1.2 EHS Policy and Guiding Principles

MIT has adopted a comprehensive Environment, Health and Safety (EHS) Policy that describes and communicates the Institute's commitment to excellence in environment, health and safety stewardship. In particular, MIT's EHS policy commits the Institute to:

• Minimizing adverse EHS impacts,
• Achieving and maintaining compliance with EHS regulations,
• Achieving a high standard for accountability for EHS stewardship,
• Providing educational opportunities, and
• Continually improving EHS performance

The Working Group and the Ad Hoc EHS Subcommittee of the Institute Council on Environment, Health and Safety, (co-chaired by the Vice President for Research and Associate Provost and the Managing Director for Environmental Programs, and comprising senior faculty and administrators), developed and endorsed the policy. The policy was then presented to the Academic Council, which is chaired by the Institute President and serves as the President's cabinet for Institute-wide policymaking. Following approval by the Academic Council, the policy was adopted by MIT on December 11, 2001.

The EHS Policy is communicated to the MIT community through a variety of means as described more fully in the EHS Communications Plan and outlined in Section 7, Communications. The EHS Policy is featured on-line through the Institute's Environment at MIT portal and is also provided to students, faculty, researchers, and staff during many orientation and training opportunities.

The EHS Policy is reviewed and modifications to the policy are considered periodically as part of the overall EHS-MS management review process as described in Section 6.1, Inspections.