As environmental laws, regulations and associated risks evolve, United’s Environmental Management System (EMS) aids in providing a systematic approach to assessing environmental risk and help in reducing United’s environmental impacts. The EMS system includes environmental policies, procedures, management of change and ongoing compliance tracking systems down to the individual station level.
A visual representation of the cyclical nature of United’s Environmental Management System (EMS) and how it aids in monitoring, managing and providing a systematic approach to assessing environmental risk and reducing our environmental impacts. This is accomplished through a plan-do-check-act approach:
- Plan
- Assets
- Activities
- Impacts
- Regulations
- Do
- Standard Operating Procedures
- Check
- Auditing
- Reporting
- Data Analysis
- Act
- Corrective Action
- Impact Reduction
- Engagement
United’s Electronic Management Information System (EMIS) tools are electronic tools used to help manage our EMS. In 2024, United transitioned our audit program and incident reporting to a SaaS cloud-based platform. We plan to roll out compliance and task tracking, air emissions monitoring and reporting, and management of change in 2025. This tool will provide additional transparency of data and risk at a station and enterprise level, which will help better inform proactive actions and solutions to mitigate risk and implement best management practices within our compliance platform. Full implementation of the new EMIS tool is anticipated by year-end 2025.
Another important aspect of compliance excellence is empowering frontline employees with knowledge about our EMS and the regulations to which we must adhere. United conducts in-person environmental training for our Environmental Coordinators that are tasked with ensuring our compliance obligations are met within our ground operations. This strengthens the network of aviation professionals that support the operation with compliance at the core. This interactive, hands-on training complements the regulatory required computer-based training.