Fermilab environmental program receives international recognition

Left to right: Paul Kesich, manager of the Environmental Protection Team at Fermilab; Joanna Livengood, DOE Fermi Site Office manager; Pier Oddone, Fermilab director; and William Rutledge, a representative from NSF International Strategic Registrations hold a banner recognizing Fermilab's achievement of registration for ISO 14001 standard.

Last Thursday, Oct. 11, Fermilab and local DOE officials celebrated the international recognition of the laboratory's environmentally sound management practices in a small ceremony in Wilson Hall.

"I'm presenting today a plaque that certifies Fermilab's registration for ISO 14001," said William Rutledge of NSF International Strategic Registrations. The non-government organization provides management systems registrations worldwide. "Not many organizations of your caliber have done this."

The ISO 14001 standards require an organization to meet a stringent set of criteria. The organization must have an infrastructure and management plan that allows it to comply with environmental laws and standards, to improve its environmental performance and to achieve measurable environmental objectives. The standards are not a government requirement. Instead they signify an organization's commitment to best environmental practices.

"This might seem like the culmination of our efforts, but this is only the beginning. Now we have to maintain our standard and improve on it," said Paul Kesich, manager of the Environmental Protection Team at Fermilab, who led the laboratory's effort to get certified.

ISO 14001 certifies that an organization has an environmental management system that assesses the environmental impacts of all activities taking place across the organization, from the planning of major new projects to the daily activities of workers. As part of the system, managers must communicate with their employees about environmental aspects of their work and look at ways to minimize the environmental impact of daily activities.

"This is a notable achievement for Fermilab," said ES&H Director Bill Griffing after the ceremony. "We have always had a reputation for environmental excellence in the United States. The ISO 14001 registration puts our name on a list of corporations recognized internationally for their excellent environmental management systems."

-- Kurt Riesselmann

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Diversifying the prairie

A volunteer harvests plants during the first of two scheduled fall Volunteer Prairie Seed Harvests on Saturday, Oct. 6. Seeds are harvested each fall and then replanted later in burned prairies to help diversify the plant species. The next seed harvest will be held on Nov. 3 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. More information can be found here.

A wild frontier with
an atomic center

From Medill News Service, Oct. 11, 2007

Look, but don't touch. That's John Plese's advice for dealing with the gentle-looking bison that lumber around his ranch. Some of the brown shaggy creatures might saunter over to the wood corral gates that fence off the Illinois prairie, but don't try to pet them. "One might start licking your hand and than take a horn and take your hand off," said Plese, the chief herder. The bison (don't call them buffalo - that name, while tossed around a lot, really applies to Asian and African varieties) are wild animals, and they are located next to some expensive equipment - a silo, a few tractors, and Fermilab's multi-billion dollar particle accelerator. The bison coexist with some of the greatest scientific discoveries happening on the earth today, but remain blissfully apart from them.

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