Environmental Stewardship – Protection and Management
Protection and Management
Waste Management’s Environmental Department has developed an Environmental Management Program (EMP) that integrates our environmental policies and standards, planning, training, communications, documentation, assessment, compliance audit services, and management review processes, to achieve superior environmental performance while supporting our main principles of protection, compliance, conservation, and communications.
WM has environmental teams that specialize in the following areas and detailed descriptions of the roles and responsibilities of each function are available by clicking on the team name:
- Environmental Protection (EP) – provides environmental policies, tools, training, and strategic advice to the groups and market areas
- Groundwater Protection (GP) – resolves groundwater issues and ensures groundwater monitoring networks are installed to specifications
- Environmental Engineering (EE) – manages the planning, design and operation of our disposal facilities
- Air / Gas Management (AGM) – develops policies and standards as well as the planning and develop of air quality and gas management tools
- Laboratory Services Program (LS) – manages risks associated w/ the analytical testing of environmental samples
WM’s Environmental Policies and Standards
- WM Environmental Policy
- Environmental Due Diligence Policy
- Environmental Incident Notification Policy
- Third Party Waste Service Provider Policy
- Groundwater and Related Media Management Policy
- Groundwater Media Closure and Post Closure Policy
- Landfill – Drilling Footprint Policy
- Landfill Remedial Liabilities Procedure
- Landfill Development Capitalization and Amortization Policy
- Landfill Closed Site Management Group Procedure
- Environmental Management Technology Procedure
- Airspace Measure Procedure
- Airspace Utilization Factor Procedure
- Landfill Airspace Utilization Factor and Topographic Mapping Policy
- Liquids Recirculation Policy
- Disposal of Animal Carcasses and By-Products Procedure
- Closed Site Management Group Transition Procedure
Corporate EMP Planning
Regulatory and business requirements applicable to our operations are determined using the following tools:
- Environmental regulatory updates (CyberRegs and Government Affairs)
- Compliance software and tools (CYCLE and Dakota)
- Corporate management practices / industry standards
- Corporate environmental policies and standards
In addressing issues affecting regional and local operations, we review and consider the following documents and tools in planning:
- State and local regulatory changes
- Local environmental programs and procedures
- Self-assessments
- Local training programs
- Group compliance tools (manuals and group guidance documents)
EMP Training
Environmental training targets a range of operational and functional levels within the company. All new employees participate in corporate ethics and compliance training, which outlines WM’s global standards for environmental practices. Employees that have responsibility for environmental leadership are trained in the company’s environmental practices. Topic specific environmental training is developed and implemented by corporate and group EP teams.
WM training tools include the following:
- Environmental protection training clearinghouse
- Annual environmental technical conferences
- Technical seminars
In addition to the tools identified above, local training is provided through the following:
- Group in-house classroom training
- On-the job training
- Out-sourced training
EMP Communications
Communication is vital to ensuring environmental issues are part of everyday activities at WM and communicating performance to our customers, communities, regulators and investors strengthens our ability to be an industry leader.
We communicate within the company using:
- E3 Scorecard- tracks environmental performance
- Dakota Tracer - centrally manages and tracks all identified environmental issues
- WM’s Incident Alert Notification System - gives immediate notification of significant environmental events
- WMVisor (WM’s intranet) and WM Monday (WM’s weekly newsletter) - update employees on environmental and operations activities.
We communicate with our communities, customers, regulators and investors using:
- WM.com (WM’s corporate website) - highlights significant research, environmental awards, and unique achievements in environmental management
- WM’s environmental scientists and professionals - present achievements and research at national and international environmental conferences
- WM’s Corporate Communications department
- WM’s local management support community outreach
EMP Documentation
WMVisor has a section, environmental protection (EP), which is a central location for all environmental documentation and is available to all WM employees. The primary supporting documents include policies, standards and training materials.
EMP Assessment
The Corporate Environmental Protection program assesses the environmental performance of business operations every month through the E3 Scorecard. This assessment consists of a review of documentation, environmental performance metrics, and goals and objectives progress summaries. The WM E3 Scorecard outlines responsibilities for measuring environmental performance.
Group and market area staff uses designated programs such as Dakota and CYCLE to assist in resolving action items. WM group and market area managers and supervisors are responsible for addressing all issues identified through any of the assessment stages in a timely manner.
Corporate Compliance Audit Services (CAS)
WM’s Corporate Compliance Audit Services (CAS) conducts compliance audits at all company owned, operated or controlled facilities or operations. The CAS team operates independently of the groups, regions and districts they audit.
Their responsibilities include the following:
- Conduct systematic, documented, and objective evaluations for verifying compliance with environmental regulatory requirements
- Communicate the result of audits to relevant local and corporate management and follows-up to ensure the timely resolution of issues
- Assist the company in evaluating and improving the effectiveness of existing environmental systems and policies
- Assist the company and its managers in preventing, detecting, correcting, and proactively addressing compliance issues
The CAS program and procedures include:
- Risk assessment audit selection process
- Qualifications and training of staff conducting audits
- Development of audit protocol documents
- Planning and conducting audits
- Identification of non-compliant activities
- Resolution of audit findings
- Document management and retention
- Review and update of program directive and procedures
- Audit quality control and assurance
- Communication of audit results
EMP Management Review
Various WM management teams participate in a management review process to determine the level of success in achieving environmental goals. They:
- Review environmental policies on a routine basis with a minimum three-year interval
- Review the design of the EP program to determine if the system is capable of achieving our environmental policy goals and fully supporting principles of protection, compliance, conservation and communication
- All revisions to the EP program document and supporting policies are documented and retained by the corporate environmental protection group
- Conduct a formal annual review of EP program
- Review the local performance measures, goals and objectives
- Review local issues on a schedule throughout the year
- Amend the EP program, including policies, procedures and practices on a timely basis whenever the systematic evaluations indicate that changes could improve our ability to protect the environment
