ESI Benefits

Benefits of ESI Membership

All ESI members are eligible for the following:

  • Technical assistance on developing an environmental management system (EMS), internal auditing, and pollution prevention approaches;
  • Customized training and technical assistance;
  • Use of the ESI Energy Toolkit;
  • Networking platforms including an annual conference, environmental benchmarking events, and topic-specific roundtables, trainings, workshops, and webinars;
  • Listserv open to members as well as DEQ and Waste Reduction Partners staff to provide a forum for sharing ideas and examples of best practices and finding solutions to member concerns/issues/questions;
  • Recognition of program participation through press releases, the ESI website, newsletters, social media posts or inclusion in other DEQ materials;
  • Use of the program logo for the achieved level;
  • Access to Stewards and other members as mentors where appropriate;
  • Assigned coach as single point-of-contact within DEACS;
  • Member awards and ceremony at the Annual ESI conference;
  • Letter signed by the DEQ Secretary when joining or advancing in the program; and
  • Other benefits as deemed appropriate by the DEQ Secretary based on recommendations from the Advisory Board and the DEQ Internal Workgroup.

Environmental Stewards have the following additional benefits:

  • Formal public recognition from the DEQ Secretary that may include an on-site award ceremony including the presentation of a formal plaque, public announcements, and press releases;
  • Participation in the Steward Forum chaired by the DEQ Secretary;
  • Specialized topic meeting discussions (ex. PFAS) with DEQ regulatory staff;
  • Priority membership on the ESI Advisory Board when appropriate positions are available.

 

Services Provided to Members:

ESI Energy Toolkit

The Environmental Stewardship Initiative at NCDEQ is excited to assist and facilitate the organization's energy conservation goals. With this vision, ESI has launched the Energy Toolkit Program which will allow the ESI members to use various highly efficient equipment to collect the energy data and improve the energy management performance at their facilities. 
 
ESI members can sign out the equipment free of charge. 
 
Contact Don Burke with questions. 

ISO 14001 Training and Assistance

An Environmental Management System (EMS) is a series of elements that allows an organization to organize and continually improve its environmental performance.  The Environmental Stewardship Initiative (ESI) uses the international standard of ISO 14001 in its training and assistance.

Functional Equivalent Audits

If an organization’s environmental management system (EMS) is not third-party certified, the EMS can be deemed functionally equivalent (FE) by Environmental Stewardship Initiative (ESI) staff to meet the requirements of ISO 14001:2015- the program reference standard.

Gap Analysis

The tool is a Microsoft Excel file with tabs that describe the requirements of each clause/subclause of the standard. An organization notes whether they fully or partially meet a requirement. A score is calculated and it visually notes what gaps exist in their system and what tasks are still outstanding. The file offers space to document how an organization meets a specific requirement and what documentation is available. While an organization completes the file ESI staff have assisted with documentation review and guidance on next steps.

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