The next step will be to define Objectives and Targets to address each significant aspect. These objectives and targets are essential to achieve and maintain compliance with current environmental requirements, to ensure that our location's environmental performance demonstrates continuous improvement in both regulated and non-regulated areas, pollution prevention that emphasizes source reduction, and most importantly reducing operating costs

Based on the rankings of the Aspects, the Objectives and Targets are listed and hence provide goals for the Research Units.

Environmental Objectives and Targets for 2007 of the same USDA Research Unit

Object No. 1 - Reduce electrical energy consumption by 2%

• Target No. 1 - Continue the current procedure of checking that fumehood "override" switches are not left on unnecessarily, especially after hours and weekends.
  • Target Date - Ongoing
  
  
• Target No. 2 - Implement night time temperature set back in the greenhouses.
  • Target Date - April 2007
  
  
• Target No. 3 - Ensure the thermostats are functioning and operating properly
  • Target Date - April 2007

Objective No. 2 - Reduce paper consumption by 2%

• Target No. 1 - Reduce paper usage from 840,000 to 820,000 sheets per year by encouraging employees to use double sided copying when possible.
  • Target Date - April 2007
  
  
• Target No. 2 - Reduce toner cartridge use by setting the default option on all computers for printing on EconoMode (save Toner) when possible.
  • Target Date - April 2007

Objective No. 3 - Attain cost savings for solid radioactive and hazardous waste disposal by $5000.

• Target No. 1. - Increase storage capacity to allow more short living radioisotopes to decay for trash disposal.
  • Target Date - January 2007
  
  
• Target No. 2. - Increase storage capacity for hazardous liquid to accommodate increased number of employees producing hazardous waste.
  • Target Date - March 2007

Continuous Evaluation and Improvement

The key components of your EMS will be to evaluate and rank those activities that impact the environment most, how that impact can be minimized if it is negative, and whether or not the methods of minimize that impact are effective.

The dynamic and changing nature of scientific research precludes year-to-year comparisons of environmental performance. For example, it would be invalid to compare one year's pesticide usage to a prior year's usage, because changes could have occurred to the type or number of pests, the type of pest control strategy being researched, the weather, or other factors.

That being the case, environmental performance can usually only be measured in the grossest of fashions, with results from one year not being comparable to other years.