3.7 EHS Planning

MIT's EHS Policy describes and communicates the Institute's commitment to excellence in environment, health, and safety stewardship. Consistent with this objective, the Institute directly considers and seeks to mitigate the EHS impacts of its operations by integrating EHS criteria into its planning and decision-making processes.

The Environmental Programs Office (EPO), through the Managing Director for Environmental Programs, participates in Institute-wide EHS planning and policy-making, and together with the EHS Council is responsible for overseeing overall EHS policy implementation, including regulatory compliance, and EHS initiatives. Members of the EPO and EHS Office conduct internal management review of the EHS Management System. In addition, the EPO is responsible for developing, implementing, and managing the vision, strategic direction, and oversight of the EHS Office. The creation of a high-level Environmental Programs Office, overseen by a senior administrator reporting directly to the Executive Vice President, Provost, and Chancellor, demonstrates the Institute's commitment to environmental stewardship and compliance. This organizational structure effectively leverages MIT's resources to have lasting, Institute-wide impact, and is consistent with the objectives set out in the EHS Policy.

Further integration of EHS issues into MIT planning, decision-making, and operations is achieved through the use of specialized EHS Councils and Committees as outlined in Section 2, Roles and Responsibilities of this Manual.