Responsibilities

Keeping the University compliant with environmental regulations is the responsibility of all staff, faculty, and students involved in environmentally-regulated activities. Any department (academic or administrative) that stores/uses chemicals and/or creates chemical waste is likely to incur some type of compliance responsibility, and is therefore responsible for ensuring that proper regulatory procedures are followed. Applicable regulations may include chemical storage and worker safety as well as waste management.

Deans, Directors and Heads of Academic and Administrative Units

Deans, Directors and Heads of Academic and Administrative Units have primary responsibility for ensuring that work activities do not violate environmental standards. Unit head responsibilities include holding environmental, safety, and regulatory compliance as a priority, and striving to provide adequate resources to achieve compliance.

Principal Investigators (PIs)

Principal Investigators' (PIs) specific responsibilities include providing relevant environmental and safety information to workers (including arranging appropriate training), assuring that required safety and personal protective equipment is provided and used, promptly responding when hazardous conditions or compliance violations are noted/reported, and taking immediate action to report/clean up chemical spills or releases.

Employees

Employees (including student laboratory personnel) are responsible for complying with existing environmental and safety regulations, including properly using safety equipment, reporting accidents, unsafe acts or conditions to the supervisor, attending assigned training courses, and promptly reporting any spills or releases to the environment.

Director of Environmental Management

The Director of Environmental Management (DEM) is responsible for providing consulting assistance and to make general compliance training available to departments or PIs (general training may not be sufficient for specialized activities, and may require additional resources). The DEM also conducts compliance inspections to identify compliance issues for departments/PIs (refer to the Inspections page for more information). Departments and individuals are strongly encouraged to utilize the Environmental Management Department as an internal resource to assist in maintaining compliance. In the event that a regulatory agency (state or federal) inspection identifies violations that result in fines, departments may be financially responsible for the portion of the fine related to violations previously identified and documented by Environmental Management.

University Environmental Management Policy Panel

The University’s Environmental Management Policy Panel is appointed by the President of Missouri State and is currently comprised of the following senior level administrators and organizational representatives:

The Panel’s mission is to review and assist the Environmental Management Department in developing, recommending, and approving safety and environmental policies, guidelines, procedures, and management plans. The Panel will serve as an umbrella organization for other environmental and health-related committees on all campuses to ensure the University’s compliance with federal, state, and local regulations and best practices to safeguard community citizens and to protect the environment.

The Panel will meet at least annually to review the University Environmental Management Policy and to propose changes for approval by the Board of Governors. The Panel will also review applicable laws and regulatory guidance to ascertain University compliance.