EPA Initiative

Program Description 

The EPA has conducted on-site campus inspections of both public and private colleges and universities in Regions 1, 2, 3, and 4 with associated fines.  It is believed that it is only a matter of time before these inspections/audits are conducted in Texas, EPA Region 6.  In order to assist its membership with this large potential liability, ICUT presented and received approval to pursue the Peer Audit program used by other state associations.

The Peer-Audit and the Audit Agreement approach blends the best elements of a self-audit and a third-party independent audit by enabling trained peers from participating schools to audit each other’s campus under the direction of an experienced professional auditor.  Each peer auditor brings inherent knowledge and experience of the campus environment yet, with the compliance training that the program provides, the auditors also provide third-party objectivity.  Of equal importance, each peer-auditor learns from their experience conducting audits on other campuses and brings that knowledge and expertise back to their own campus.  Furthermore, the relationships built during this audit program have opened up dialogue between the participating institutions regarding environmental initiatives and compliance strategies.  The peer-audit program fosters an atmosphere of change and cultural sustainability previously unseen on college and university campuses in such large scale.