The benefits of an EMS to a public agency differ from the private sector in that there is usually no competitive advantage or demand from clients to implement an EMS. However, many of the other benefits are the same, and include:

• Increased compliance;
  
• Enhanced cooperation among staff due to training and understanding of job responsibilities and impacts of job duties;
  
• Enhanced skill level of staff and increased consistency of performing job duties;
  
• Prioritization of efforts based on environmental assessment;
  
• Training program with a tracking system so that training is not missed;
  
• Document control program so that staff can access the latest versions of documents with confidence;
  
• Checking and review process prevents problems;
  
• Centralized list of legal and other requirements so that individual requirements are not forgotten;
  
• Framework for moving beyond compliance;
  
• Vehicle for positive change;
  
• Improved employee morale;
  
• Enhanced public image;
  
• Reduced costs of employee turnover (simplifies training process and ensures that information isn't lost with personnel);
  
• A way to unify existing environmental efforts under a single program;
  
• Method of identifying the root causes of environmental problems to prevent them from recurring;
  
• A way to be more competitive with the private sector;
  
• Improved public image and trust (i.e. customer satisfaction);
  
• Reduced operating costs - especially important with a limited resource base (human and financial);
  
• Establishes the agency as a leader among government agencies in environmental issues; allows the facility to "walk the talk"; and
  
• Potential for reduced compliance burden - EPA has accepted EMS documentation as one WWTD's portion of the Maintenance, Operation and Management Compliance (MOM) Program