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Definitions

Pollution prevention:  

Source reduction and environmentally sound recycling. Environmentally sound recycling includes both recycling on site and off site and is defined as a recycling process that significantly minimizes the release or discharge of the constituents in the material being recycled (as defined by the N.C. Pollution Prevention Advisory Council, Final Report 1994).

Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle:
An EMS follows a Plan-Do-Check-Act Cycle, or PDCA. The diagram shows the process of first developing an environmental policy, planning the EMS and then implementing it. The process also includes checking the system and acting on it. The model is continuous because an EMS is a process of continual improvement in which an organization is constantly reviewing and revising the system. This is a model that can be used by a wide range of organizations — from manufacturing facilities to service industries and government agencies.

Significant violations:

For the purposes of the Environmental Stewardship Initiative, a significant violation is defined as a civil penalty, a special order of consent, an injunction, a temporary restraining order, a stop work order or more than two Notice of Violations from one DENR division. Exceptions can be made if the regulatory program determines that the nature of the violations resulting in more than two NOVs is not environmentally significant.

If there are one or two NOVs from multiple DENR divisions, then DENR will review the applicant's compliance patterns and responsiveness to determine if the NOVs, as a group, will be considered significant.

The Advisory Workgroup will consider NOVs and special orders of consent on a case-by-case basis using this definition as guidance.

Site-specific applicant: 

An organization with operations that are contiguous and under the same local management would be considered one site. An organization with operations in multiple locations should have each location interested in the program apply as an individual site. Exceptions may include multiple locations that have integrally related operations under the same local management (i.e., land applications sites, temporary offsite activities). All exceptions will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis by the Advisory Workgroup.

Multi-site applicant:  

An organization that has ownership and management control over multiple sites in the state that is applying for selected sites under one application at the partner level.

Site:  

An organization with operations that are contiguous and under the same local management would be considered one site.  An organization with operations in multiple locations should have each location interested in the program apply as an individual site.  Exceptions may include multiple locations that have integrally related operations under the same local management (i.e., land applications sites, temporary offsite activities, etc.).  All exceptions will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis.

Certifying official:            

The highest level of management/authority for the site in question.

Normalization factor:     

Please enter the numerical value used to normalize the data (i.e. normalization factor). This factor will used to determine the non-normalized value for the unit in question. For example: If the baseline value for nitrogen reduction is 0.025 pounds per pounds of production and the total production was 250,000 pounds, 250,000 should be entered here.

ESI Stewardship Plan:            

An ESI Stewardship Plan is a management tool for reducing a facility’s environmental footprint. This tool is comprised of a recommended set of practices and procedures to ensure environmental improvement. The ESI stewardship plan is based on the ISO14001:2004 standard but does not require certification to the standard.

Facilities accepted into the ESI as Stewards or Rising Stewards with a functioning ESI Stewardship Plan will receive periodic reviews of all or portions of the ESI Stewardship Plan. Stewards will be reviewed annually and Rising Stewards at least twice during the five-year membership. Reviews may consist of a site visit and/or desk audit of appropriate documents.