Council Resolution 00-05
Distribution: General
C/00-00/RES/05/Rev.02
ORIGINAL: ENGLISH
Dallas, 13 June 2000
Encouraging the Use of the Commission for Environmental Cooperation’s Guidance Document: Improving Environmental Performance and Compliance: 10 Elements of Effective Environmental Management Systems
THE COUNCIL:
TAKING INTO ACCOUNT Council Resolution No. 97-05, adopted on 12 June 1997, concerning future cooperation regarding environmental management systems and compliance;
NOTING that environmental management systems do not replace the regulatory system, nor does adoption of an environmental management system constitute or guarantee compliance with legal requirements;
FURTHER NOTING that, as directed in the aforementioned resolution, the North American Working Group on Environmental Enforcement and Compliance Cooperation (“Working Group”) has explored: 1) the relationship between the ISO 14000 series and other voluntary environmental management systems to government programs for enforcing, verifying and promoting compliance with environmental laws and regulations, and 2) opportunities to exchange information and develop cooperative positions regarding the role and effect of environmental management systems on compliance and other environmental performance;
ALSO NOTING that the Working Group has reported back to the Council on the results of these efforts and made recommendations as to further tasks to be undertaken by the Working Group with respect to this issue;
AWARE that those tasks included the identification of core elements for environmental management systems;
RECOGNIZING that the Working Group convened a public workshop in Washington, D.C., on 13 April 1999, at which it received comments from experts on environmental management systems and interested members of the public on the use of such systems to improve environmental performance and compliance with environmental laws; and
ACKNOWLEDGING that, in preparing the guidance document entitled Improving Environmental Performance and Compliance: 10 Elements of Effective Environmental Management Systems, the Working Group took into account those comments and other information available to it;
HEREBY:
RECOGNIZES the guidance document as a tool to help improve environmental performance and compliance with environmental laws when used with an effective environmental management system;
APPROVES the public release of the guidance document;
ENCOURAGES the use of the guidance document by industry, government agencies and others involved in activities that may have significant environmental impacts; and
FURTHER ENCOURAGES appropriate governmental agencies to promote the use of the guidance document by persons or entities involved in activities that may have significant environmental impacts.
APPROVED BY THE COUNCIL:
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David Anderson
Government of Canada
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Carol M. Browner
Government of the United States of America
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Julia Carabias Lillo
Government of the United Mexican States
Encouraging the Use of the Commission for Environmental Cooperation’s Guidance Document: Improving Environmental Performance and Compliance: 10 Elements of Effective Environmental Management Systems