## [(AGENCY) ESHMS]{.underline} {#agency-eshms .sub-heading}

## [Appendix M: ESHMS Definitions]{.underline} {#appendix-m-eshms-definitions .sub-heading}

##  {#section .sub-heading}

**Adequacy:** Refers to the sufficiency of the resources allocated to
the ESHMS. For example, if the resources designated for the management
plans are not sufficient to achieve the ESHMS objectives and targets,
then the ESHMS is inadequate. If new employees are not given timely
awareness or competence training before they are assigned to their
tasks, then the ESHMS is inadequate on training.

**Audit:** A systematic process for obtaining information and data and
evaluating it objectively to determine the extent to which defined
criteria are fulfilled.

**Audit Criteria:** Set of policies, procedures or requirements used as
a reference against which audit evidence is compared.

**Audit Report:** A formal written document that provides information on
the findings of the audit. The audit report outlines areas of
nonconformance, noncompliance and any opportunities for system
improvement.

**Audit Team:** A team of two or more individuals that has been declared
competent to conduct an audit. The Audit team shall include a Lead
Auditor who is in charge of the audit.

**Community Impact**: Any beneficial or adverse impact to the community,
including relations, surrounding the facility.

**Competent Person:** An individual with recognized ability to perform a
specific task or job function. Competence may be based upon appropriate
education, training and/or experience.

**Compliance Audit:** A periodic audit of compliance with regulatory and
other requirements that are imposed on the organization. Findings are
expressed as non-compliances.

**Conformance:** Meeting the requirements of a set of relevant
specifications and/or regulations.

**Continual Improvement:** Process of enhancing the ESHMS to achieve
improvements in overall ESH performance in line with the organization's
ESH Policy and performance objectives. (Continual implies that there
will be periods when improvement will be flat.)

**Continuity of Operation Plan (COOP):** A plan that provides measures
to carry on essential operations if they have been interrupted by an
event or threat of an event. The COOP Plan includes relocation of key
functions during the period of the emergency.

**Correction:** The totality of immediate and long-term steps taken to
mitigate the consequences of a nonconformity (e.g., cleanup of spilled
hazardous material; removal of water from slippery surface; remediation
of groundwater; natural habitat restoration). The correction does not by
itself remove the underlying cause of the nonconformity.

**Corrective Action:** Corrective action is the fix applied to eradicate
the underlying reason for the nonconforming event. Characteristically,
this is a fix applied after the problem has already occurred. Corrective
action removes the root cause of a nonconformity (e.g., replacing the
leaking valve).

**Corrective Action Request (CAR) form:** The form used to record the
actions of a process to initiate, track and document the root cause
analysis, corrective action, and preventive action that have been
applied to address a nonconformity.

**Cross Functional Team (CFT):** A group of environmental and health and
safety representatives who coordinate and guide the development,
implementation, application and maintenance of the ESHMS. Its members
may include personnel from various organizations and from relevant
facility functions.

**Disposition:** Means those actions taken regarding records no longer
needed for the conduct of the regular current business of the agency.

**Document:** Recorded information that is followed to implement and
execute the ESHMS (e.g., Procedures, EMPs, OSHMPs, ESH Policy statement,
etc.)

**Document Control:** Synonymous with document management but
highlighting the importance of removing outdated versions from use and
circulation and ensuring that operators are only using the latest,
authorized version.

**Documentary Materials:** Is a collective term for records and non
record materials that refer to all media on which information is
recorded, regardless of the nature of the medium or the method or
circumstances of recording.

**Effectiveness**: Refers to the accomplishment of the objectives and
targets set for the ESHMS. If progress is slower than expected or if
operational controls fail more often than is expected or that is
acceptable, then the system may be considered ineffective for its
intended purposes. It is important to remember that the organization
sets its own objectives and targets and so effectiveness measures the
organization's achievement of its own objectives and targets. In other
words, effectiveness is a relative term depending on what the
organization sets out for itself. The only exception to this is
regulatory compliance. If the organization fails to achieve regulatory
compliance in a reasonable period of time given all its circumstances,
then the system may be considered ineffective regardless of whether
other objectives and targets are being achieved.

**Employee:** A person who is employed by the organization or by a
contractor to the organization when that person is under the day-to-day
control of the organization.

**Employee Representative:** An employee of the organization authorized
by other employees to represent them (1) through a union representing
the interests of employees in accordance with the provisions of national
or state laws and regulations or collective bargaining agreements or (2)
through any other selection process allowed by law.

**Environmental Aspect:** Element of an activity that can interact with
the environment. The environmental aspect of an activity is that part of
it that creates a possibility for an environmental impact.

**Environmental Impact:** Any change to the environment, whether adverse
or beneficial, wholly or partially resulting from organizational
activities. Activities can have tangible impacts on the environment
either directly or indirectly.

**Environmental Management Program (EMP):** A management tool used to
document the tasks, responsibilities, and other operational details that
are implemented to achieve the objectives and targets that are set in
the ESHMS for the significant environmental aspects. It includes
timelines, resources, responsibilities, intermediate steps, and
appropriate measurements of progress for achieving those objectives and
targets and can be amended as necessary with changing environmental,
organizational, and legal requirements, and with the activities and
operations within the organization. EMPs are comprised of the following
components:

-   The significant environmental aspect that is being addressed;

-   The objective(s) and target(s) that were set for the significant
    aspect;

-   The performance indicators to be used to measure progress in
    achieving the objectives and targets;

-   The factors that gave rise to the significant aspect;

-   The programmatic tasks needed to achieve the objectives and targets;

-   The roles and responsibilities of individuals responsible for the
    tasks;

-   Declarations of employee competency or needed training;

-   List of records that will be produced by the EMP;

-   Reference to other documents; and

-   Environmental Operational Controls (E/OCs) that are implemented to
    ensure that the significant aspect remains within the operational
    limits.

**Environmental Operational Control (E/OC):** A mechanism (e.g.,
engineering or administrative) used to maintain a desired level of
environmental performance. E/OCs are applied to activities in order to
prevent the environmental aspect associated with that activity from
occurring.

**ESH Awareness Training:** Refers to training that is provided to all
employees in the organization irrespective of whether they are
associated with significant environmental impacts or risks.

**ESH Competence Training:** Refers to training that may be required for
employees or for those working on behalf of the organization and are
associated with significant environmental impacts and OSH risks. Such
training is indicated when the person is not considered competent on the
basis of previous training, education, or experience, to address the
responsibilities he/she has been charged with relative to the
significant environmental impact or OSH risk in question.

**ESH Objective:** Overall environmental, safety or health goal, arising
from the ESH Policy, that an organization sets itself to achieve, and
which is quantified where practicable.

**ESH Performance:** Measurable results of the ESHMS, related to an
organization's control of its environmental aspects and OSH hazards,
based on its ESH Policy and ESH objectives and targets.

**ESH Policy:** Statement by the organization of its intentions and
principles in relation to its overall ESH performance that provides a
framework for action and for the setting of its ESH objectives and
targets.

**ESH Target:** Detailed performance requirement, quantified where
practicable, applicable to the organization or parts thereof, that
arises from an ESH objective and that needs to be set and met in order
to achieve that objective.

**ESHMS:** That part of the overall management system that includes
organizational structure, planning activities, responsibilities,
practices, procedures, processes, and resources for developing,
implementing, achieving, reviewing and maintaining the ESH Policy. The
ESHMS encompasses all the ESH programs, actions, processes and efforts
of the organization. Nothing in these areas should be considered as
being separate from the ESHMS. They are component parts of the overall
ESHMS. This includes efforts to achieve sustainability which should be
considered an objective that can be achieved through the ESHMS.

**ESHMS Coordinator:** The individual responsible for ensuring that the
ESHMS is implemented correctly and maintained in a suitable manner.

**ESHMS Procedures:** A formalized set of instructions that are followed
with consistency to accomplish various ESHMS needs so that the ESHMS
continues to be suitable, relevant and effective. Some ESHMS procedures
(e.g., document control) are also used to satisfy requirements that
arise within other subsystems of the organization.

**External Communication:** Communication from parties or organizations
external to the organization's physical site boundaries or its functions
and activities and any response to such communication by the
organization.

**Financial Impact:** Any beneficial or adverse financial impact to the
organization.

**Incident or Emergency:** An untoward event that is more than a mere
non-conformance in the ESHMS or a minor spill or incident that can be
corrected without invoking the organization's various emergency
preparedness and response plans and procedures. For purposes of the
ESHMS, minor spills and other incidents will be corrected through the
non-emergency provisions and operational controls specified for minor
ESH occurrences in the EMPs and OSHMPs.

**Interested Party:** Individual or group concerned with or affected by
the ESH performance of the organization.

**Internal Communication:** Communication within the organization that
is intended for managers and employees to further the ESHMS goals.

**Internal ESHMS Audit:** A periodic system audit of the ESHMS to verify
that it is properly implemented and that it continues to conform to
planned arrangements for ESH management. It is an audit of the system
and findings are expressed as nonconformities. Audit conclusions are
based on the findings and focus on the root causes that led to the
nonconformities. It is appropriate to seek the root causes of known
compliance findings during an ESHMS audit, since these may reflect ESHMS
nonconformities.

**Lagging ESH Performance Indicators:** Lagging (after-the-fact) ESH
performance indicators enable the organization to see how it is doing
historically in preventing injuries, illnesses or environmental impacts.

**Leading ESH Performance Indicators:** Leading (predictive) ESH
performance indicators are measures that help to identify problems and
opportunities for safety and health risk and environmental impact
reductions before injuries, illnesses or environmental impacts occur.

**Legal Requirements:** Rules and regulations promulgated by federal,
state and local authorities.

**Management Review:** An examination of the ESHMS by top management to
ensure that the system continues to be suitable, adequate and effective
for its intended purposes, and for making decisions or authorizing
actions that need to be taken by staff to ensure the continual
improvement of one or more of its elements.

**Mission Impact**: Any change to the organization's mission, whether
adverse or beneficial, wholly or partially resulting from environmental
impacts or OSH incidents. Mission impacts may include degradation of
mission capability, operational continuity, financial integrity, legal
compliance, and/or maintaining positive public relations.

**Noncompliance:** Failure to meet regulatory or other requirements that
have either been imposed on or committed to by the organization.

**Nonconformity:** Nonconformities are any deviations from established
procedures, programs and other arrangements related to the ESHMS. They
may include non-compliances to regulations, but not all non-compliances
are necessarily nonconformities of the ESHMS. An ESHMS audit (internal
or third-party) makes findings of nonconformity.

**Occupant Emergency Plan (OEP):** The OEP contains procedures for how
to react to an immediate emergency.

**Occupational Safety and Health Management Program (OSHMP):** A
management tool used to document the tasks, responsibilities, and other
operational details that are implemented to achieve the objectives and
targets that are set in the ESHMS for the significant OSH hazards. It
includes timelines, resources, responsibilities, intermediate steps, and
appropriate measurements of progress for achieving those objectives and
targets and can be amended as necessary with changing OSH,
organizational, and legal requirements, and with the activities and
operations within the organization. OSHMPs are comprised of the
following components:

-   The significant OSH hazard that is being addressed;

-   The objective(s) and target(s) that were set for the significant
    hazard;

-   The performance indicators to be used to measure progress in
    achieving the objectives and targets;

-   The factors that gave rise to the significance of the hazard;

-   The programmatic tasks needed to achieve the objectives and targets;

-   The roles and responsibilities of individuals responsible for the
    tasks;

-   Declarations of employee competency or needed training;

-   List of records that will be produced by the OSHMP;

-   Reference to other documents; and

-   Occupational safety and health operational controls (OSH/OCs) that
    are implemented to ensure that the significant hazard remains within
    operational limits.

**OSH Operational Control (OSH/OC):** A mechanism (e.g., engineering,
administrative, or personal protective equipment) used to maintain a
desired level of OSH performance. OSH/OCs are applied to activities in
order to prevent the OSH hazard they exhibit from occurring. Examples of
OSH-related OCs include administrative controls that seek to avoid
contact with the hazard (e.g., restricting personnel access to a
hazardous area), engineering controls that seek to protect personnel
when access is unavoidable (e.g., machine guarding), and personal
protective equipment that provides a measure of protection to the
individual (e.g., respirator, helmet, steel toe-caps).

**Other Requirements:** Rules to which an organization either
voluntarily subscribes to or that the organization's management agreed
to comply with or is obligated to comply with (e.g., Headquarters
requirements, Executive Orders, consensus standards, building codes,
etc.).

**Performance Indicator:** A quantitative or qualitative statement that
expresses the actual or expected result or outcome of an action,
program, policy, or system.

**Preventive Action:** Preventive action is generally a proactive
process to prevent potential problems before they occur or become more
severe. Preventive action can be focused on identifying negative trends
and addressing them before they become significant. Normally, the
preventive action applies the corrective action to other parts of the
organization where the same vulnerability that caused the original
nonconformity is also present there.

**Recordkeeping Requirements:** Means all statements in statutes,
regulations, and agency directives or authoritative issuances that
provide general and specific requirements for Federal agency personnel
on particular records to be created and maintained by the agency.

**Records Management:** The planning, controlling, directing,
organizing, training, promoting, and other managerial activities
involved with respect to records creation, records maintenance and use,
and records disposition in order to achieve adequate and proper
documentation of the policies and transactions of the Federal Government
and effective and economical management of agency operations.

**Records Management Staff:** Those individuals who have been given
responsibility for federal records management oversight.

**Record:** Information or data on a particular subject collected and
preserved. Examples of records include the following: Drawings, sampling
records, waste manifests, neutralization system charts, specifications,
contract language, meeting minutes, deviation tickets, checklists,
organizational charts, photos, training records, complaints, maintenance
records, incident reports, audits, etc.

**Root Cause Analysis:** Root cause analysis is the method used to
identify immediate, underlying and root causes of an incident or
untoward event. The analysis of the root causes aims to find the proper
corrective and preventive actions to apply to remove those causes and
thereby prevent both a recurrence of the incident and its potential
future occurrence in other parts of the organization.

**Safety and Health Hazard (Hazard):** A condition, set of
circumstances, or inherent property that can cause injury, illness, or
death. An ESHMS typically addresses seven generic hazard categories:

-   Contact with objects and equipment (e.g. struck by, caught in,
    crushed by, rubbed or abraded by);

-   Falls (e.g. falls and jumps to lower levels, falls and jumps on the
    same level);

-   Bodily reactions and exertions (e.g. repetitive trauma,
    musculoskeletal disorders, over exertion);

-   Exposure to harmful substances and environments (e.g. contact with
    electric currents or extreme temperatures, exposures to air pressure
    changes, caustic, noxious or allergenic substances, and radiation,
    and oxygen deficiencies);

-   Transportation accidents; (e.g. highway traffic, non-highway
    traffic, landscaping and construction equipment and motorized
    carts);

-   Fires and explosions (e.g. unintended or uncontrolled fires and
    contacts with heat sources), and battery, pressure vessel or piping
    explosions; and

-   Assaults and violent acts (e.g. by other persons or animals and
    self-inflicted).

**Safety and Health Risk:** An estimate of the combination of the
likelihood of an occurrence of a hazardous event or exposure(s) and the
severity of illness or injury that may be caused by the event or
exposure.

**Significant Environmental Aspect:** An element of an activity that has
or can have a significant impact on the environment. The environmental
aspect of an activity is that part of it that creates the possibility
for an environmental impact.

**Significant Environmental Impact:** A significant change to the
environment wholly or partially resulting from the environmental aspect
of an activity. Significance is determined by the organization on the
basis of the potential severity of the change and the likelihood that it
will occur. Activities can have tangible impacts on the environment
either directly or indirectly and the change may be either adverse or
beneficial.

**Suitability:** Refers to whether the ESHMS continues to accord with
the nature of the organization. For example, if internal communication
relies on hardcopy memoranda when most of the employees have e-mail
capability and can be reached electronically, then the system may no
longer be the most suitable for communicating. Or, if a chemical
management plan specifies that employees of the organization have
responsibility for managing chemicals but the number and volume of
chemicals has increased to the point that it is now a safety hazard for
them to do so, then the system is no longer suitable and other
arrangements need to be made.

**Top Management:** For purposes of the ESHMS, top management are found
within the boundaries of the area or functions covered by the scope of
the ESHMS. Top management is management that has authority over all the
areas and functions of the ESHMS and can allocate resources and initiate
actions. They need to have sufficient authority to allocate or
reallocate the resources that have been approved for operations within
their purview.

**Verification Audit:** A follow-up visit by the audit team to ascertain
whether corrections and corrective and preventive actions have been
appropriately completed. The decision to do this is based upon the
frequency, severity, and/or risk of continued nonconformity, as well as
on whether the finding was either a major or critical audit finding.