solid waste & recycling
denver's ems program
City employees play an integral role in the implementation and success of Denver's Environmental Management System. By identifying environmental issues and generating cost effective solutions, they are active participants in preventing pollution, improving operational efficiencies and advancing the goals of Greenprint Denver's Action Agenda.
A Citywide Approach to Environmental Management
Denver is on the road to becoming one of the first cities in the nation to implement a citywide Environmental Management System. The city's commitment to an EMS exhibits its strong support and leadership toward sustainability and ongoing environmental improvement.
Environmental Management Systems help municipalities improve regulatory compliance, increase performance and employee awareness, reduce the environmental impacts of unregulated activities, and make use of innovative approaches to conserve natural resources and reduce major environmental impacts like greenhouse gas emissions.
Based on proactive management guidelines and procedures, an EMS enables Denver to realize numerous operational efficiencies and better understand its environmental risks and opportunities. Not only is Denver more aware of the ways in which city operations interact with the environment, but it is also better equipped to prevent and reduce the environmental consequences of its day-to-day operations.
Implementing a citywide EMS requires cooperation among multiple departments and agencies, education and involvement of city employees, and a focus on continuous improvement. To help track progress, the EMS program is administered and led by a team of environmental scientists within the city's Environmental Quality Division of the Department of Environmental Health.
The program will help the city continue to build on its past environmental successes, such as:
- $500,000 in annual savings from recycling deicing fluid at Denver International Airport.
- Enabling DIA to become the first international airport in the U.S. to receive ISO14001 certification and acceptance into the EPA's National Environmental Performance Track Program.
- Switching from solvent-based to water-based paints for street striping, enabling Traffic Operations to eliminate approximately 4,700 pounds of hazardous waste annually and reduce harmful emissions.
- Altering practices at the Denver Police Firing Range to stop generating 14,000 gallons of hazardous wastewater annually.
- Installing six water-based parts washers that enabled Public Works to reduce chemical waste by nearly 90 percent and cut costs by about 50 percent.
- Switching the city's traffic lights to LED bulbs, saving the city more than $800,000 dollars per year in energy, labor and material costs.
Denver's citywide EMS helps support Greenprint Denver's Action Agenda, along with Mayor Hickenlooper's Sustainability Executive Order and the city's most recent Environmental Policy. By 2011, most of Denver's city agencies will have an EMS in place.
IN-DEPTH:
- Learn more about Denver's citywide EMS program.
- Read about environmental management successes at DIA.
- View Mayor Hickenlooper's Sustainability Executive Order.
- U.S. EPA's Environmental Management Systems resources.
