International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 14001 is the international standard that provides the requirements for an effective Environmental Management System (EMS). The standard offers guidance for the design and implementation of an EMS and provides a framework to help organizations measure and improve the way natural resources are used and disposed.
In April 2000, White Sands Test Facility (WSTF) became the first NASA organization to achieve ISO 14001 certification and has continually retained that certification. WSTF remains committed to environmental excellence through
- compliance with the law,
- pollution prevention, and
- continual improvement.
Our EMS ensures environmental compliance is maintained, our programs and test protocols adhere to state and federal regulatory requirements, and continuous environmental improvement is part of our everyday activities.
Demonstrating our commitment to improving the environment, WSTF reviews operations annually to identify significant environmental aspects (activities that can interact with the environment) and impacts (potential changes to the environment) and assesses how we can minimize or eliminate any negative environmental impacts. We assign objectives and targets to each significant environmental impact to ensure that we can effectively monitor and measure our performance on each aspect.
Significant Environmental Aspects for 2023
- Aspect: Drinking Water Supply Systems Improvements
- Impact: Quality of Drinking Water
- Objective: Maintain quality drinking water at WSTF by upgrading and improving overall system components.
- Target: Design (as required), schedule, construct, and complete miscellaneous drinking water system improvement projects.
- Aspect: Resource Conservation
- Impact: Conservation of Multi-Media Resources
- Objective: Reduction of multi-media resources.
- Target: Design (as required), schedule, support, and complete multi-media resource conservation measures.
- Aspect: Environmental Improvement and Outreach Activities
- Impact: Continued awareness and involvement in meeting NASA Sustainability Goals
- Objective: Improve employee awareness for continual improvement in pollution prevention, resource conservation, and reuse for waste reduction and environmental stewardship.
- Target: Continue Site-Wide Sustainability Working Group (S2WG) as WSTF employee sustainability and discussion forum; raise employee awareness for continual improvement.