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Environmental Risk Management is a governance tool to facilitate implementation of University Environment Stewardship policy. It is based on an ISO 14001 certified Environmental Management System (EMS) that covers broad range of University operation’s and activities to ensure that adverse environmental impacts of these activities are eliminated or minimized in addition to legal compliance.
Our EMS sets out University wide environmental requirements aligned with local regulatory requirements and international best practiced standards. It communicates these requirements to the University stakeholders through various communication tools including intensive training program.
Compliance to University’s environmental requirements is monitored through a planned performance monitoring program consisting of inspection and series of internal and external audit program. Our EMS provides us the opportunity to review and continually improve our environmental performance. The diagram below presents key elements of our EMS.
KAUST EMS is a comprehensive document tailored to manage University environmental impacts. It can be accessed online from this link
Below is a brief summary of each element of EMS.
KAUST has issued an Environmental Stewardship Policy this is a statement of commitment by senior management to the principles and requirements of environmental protection and sustainability. The policy shall be used to communicate KAUST environmental protection and sustainability commitment to all employees, students, visitors and contractors. Environmental management system is a governance tool to facilitate implementation of University Environment Stewardship policy
Our training program is governed by Environmental Training Procedure. The main purpose of this procedure is to provide a systematic method for ensuring the adequate environmental protection competency of KAUST and contractor personnel whose activities may result in significant environment impacts. This procedure also provides guidance to the concerned personnel to identify the training needs of personnel who will be involved in the implementation of the Environment Management System (EMS).
Training is required for staff and contractors who manage environmental risks at KAUST to ensure the goals identified in KAUST’s Environmental Stewardship Policy are achieved. These courses aim to familiarize staff with KAUST’s environmental risks and the management requirements contained within our environmental procedures. As of July 2016, staff are only required to complete one course once a year (Annual Environmental Refresher Training). This module covers all operational environmental control requirements. This module and procedure specific modules are available online via Blackboard.
The Non-compliance and Corrective Action Procedure describes the process to ensure that KAUST establishes, maintains and uses a system to identify non-compliances, and to implement corrective and preventative action processes to monitor, report, investigate and mitigate any impacts caused by the occurrence of potential and actual Non-compliance with the environmental legislation, regulations, policies, procedures and standards.
The primary objective of the Legal and Other Requirements Procedure is to provide a system for identifying the environment related regulation that applies to all core operations and activities of KAUST. This procedure also provides guidance for monitoring and evaluation of compliance with applicable regulatory requirements.
The primary purpose of Environmental Aspect & Impact Management Procedure is to establish a uniform and consistent methodology for identification, evaluation, management and review of environmental impacts associated with KAUST’s activities and operations. In addition, this procedure will provide guidance for introducing control measures to either eliminate or reduce environmental impacts.
The primary objective of the Environmental Communication Procedure is to document how organization manages environmental matters related internal communication as well as the communication held with external parties. In addition, this procedure details the environmental meetings hierarchy and information flow within the organization.
KAUST’s EMS adopts the KAUST Emergency Management plan in establishing the responsibilities and organizational structure to emergencies impacting the KAUST campus or the community.
The Environmental Performance Monitoring & Reporting Procedure establishes the basic framework and requirements for the systematic annual planning, monitoring, and reporting KAUST environmental management performance. This is the key document that reflect continual improvement of environmental performance year on year.
The Environmental Audits and Inspection Procedure defines KAUST’s environmental compliance assurance and evaluation program in order to verify the effectiveness of the EMS at KAUST.
The Management Review Procedure is to describe the type, frequency and level of management review required to evaluate the suitability and effectiveness of the KAUST EMS as well as ensuring its continual improvement.
