Environmental Management and Regulatory Compliance. The Postal Service uses a management systems approach to identify and address existing and emerging environmental compliance issues and associated impacts. We are subject to numerous federal, state and local environmental laws and regulations. As part of our continuous improvement process, the Postal Service annually reviews facility risk assessment criteria to address business, regulatory and environmental aspects and impacts. In 2013, the Postal Service applied new corporate-level facility risk criteria to better manage risk mitigation resource planning.
Our environmental management system is a facility-based environmental risk assessment effort. These assessments identify current compliance issues as well as non-regulatory deficiencies that could, if not addressed, lead to non-compliance with local, state or federal environmental regulations. This benefits the Postal Service by minimizing potential fines and penalties and enhances our environmental stewardship by identifying and correcting compliance issues and instilling best practices. In 2013, the Postal Service completed more than 900 environmental risk assessments.
Addressing root causes is part of managing and reducing overall environmental risks to our organization.
Environmental Recordkeeping. In 2013, USPS focused on streamlining and standardizing environmental records management. To support this effort, we deployed a new environmental filing system to approximately 340 high risk facilities. The system, which includes both electronic and hard copy record retention mechanisms, improves compliance and reduces risk.
