College Peer Environmental Audit Program
In the late 1990s, EPA began an enforcement initiative against colleges and universities where fines for multimedia inspections averaged approximately $500,000 per college. The solution developed by HRP and our legal teaming partners was a “peer environmental audit” program, which allowed each college to self-audit using personnel from peer audit institutions trained on environmental regulations and armed with auditing software. Nearly 300 colleges and universities have now participated in the Peer Audit Program with support from consulting engineers, compliance specialists, and attorneys. The program has been successfully completed in AL, AR, FL, GA, IN, KS, NC, MI, NJ, TN, and TX (EPA Region 2,4,5,6, and 7). Under HRP’s collaborative peer-audit program, many colleges and universities have avoided hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines while achieving environmental compliance throughout their campuses.
Since the initial peer audit program, HRP has continued to assist its college and university partners with a variety of EHS services including:
- Bloodborne Pathogen Plan preparation and training
- Brownfield Funding and Grant Opportunities
- Chemical Hygiene Plan Development
- EH&S Audits
- EH&S Training
- Emergency Action Plan preparation and training
- Environmental Management System (EMS) development
- Fume Hood Performance Evaluations
- Hazardous Waste Determinations
- Industrial Hygiene Monitoring
- Phase 1 Environmental Site Assessments
- Spill, Prevention, Control and Countermeasure (SPCC) Plan development and training
- Site investigation and remediation
- Tank closures
- Ventilation evaluations
- Waste Management Plan development
Resource Links
Link to paper
Link to statistics