Overview of TVA’s Environmental Management System
As a regional development agency and the nation’s largest public power provider, TVA is committed to protecting the environmental resources of the Tennessee Valley. To help guide it in that effort, TVA has set up an Environmental Management System, or EMS, which provides:
- A set of processes based on best practices to help TVA meet the commitments expressed in its Environmental Policy and Principles
- A way to standardize environmental practices
- A means for continuous improvement
- A tool for reducing environmental risk.
Benefits
TVA’s implementation of the EMS has provided some important benefits:
- Improved environmental performance
- Enhanced regulatory compliance
- Better environmental cost management
- Conservation of materials and energy
- More innovative solutions to environmental issues
- A competitive advantage.
Achievements
With the adoption of its EMS, TVA has:
- Become the first federal agency to implement an EMS at all of its facilities.
- Saved more than $20 million through solid waste reductions and environmental training efficiencies.
- Reduced internal audit regulatory findings, including repeat findings, by 43 percent, the lowest in nine years. These audits verify that TVA operations are in compliance with regulatory requirements and that effective environmental measures are in place.
- Reduced the average of annual reportable environmental events by 17 percent. Reportable environmental events are occurrences that trigger a notification to or enforcement action by a regulatory agency.
- Saved $4.6 million in 2005 by reducing the number of environmental training courses from 457 to 79, a result of standardization.
- Reduced sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide emissions to the lowest levels since all 59 coal-fired units have been in operation.
- Reduced environmental impacts by 45 percent.
Learn more about TVA’s EMS
Renovating a Complex EMS. Given at the 14th Annual Corporate Affiliates Workshop in Phoenix (PDF file, 3.4 Mb)
Continuous Improvement for Results. Given at a federal facility workshop sponsored by EPA and DOE (PDF file, 766 kb).