communication
- Compliance with Requirements.
View NREL's complete Environmental Management Policy Statement.
Environmental Management System Primary Aspects
NREL identified the following primary elements, or aspects, of the laboratory's activities, products and services. These elements have the potential to interact with the environment:
- Energy use/energy efficiency
- Hazardous waste generation & management
- Affect on land
- Air emissions
- Solid waste generation & disposal
- Water use (buildings)
- Materials/natural resource use
- Affect on wildlife & habitat
- Affect on communities (traffic)
- Transportation.
NREL explores these primary elements, or aspects, and identifies actions to control and mitigate potential impacts to the environment in Site-wide Environmental Assessments. The identified control measures are implemented to the maximum extent feasible in accordance with NREL's environmental policy.
Environmental Assessments
More information about NREL's environmental protection efforts is available in these site-specific documents. The following documents are also available as Adobe Acrobat PDFs. Download Adobe Reader.
South Table Mountain
- South Table Mountain Three Site Development Projects Environmental Assessment 2007 (PDF 3.7 MB)
- South Table Mountain Wildlife Survey 2005 (PDF 7.5 MB)
- South Table Mountain Environmental Assessment 2003 (PDF 13.6 MB)
- South Table Mountain Supplemental Environmental Assessment 2008 (PDF 5.2 MB)
- South Table Mountain Vegetation Survey 2002 (PDF 296 KB).
National Wind Technology Center
- National Wind Technology Center Bird & Bat Report 2003 (PDF 930 KB)
- National Wind Technology Center Environmental Assessment 2002 (PDF 7.5 MB)
- National Wind Technology Center Vegetation Survey 2000 (PDF 779 KB).
NREL's Environmental Management System Description Document
NREL's Environmental Management System Description describes the systematic processes that guide NREL's activities to implement environmental requirements, implement environmental management practices to fulfill NREL's environmental stewardship obligations, and to encourage the achievement of continuous improvement. (PDF 1.3 MB)
NREL's Environment Management System incorporates the requirements of the International Standards for Environmental Management Systems described by ISO 14001:1996(E). It also meets the criteria of Executive Order 13148, Greening the Government Through Leadership in Environmental Management, and DOE Order 450.1, Environmental Protection Program, that require Federal facilities to implement Environmental Management Systems.