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Strategic Objective
Working Toward a Sustainable Future
Strategic Objective
Overview
EPA will consider and apply sustainability principles to its work on a regular basis, collaborating closely with stakeholders. Our traditional approaches to risk reduction and pollution control cannot always fully achieve our long-term and broad environmental quality goals. The interplay between different environmental statutes and programs also requires renewed attention to improve “synergy” and long-term solutions. To this end, EPA will also embrace a commitment to focused innovation to support solutions that will advance sustainable outcomes. This cross-agency strategy advances the national goal of achieving “conditions under which humans and nature can exist in productive harmony and fulfill the social, economic, and other rquirements of present and future generations,” as established in the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA). This goal expresses a foundational concept in the President’s Executive Order 13514, Federal Leadership in Environmental, Energy, and Economic Performance.
To integrate sustainability into the Agency’s day-to-day operations, all headquarters and regional offices will routinely consider the following principles in their decisions and actions, as appropriate:
- Conserve, protect, restore, and improve the supply and quality of natural resources and environmental media (energy, water, materials, ecosystems, land, and air) over the long term;
- Align and integrate programs, tools, incentives, and indicators to achieve as many positive outcomes as possible in environmental, economic, and social systems; and,
- Consider the full life cycles of multiple natural resources, processes, and pollutants in order to prevent pollution, reduce waste, and create a sustainable future.
We will work within and across programs, use all available tools, and implement innovative approaches. We will build on our wide range of existing sustainability-related activities, including community-based sustainability activities. We will use incentive-based efforts to complement our foundation of regulations. We will encourage technology-based innovation through challenges and partnerships. We will review new and key existing regulations to examine sustainable enhancements. We will integrate efforts with a new commitment to innovation and greater and more strategic (“high level”) use of sustainability-related data and information. This strategy specifically focuses on several actions to enhance EPA’s sustainability work:
· Identify selected cross-program priority areas that maximize EPA’s ability to advance sustainability objectives and take appropriate actions to:
- Incorporate sustainability principles into regulatory, enforcement, incentive-based, and partnership programs;
- Use available incentives, education, information, and disclosure to enhance the ability of markets to reward sustainability;
- Coordinate grants, contracts, and technical assistance to promote sustainable outcomes;
- Advance sustainability science, indicators, and tools;
- Promote new ways to encourage technology-focused innovation that supports Agency priorities for sustainability. Use EPA’s Technology Innovation Roadmap to guide EPA in stimulating and supporting technology innovation around key environmental challenges; and,
- Use systems-based approaches that account for linkages between different environmental systems.
· Engage and empower EPA staff. Build on staff knowledge of and experience with sustainability and innovation through multiple forms of in-reach, education, and guidance for incorporating sustainability principles into Agency work in a multi-disciplinary way. Develop clear Agency leadership expectations for training at all levels to help equip employees with necessary data and tools to identify appropriate opportunities, network internally and externally, establish governance and accountability structures, provide everyday encouragement and recognition, and lead by example in our own operations. These efforts will improve the ability of all staff to be effective environmental stewards and to help secure a healthy, just, and flourishing quality of life for current and future generations.
· Expand the conversation on environmentalism by engaging and empowering stakeholders, including groups with which EPA has not traditionally worked, using multiple forms of outreach, collaboration, and information. Beginning with the cross-program priority areas identified, we will communicate and partner with key stakeholders, including federal, state, and local agencies, tribes, the agricultural and manufacturing sectors, small businesses, industry, non-governmental organizations, the research community, international organizations, communities with environmental justice concerns, citizens, and other partners, both urban and rural, including those who have been underrepresented, to achieve more innovative and sustainable outcomes. In keeping with our objective to strengthen partnerships, EPA will emphasize transparency and clarity in its communications, including environmental education outreach. Through collaboration and research, we will improve our ability to drive innovation and expand the conversation on environmentalism to address related social and economic issues, especially in communities with vulnerable populations or environmental justice concerns.
Read Less...Progress Update
The Agency has made progress on the three major actions in the cross-agency strategy: identifying cross-program priority areas to advance sustainability objectives, engaging and empowering staff, and working to expand the conversation on environmentalism with stakeholders. Next steps in the FY 2015 Action Plan are to: 1) tell success stories of EPA sustainability work through videos to educate and empower all EPA staff to incorporate sustainability principles into their work; 2) continue improvement of sustainability considerations in facilities management; 3) Enhance use of sustainability indicators, metrics and tools.
Beginning in February and continuing to the present, the Agency has made significant progress identifying cross-program priority areas and leveraging opportunities, goals, lessons learned, and activities key to integrating sustainability in four priority areas. The four areas are identified priorities that each have a number of specific projects managed by several EPA program offices and are used to communicate sustainability principles.
- For green products: multi-stakeholder systems for defining and rating green products and sustainable purchasing.
- For green infrastructure: stormwater management.
- For sustainable materials management: food systems and projects.
- For energy efficiency: measures to enhance electric system efficiency that can support the President’s Climate Action Plan.
To engage and empower EPA staff, the Agency has planned and implemented internal communications and knowledge management projects to help employees share knowledge and develop ideas that can lead to innovative programs. An internal EPA SharePoint site for community of practice work has been developed and is in use. EPA users can share a broad array of projects, information, case studies, and tools, thus reducing stovepiped communications and expanding the opportunities for ideas to flourish.
The EPA Regional Offices continue to collaborate and innovate in partnership with Headquarters program offices, and the Agency is investigating new opportunities for partnership to expand the conversation on environmentalism with stakeholders and identify more sustainable management of resources and the built environment. As one example, the Green Infrastructure Collaborative will build capacity for implementing green infrastructure through partnership between federal agencies, nonprofits, and the private sector.
