9.14 Environmental Health and Safety

MIT's EHS policy and detailed guiding principles can be found on the EHS website.

9.14.1 MIT Environmental, Health and Safety Policy

MIT is committed to excellence in environmental, health and safety stewardship on our campus, in the larger community of which we are a part, and globally. This long-held commitment is demonstrated through our contributions to environmental, health and safety research and teaching, as well as through our institutional conduct.

Through its EHS policy, MIT is committed to being at the forefront of large academic research institutions as follows:

1. in minimizing, as feasible, the adverse environmental, health and safety impacts of our facilities, activities and operations to protect human health and the environment (which is one way we define sustainability).
2. in achieving and maintaining compliance with federal, state and local environmental, health and safety laws and good practices in all of our departments, laboratories, research centers, facilities and operations.
3. in achieving a high standard of institutional accountability for environmental, health and safety stewardship, while maintaining the independence of research and teaching.
4. in providing educational opportunities to our students and other members of our community, to reinforce the values exemplified in the policy and influence their activities during and after their tenure at MIT.
5. in measuring and continuously improving our environmental, health and safety performance.

9.14.2 General Guiding Principles That Support MIT's EHS Policy

The MIT Academic council adopted this comprehensive policy and 20 guiding principles in support of the policy. These guiding principles outline MIT's organizational approach, roles and responsibilities of personnel, offices, and DLCs, and can be found on the EHS website. Also on EHS's website is MIT's Working Alone Policy, which applies to anyone working alone under potentially hazardous conditions.

9.14.3 MIT EHS-MS Web Manual

The MIT community will find the EHS manual useful to describe MIT's EHS programs and how we all contribute to good EHS performance. Founded on the principles set forth in the MIT EHS Policy, the EHS Management System is a structured, organizational approach to environment, health and safety management, specifically designed to enable continual EHS performance improvement. Central to the design of the Management System is a continual cycle of planning, implementing, reviewing, and improving the EHS processes and practices at MIT. For a comprehensive guide to the EHS Management System and all of its related components, review the EHS-MS Manual.