MIT EHS strategic direction, policies and practices result from collaboration between the Institute's Environmental, Health and Safety Council, the research-oriented Environmental Council, and the Environmental Programs / EHS Headquarters Office (EP/EHO ).

Institute Council on Environmental Health and Safety
The Institute Council on Environmental Health and Safety is responsible to the President for coordinating the policy development and the assessment of procedures of the several Institute committees concerned with specific areas of environment, health and safety. The council serves as a forum in which overlapping and joint areas of concern of these committees are reviewed and clarified and where questions in dispute by individual committees will be resolved. The council is also responsible for identification of those new environmental health and safety matters that may emerge as new activities are undertaken and as new technologies develop or old ones change direction. In instances where such new activities do not fall within the purview of an existing committee, the council may expand the area of concern of an existing committee or recommend the creation of a new committee.

The Ad Hoc EHS Subcommittee, EHS Council
The Ad Hoc EHS Subcommittee developed the MIT EHS policy and is designing an EHS Management System to ensure Institute-wide accountability. Its members include:

Council on the Environment
The Council focuses on developing innovative new programs within MIT and in partnership with other institutions around the world to meet four objectives:

• Strengthen disciplinary depth and multidisciplinary research cooperation on environmental problems across schools and problems;
• Increase the environmental literacy of all our students and faculty;
• Explore the best means and develop an action plan for outreach and dissemination of our knowledge on the environmental decision-makers in government and industry and to the public;
• Develop and implement strategies and policies to secure the resources that will be needed to achieve our objectives in research and outreach. The Environmental Council is chaired by Chancellor Phillip L. Clay with Professor David H. Marks, director of the Laboratory for Energy and the Environment (LFEE).

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