An environmental management systems approach that sets performance objectives and targets and stresses continuous improvement. An environmental management systems approach is one in which facilities evaluate the impacts of its activities, processes, and products and establishes clear and measurable objectives and targets to improve environmental, health, and safety performance. Facilities participating in an alternative system approach commit to continuous improvement both in reducing community and worker exposure to harmful chemicals and in improving management systems that gather assess, and respond to information regarding facility impacts on the environment, workers, and the community.

Integration of environmental, health, and safety (EHS) programs into product design and production processes. An integrated environmental, health, and safety (EHS) program is one that ensures that beneficial changes in one program area (such as environmental) do not cause detrimental changes in another area (such as safety or health). It is a program that stresses communication between those responsible for improving environmental, health, and safety performance and encourages facility personnel to consider EHS issues at all stages in product and process design, procurement, production, use, and disposal on the same level as issues such as cost, quality, and time.

Constructive engagement between industry, workers, communities, and government to achieve alternative system goals and objectives. Constructive engagement means representatives of the facility's management and employees, the relevant Federal, State, and local regulatory agencies, and the community striving to develop and continuously improve a cooperative partnership. Through this partnership, these parties jointly work to assure that each of them has the capacity to participate, and does participate, in establishing facility environmental management system goals and objectives, in monitoring the effectiveness of the system, and in evaluating facility performance. The capacity to effectively participate includes each party having timely access to relevant information, sufficient technical understanding and expertise, and the resources to effectively participate.

Prevention of adverse environmental and human health consequences through business planning and product development and use. Prevention means the use of environmental and occupational risk information in business planning and product development to identify opportunities for pollution prevention and a preference for source reduction over recycling, treatment, and disposal. Prevention includes effective stewardship practices to prevent adverse effects and promotes effective customer-supplier relationships that identify pollution prevention opportunities and share pollution prevention technology; and promotes precautionary principles.

Proportionality between improvement in regulatory flexibility; environmental, health, and safety; and the engagement of and accountability to communities and workers. Proportionality means that facilities seeking operational flexibility must also demonstrate comparable achievements in both environmental, health and safety performance and in involvement of communities and workers in defining facility environmental management system goals and monitoring performance.