Community Environmental Management or CEM is a multi-tiered initiative that uses a variety of educational, assessment, technical and planning tools to assist communities with addressing non-point source pollution and other related environmental issues. Addressing these issues involves changing the way communities think about, plan for and implement local programs/policies that impact natural resources and water quality. The group or individual facilitating a CEM initiative works to guide this change.

       Many communities currently address environmental issues through a variety of plans including: open space, natural resource, flooding, transportation, water quality, comprehensive or master plans. But, there is often a lack of sound technical expertise on environmental issues available to communities when creating these plans. A CEM initiative can help fill in the gaps that often occur as part of a regular planning process. The impetus for creating CEM comes from various groups asking for guidance on how to impact this process. Every area being unique, CEM uses a flexible and locally led approach.

       CEM is designed to work on a range of geographic scales including site specific, community, municipality or watershed. Municipal leaders, conservation boards, planners/planning boards, water quality committees or concerned landowners, can implement it. The overall objective is to establish effective local programs for addressing specific community concerns.