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CONTENTS
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY * ES-1
1 INTRODUCTION • » 1
Background and Purpose 1
Sustainable Development • • 1
Three Tenets of Sustainable Development 2
Sustainable Development and the
Environmental Protection Agency: Past
and Present Issues ...., • 3
Sustainable Development and the
Environmental Protection Agency:
New Opportunities , 4
Organization ofThis Report, 4
2 EXPANDING OUR HORIZONS 5
Strategic Planning ,,, 5
Equity , 7
3 DEVELOPING A KNOWLEDGE BASE 8
Environmental Statistics and Information 8
Long-Term Monitoring 9
Research on Global Environmental Issues , 10
Ecological Research., < H
The Values of Ecosystems and Other Economic Research , 12
Social Science Research 13
4 NEW TOOLS FOR ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION 14
Pollution Prevention <••• - 14
Economic Incentives , t 16
Public-Private Partnerships 17
Technological Innovation 18
5 FOCUSING ON REGIONS AND COMMUNITIES 19
Geographic Targeting - 19
Regional, State, and Local Programs 19
6 ENHANCING PUBLIC AWARENESS AND PARTICIPATION 21
Education 21
Improving Public Access to Environmental Information ,.... 22
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7 INTERNATIONAL EFFORTS
Protecting Shared Ecosystems ,...
Protecting the Global Environment ,
Other International Environmental Cooperation,
.23
23
24
24
8 CONCLUSION ....,21
9 ENDNOTES .....28
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
During the course of its preparation, this
Report benefited from the contributions of many
Environmental Protection Agency employees. The
principal authors, in alphabetical order, were
Gerald J. Filbin, Patrick McCabe, and Lea
Swanson from the Office for Policy, Planning and
Evaluation.
Others who provided invaluable contributions
included John Atcheson, Mike Baker, Tim Barry,
Dave Bassett, Jay Benforado, David Berg, Pete
Christich, Paul Cough, John Cross, Bob Currie,
Ellen Fahey, Anne Grambsch, Dexter Hinckley,
Tom Kelly, Chuck Kent, Pat Koshel, Betsy
LaRoe, Ben Lesser, Lawrence Martin, Al
McGartland, Dan McKenzie, Jane Metealfe,
Angela Nugent, Gary O'Neal, David Rejeski, Gail
Robarge, and Ingrid Schulze.
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Sustainable development has emerged in the
last decade as a focal point for research, discussion,
and recommendations regarding the long-term
economic and environmental outlook for the United
States and the world. The level of global concern
about sustainable development was evident, for
example, at the 1992 United Nations Conference on
Environment and Development, where
representatives from 180 countries gathered "to
promote sustainable and environmentally sound
development." In view of the increasing interest in
this topic, Congress has asked the Environmental
Protection Agency to report on its efforts to
incorporate the concepts of sustainable development
into the Agency's operations.
Sustainable development, according to the
United Nations World Commission on Environment
and Development, "is development that meets the
needs of the present without compromising the
ability of future generations to meet their own
needs." While the operational meaning of
sustainable development is still the subject of
scientific and political discussion, consensus does
exist on several of its fundamental tenets.
Sustainable development:
• requires a long-term perspective for planning
and policy development;
• dictates actions that build on and reinforce the
interdependence of our economy and our
environment; and
• calls for new, integrative approaches to achieve
economic, social, and environmental objectives.
EPA has a potentially important role in applying
the tenets of sustainable development to protect the
environment and promote environmentally sound
economic development over the long term.
Many past and present Agency programs have
utilized tenets of sustainable development, but the
Agency has not employed this concept explicitly as
an overall policy framework or programmatic
objective. Several issues are particularly important
in shaping the Agency's current and potential
contributions to sustainable development. First, the
limited use of sustainable development concepts in
EPA policies in part reflects the minor role these
concepts have in the Agency's statutory mandates.
Second, while the general concept and basic tenets
of sustainable development are fairly
straightforward, its applications and relevance to
specific policy decisions are less certain. Third, an
EPA sustainable development program is most
likely to be successful if it builds upon the strengths
of existing Agency programs that improve the
quality of the environment we pass on to future
generations. Fourth, the full scope of planning and
implementation of sustainable development policies
extends well beyond the purview of the
Environmental Protection Agency. EPA seeks a
dialogue with the public, Congress, and other
government agencies to identify ways to integrate
sustainable development into both the Agency's
operations and National environmental and
economic policy.
This report is meant to highlight Agency
programs and projects that are particularly relevant
to the basic tenets of sustainable development. It
does not, however, review every EPA program that
ultimately contributes to sustainable development,
but rather focuses on newer approaches that
complement the Agency's conventional activities.
Advancing Our Horizons. Addressing broad
objectives like sustainable development requires
anticipatory, integrated approaches to
environmental problems. Consistent with this need,
the Agency is strengthening its use of strategic
planning and developing measurable environmental
goals for the range of problems it addresses.
Similarly, EPA is expanding its use of geographic
approaches to facilitate integrated protection efforts
for some of the Nation's key environmental
resources, such as the Chesapeake Bay, the Gulf of
Mexico, and the Great Lakes.
Several new approaches at EPA facilitate its
strategic planning efforts. Comparative risk
assessment allows the Agency to set priorities and
assess strategic options more effectively, so that
resources can be directed first to the environmental
problems that pose the most significant risks. The
development of a "future studies" function will allow
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Agency planners to use longer time horizons in
strategic plans.
The Agency is enhancing its work to promote
environriiefltal equity by considering the
environmental needs of future generations and the
broad spectf tlm of communities facing
environmental risks today. The benefits of several
EPA programs, such as efforts to protect
stratospheric ozone, to mitigate or adapt to
potential climate change, and to protect ecological
resources, will accrue largely to future generations.
EPA established an Environmental Equity
Workgroup that has provided recommendations to
improve the Agency's consideration of equity issues.
The Agency is committed to ensuring that the
consequences of environmental pollution should not
be borne unequally by any segment of the
population.
Developing a Knowledge Base. Progress toward
sustainable development must build on knowledge
about our environment and how development
affects it. A variety of EPA programs are providing
new and vital information about the links between
environment and development.
Statistically and scientifically credible
environmental data and information are needed to
measure progress towards environmental goals and
sustainable development. The Agency is developing
a central staff within its Office of Policy^ Planning
and Evaluation to serve as a focal point for Agency
compilation, analysis, and communication of
statistical information on the environment.
EPA is also implementing a program to gather
and provide statistically rigorous information about
status and trends in the Nation's ecological systems.
The Agency's Environmental Monitoring and
Assessment Program (EMAP), the first statistically-
based monitoring program to assess ecosystems on
a national scale, should advance our scientific
understanding of ecosystems and how they are
changing and responding to human activities.
EMAP will provide information about specific types
of ecological resources, such as forests,
agroecosystems, arid lands, wetlands, inland surface
waters, estuaries, and the Great Lakes. EPA has
worked extensively with other Federal agencies,
foreign governments, and the United Nations
Environment Programme in developing,
demonstrating, and applying EMAP and its
methodologies.
EPA is developing a National Human Exposure
Assessment Survey (NHEXAS) to document the
status of and trends in human exposures to selected
contaminants. NHEXAS will assist EPA in setting
priorities for mitigating risks to human health.
EPA is sponsoring research to improve
understanding of global environmental issues, such
as global climate change, stratospheric ozone
depletion, and loss of biodiversity, which have
raised international concerns about the
sustainability of human activities. The Agency's
climate change research includes efforts to enhance
our knowledge about the causes of global climate
change, predict its potential impacts on economic
sectors and ecosystems, and develop effective
mitigation policies. EPA climate change research
focuses on national issues specifically important in
the U.S. and also on the particular concerns of
scores of countries around the world. EPA-
sponsored research on stratospheric ozone
depletion addresses the effects of ultraviolet
radiation exposure on human health and
ecosystems, methods of reducing emissions of ozone
depleting compounds, and the environmental
impacts of possible substitutes for these compounds.
The dependence of our economy and well-being
on ecosystems gives ecological research an
important role in refining our understanding of
sustainable development. The Agency has
developed a framework for ecological risk
assessment to improve its ability to address risks to
ecosystems consistently. EPA is also improving
models that predict the ecological impacts of
pollution. The Agency is conducting anticipatory
research on the ecological impacts of promising
new technologies and practices, including
biotechnology products and innovative agricultural
practices.
EPA is working to expand understanding of the
contribution of ecosystems to human well-being and
the economy. The Agency has sponsored an
Ecosystem Valuation Forum, which outlined
opportunities for ecological and economic research
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to improve valuation of ecosystems. EPA is
working with other Federal agencies and
international organizations to develop and
implement environmental accounting systems, which
integrate environmental assets and service flows
into conventional economic accounting systems.
The role of the social sciences is becoming
increasingly important in anticipating and
responding to new environmental challenges. EPA
is developing a Social Sciences Research Agenda to
direct research towards topics that are likely to be
most important in its continuing efforts to protect
the environment.
New Tools for Environmental Protection. As the
Agency works to address new environmental
challenges and to resolve persistent and intractable
aspects of old problems, it is making greater use of
innovative environmental protection tools. Pollution
prevention eliminates environmental degradation
before it occurs and, because it improves the
efficiency of resource use, it can save money at the
same time. EPA is working to promote use of
pollution prevention techniques in government,
business, and among consumers. The Agency is
also developing pollution prevention strategies for
the agricultural, energy and transportation, and
Federal government sectors and for consumers.
EPA has also established some very successful
voluntary pollution prevention programs. Over 700
businesses now participate in the "33/50 Program,"
which calls for a voluntary 33% reduction in
emissions of seventeen high priority chemicals by
1992 and a 50% reduction by 1995. The "Green
Lights Program" has signed up over 400
corporations to install energy-efficientj pollution-
preventing lighting.
The Agency is making greater use of cost-
effective economic incentives as an alternative to
the more rigid command-and-control approaches
used in the past. Properly designed incentives
harness market-driven innovation to protect the
environment more effectively at less cost. The
Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990 (CAAA) make
much use of economic incentives: the Tide IV
sulfur dioxide allowance-trading system alone is
expected to save $700 million to $1 billion annually.
The Agency is working to expand the use of
incentives in other program areas, such as the
reduction of non-point source water pollution.
EPA is working to help state and local
governments use public-private partnerships and
other alternative financing mechanisms to finance
the costs of environmental protection.
The Agency is also working to promote
development of environmentally beneficial
technologies. In accordance with the Federal
Technology Transfer Act and in support of the
President's National Technology Initiative, the
Agency is collaborating with private researchers to
develop new technologies and to stimulate U.S.
competitiveness.
Focusing on Regions and Communities. Local and
regional programs to promote sustainable
development are integral parts of larger-scale
efforts, and EPA is increasingly active in working to
meet local and regional environmental needs and in
protecting our most valuable environmental,
resources.
The Agency has expanded its use of geographic
targeting, which focuses on the environmental
problems and needs of a particular geographic area.
EPA uses geographic targeting as an integrative
approach to involve all local stakeholders and to
address all significant regional environmental
problems. EPA currently has about fifty geographic
initiatives, ranging in size from the Great Lakes
National Program to watershed-based approaches
developed by the Office of Water.
EPA is also assisting regional, state, and local
efforts to promote sustainable development. EPA's
Region 10 has undertaken a Sustainable ,
Development Initiative to examine new approaches
to environmental protection through the use of
sustainable development as an integrating objective.
Several EPA Regions are working with state and
local agencies to integrate environmental priorities
into development activities. EPA also has
supported several state and local sustainable
development projects, such as the sustainable city
projects in Portland, Oregon, and San Jose and San
Francisco, California.
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Enhancing PubSt Awareness and Participation. The
Nation can only achieve and maintain sustainable
development when its citizens understand this
concept and embrace it as a national priority. As
part of its efforts to educate the public about the
environment and what can be done to protect it, the
Agency administers an Environmental Education
Grants Program and will fund a national
Environmental Education and Training Program to
train a force of environmental educators. These
efforts are coordinated with the Department of
Education's "America 2000" Initiative.
Complementing its educational efforts, the
Agency is working to improve public access to
information on environmental issues. Under the
Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-
Know Act of 1986, EPA administers the Toxic
Release Inventory (TRI), an annual inventory of
releases of over 300 toxic chemicals. The TRI
provides information to the public about sources of
pollution and has* served as a basis for voluntary
pollution prevention 6ffdrts, such as the 33/50
Program. EPA also administers1 a number 6f
information clearinghouses, hotlines, and
information centers to provide businesses and the
public with environmental information.
International Efforts. EPA's international programs
support sustainable development, both domestically
and abroad, by protecting ecosystems that we share
with other countries. The 1991 Air Quality
Agreement with Canada bolsters both U.S. and
Canadian efforts to reduce acid rain. The
Integrated Environmental Plan for the Mexican-
U.S. Border Area, approved this year, strengthens
cooperative enforcement, pollution prevention and
reduction, and coordinated planning between the
two countries. EPA also cooperated with other
concerned parties to facilitate the establishment of
the Caribbean Environment and Development
Institute. The Institute will help reduce pollution of
valuable coastal ecosystems in the Gulf of Mexico
and Caribbean Sea.
EPA also works with other countries to protect
the global environment. U.S. leadership in
international efforts to protect stratospheric ozone
helped bring about the Montreal Protocol, and
EPA now works with U.S. industry to develop
substitutes for chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs). The
Agency provides assistance to promote the use of
CFC-substitutes and refrigerant recycling to reduce
CFC emissions in developing countries. It works in
particular with China, Mexico, and Ecuador to
foster reductions in their use of ozone depleting
chemicals. EPA is a leader hi global efforts to
reduce marine pollution, and will take an active role
in the upcoming intergovernmental meeting on
protection of the marine environment. The Agency
also participates in international efforts to address
potential climate change, and the U.S. has
committed $25 million to assist developing countries
in preparing national climate change plans. These
funds will be used to inventory greenhouse gas
sources and sinks, analyze effects of potential
climate change and assess scientific and technical
options.
EPA has established cooperative agreements
with more than twenty countries arid participates in
fifteen international organizations. EPA works with
other Organization for Economic Cooperation and
Development (OECD) countries on a program
under which each member will receive a national
environmental performance review. EPA also
works closely with the Agency for International
Development (AID) and the Peace Corps in
providing environmental expertise in Central and
Eastern Europe, the former Soviet Union, and hi
the developing world. EPA is working to share
U.S. "lessons learned" in environmental protection,
and has distributed sets of Technical Information
Packages (TIPS) to 116 countries around the world.
EPA participates in the U.S.-Asia Environmental
Partnership to strengthen environmental
management in target countries in that region of
the world and to open new markets for U.S.
suppliers of environmental goods and services. The
Agency has engaged in international efforts to
respond to environmental emergencies, such as
those arising in the Persian Gulf War. EPA works
closely with the Treasury Department, AID, and
other agencies to support environmental
improvement and, sustainable development through
the loan and grant programs of multilateral banks.
The Agency also supports programs such as the
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Environment for the Americas Program, which
enables qualifying Latin American and Caribbean
countries to use the interest on certain U.S.
Government-held debt to support grass-roots
environmental protection within their borders.
EPA is making important contributions to resolving
environmental issues associated with the North
American Free Trade Agreement and is a leading
player in trade and environment initiatives
underway at the OECD and the General
Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT).
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1 INTRODUCTION
Background and Purpose
Sustainable development has emerged in the
last decade as a focal point for research, discussion,
and recommendations regarding the long-term
economic and environmental outlook for the United
States and the world. In view qf the increasing
national and international interest in sustainable
development, Congress has asked the
Environmental Protectipn Agency (EPA) to report
on its efforts to incorporate the concepts of
sustainable development into the Agency's
operations.1
This report highlights EPA programs and
activities that are most relevant to lie basic tenets
of sustainable development. Many past and present
Agency programs have utilized the tenets of
sustainable development, but the Agency has not
employed this concept explicitly as an overall policy
framework or programmatic objective. With this
report, the Agency describes its current efforts and
commitments to a dialogue with Congress, other
government agencies, and the public on the best
ways to define and understand sustainable
development and to incorporate its tenets into EPA
operations.
Sustainable Development
Although "sustainable development" is a
relatively new term, it encompasses some familiar
concepts. At the beginning of this century, for
example, Theodore Roosevelt articulated a vision
that seems remarkably similar to present-day ideas
about sustainable development when he wrote, "the
nation behaves well if it treats the natural resources
as assets which it must turn over to the next
generation, increased and not impaired in value."2
Principles now known as sustainable
development concepts have previously been
incorporated in many of the Nation's efforts to
preserve, protect, and manage natural resources and
habitats. Conservation programs for resources such
as soils, forests, and water and the creation of
protected areas such as National Paries have served
to promote responsible, long-term use of the
Nation's natural endowment. The National
Environmental Policy Act of 1969 codified and
expanded the scope of these responsibilities as
national policy, by requiring that the U.S.
Government work to "fulfill the responsibilities of
each generation as trustee of the environment for
succeeding generations."3 The creation of EPA in
1970 and subsequent national environmental
legislation further integrated and strengthened the
Nation's ability to protect its environment for the
betterment of current and future generations.
In recent years, sustainable development has
become an internationally recognized objective and
the focus of international diplomacy at the highest
levels. The United Nations World Commission on
Environment and Development (WCED) reported
in 1987 that "sustainable development should be
seen as a global objective."4 The Group of Seven
(G7) industrialized countries declared, at its Paris
Economic Summit in 1989:
Protecting the environment calls for a
determined and concerted international
response and for the early adoption,
worldwide, of policies based on sustainable
development*
Again in 1991, the G7 noted at its London
Economic Summit:
Our economic policies should ensure that
the use of this planet's resources is
sustainable and safeguards the interests of
both present and future generations.*
In June, 1992, sustainable development served as
the central theme of the United Nations
Conference on Environment and Development
(UNCED), the largest diplomatic conference ever
held. The UNCED brought leaders and
representatives from 180 countries to Rio de
Janeiro, Brazil
to elaborate strategies and measures to halt
and reverse the effects of environmental
degradation ... to promote sustainable and
environmentally sound development in all
countries.7
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President Clinton and Vice President Gore wrote in
Putting People First, "We will renew America's
commitment to leave our children a better nation-a
nation whose air, water, and land are unspoiled,
whose natural beauty is undimmed, and whose
leadership for sustainable global growth is
unsurpassed"*.
Three Tenets of Sustainable Development
Sustainable development, according to a widely
accepted definition offered by the WCED, "is
development that meets the needs of the present
without compromising the ability of future
generations to meet their own needs.'* While the
general concept of sustainable development seems
simple, the term draws its meaning from a rich
variety of concepts in several disciplines, including
ecology, development economics, and fisheries and
forestry management, as well as from social and
ethical concerns about the welfare of future
generations.
In part because of its multidisciplinary heritage,
a clear, operational definition of sustainable
development has been difficult to establish. Its
precise dimensions have been the subject of
vigorous debate for over a decade. In fact, the
literature on the subject now includes scores of
different definitions. Each of these implies
different goals, policies, and measures of progress.
While the precise meaning of sustainable
development is still the subject of scientific and
political discussion, consensus does exist on several
of its fundamental tenets.
First, sustainable development requires a long-
term perspective for planning and policy development.
The decisions we make today will affect the course
of economic development and the quality of the
environment for generations to come. With
heightened awareness of how our activities impact
others, both today and in the future, we are better
equipped to choose patterns of development that
are sustainable.
Second, sustainable development must build on
and reinforce the interdependence of our economy
and our environment. This tenet has two
corollaries. On the one hand, a strong economy is
needed to provide for a high quality of life and to
make effective environmental protection affordable.
For example, the economic strength of the U.S. has
provided most Americans with a high standard of
living and allowed substantial investments in
environmental protection. In 1990 alone, pollution
control expenditures totalled approximately $115
billion. This amount was just over 2% of U.S.
Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for that year,19 It
was also larger than the Gross Domestic Products
of over 90 countries of the world.11
On the other hand, economic-environmental
interdependence means that a healthy environment
makes continued economic development possible.
Economic activity depends on the environment as a
source of renewable and nonrenewable resources, a
suik for wastes, and a life-support system for
humans and other species. Technological
innovations and other benefits of development have
enabled us to improve the productivity of
environmental resources. Yet the extent of our
environment's carrying capacity—its ability to serve
as both source and sink, and to support life-is
finite.
The bounds of our environment's source and
sink functions are not clear, but it is evident that
when economic policies ignore environmental
considerations, the economy eventually suffers.
This has been the lesson in eastern Europe and in
other parts of the world where central economic
planning and scant attention to the environment
have brought unprecedented environmental and
economic catastrophes. Poland provides a dramatic
example; that country's annual economic losses
caused by environmental degradation were recently
estimated at 15% of its GDP.U In the long run,
the economy must build on and maintain an
environment that provides for the welfare of people
and the integrity and diversity of the ecological
systems on which we depend.
Third, sustainable development calls for new,
integrative approaches to achieve economic, social,
and environmental objectives. In part, this follows
from the second tenet: to reflect the
interdependence of the economy and environment,
environmental policies must increasingly be set in
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the same context as development policies, such as
those affecting natural resource management,
agriculture, transportation, and energy. When
environmental priorities are not adequately
addressed up-front in development policies, society's
economic resources may later be drained by costly
damages to natural resources and cleanups of
resulting problems.
Yet the need for more comprehensive
approaches extends beyond the environment-
economy link. Environmental policies themselves
must be better integrated so that pollution cleaned
up in one place is not simply moved to another, and
so that our resources may be allocated to address
the highest priority environmental problems
effectively. Development of environmental
programs and policies must also incorporate the
long-term needs of as many of our communities as
possible, so that regulatory and other actions have
desired, equitable results and do not cause
unforeseen economic dislocations.
In summary, a concern for sustainable
development counsels long-term time horizons
consistent with our responsibilities to others,
recognition of the interdependence of the economy
and the environment, and more comprehensive,
integrated approaches to economic development
and environmental protection.
Sustainable Development and the
Environmental Protection Agency: Past
and Present Issues
EPA has a potentially important role in
applying the tenets of sustainable development to
protect the environment and promote economic
prosperity over the long term. Many past and
present Agency programs have utilized the tenets of
sustainable development, but the Agency has not
employed this concept explicitly as an overall policy
framework or programmatic objective. EPA seeks
a dialogue with the public, Congress, and other
government agencies to define sustainable
development more clearly and identify ways to
integrate it into the Agency's operations. This
report highlights past and current EPA activities
most relevant to the tenets of sustainable
development and is intended to provide context for
such a dialogue.
Several issues are particularly important in
shaping the Agency's current and potential
contributions to sustainable development. First, the
limited use of sustainable development concepts in
EPA policies in part reflects the minor role these
concepts have in the Agency's statutory mandates.
EPA has developed its programs and projects
primarily to fulfill statutory mandates that do not
specify sustainability as an objective.
Second, while the general concept and basic
tenets of sustainable development are fairly
straightforward, its applications and relevance to
specific policy decisions are less certain. EPA has
sponsored some policy research on sustainable
development concepts and then" relevance to the
Agency's mission.13 At present, however, EPA has
not conducted a systematic investigation of the
opportunities for incorporating sustainable
development concepts more fully into its operations.
Third, an EPA sustainable development
program is most likely to be successful if it builds
upon the strengths of existing Agency programs.
Many of these programs make important
contributions to sustainable development by
improving the quality of the environment that we
pass on to future generations. Several of EPA's
newer environmental protection approaches, such as
pollution prevention and the use of economic
instruments, are especially well-suited to provide
both environmental and economic benefits to the
Nation. A sustainable development program should
integrate, rather than duplicate, the contributions of
current programs.
Fourth, the full scope of planning and
implementation of sustainable development policies
extends well beyond the purview of EPA.
Objectives often associated with sustainable
development, such as sustainable management of
natural resources, sustainable agricultural practices,
improved energy efficiency, improved economic and
environmental equity, and a competitive U.S.
economy, can only be addressed through the
cooperative efforts of multiple Federal agencies, the
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Congress, state and local governments, businesses,
and nongovernment organizations. Similarly,
cooperation among many government agencies will
be needed to develop useful measures of
sustainability and to assess the sustainability of
environmental and economic trends on a variety of
temporal and geographic scales. As the lead
national agency for environmental protection, EPA
can exercise an important role in developing
intergovernmental and public-private coalitions to
accelerate progress toward sustainability, but
progress will depend on the contributions of many
institutions.
Sustainable Development and the
Environmental Protection Agency: New
Opportunities
The issues outlined here should be important in
shaping a dialogue on the Agency's role in
promoting sustainable development. Such a
dialogue clearly should address EPA's statutory
authorities and how they influence the Agency's
role, the links between sustainable development
tenets and the Agency's mission and existing
programs, the practical meaning of sustainable
development for specific policy decisions, and
mechanisms to facilitate coordinated action among
all relevant Federal agencies. This report makes no
specific recommendations on what the outcome of
such a dialogue should be, nor does it outline a
program to incorporate sustainable development
concepts into Agency operations. Instead, the
report provides information that can facilitate
discussions of the actions that EPA and other
agencies might take to promote sustainable
development.
The Agency has undertaken other activities to
foster dialogue on its potential contributions to
sustainable development. EPA hopes to initiate a
cooperative effort with Congress and the public to
establish long-term, measurable environmental
goals. These goals will be used at first to guide the
Agency's multi-year strategic planning. Goals also
can be useful in a broader context to engender the
cooperation needed to address sustainable
development effectively. Eventually, goals should
embody national consensus on a practical meaning
for sustainable development—development that best
meets our needs and those of generations to come.
Organization of the Report
EPA activities that are most relevant to the
tenets of sustainable development fall into several
broad categories. Section 2 of this>eport highlights
Agency efforts to expand its planning tune horizons
and build anticipatory capabilities that will facilitate
protection of the environment for living and future
generations. This section discusses the importance
of EPA's enhanced focus on goal-oriented strategic
planning and the usefulness of establishing priorities
using comparative risk assessments. It also
describes EPA's efforts to strengthen its
consideration of environmental equity by taking into
account the environmental needs of future
generations and of populations facing special risks
today. Section 3 describes EPA's work to develop a
knowledge base that can be used by government
officials and the public to set the goals and policies
needed to foster sustainable development. This
knowledge base will include basic research to
improve our understanding of the natural systems
on which we depend; data collection, analysis, and
interpretation to provide statistical information on
environmental status and trends; social science
research to examine human behavior and its
impacts on the environment; and economic research
to understand the significance of the environment's
contributions to human welfare. Further
development of this knowledge base is essential to
making sustainable development a practical policy
tool. Section 4 discusses new tools and approaches
that the Agency is employing to help harmonize
economic development and environmental priorities.
These include pollution prevention, economic
incentives, public private partnerships, and efforts to
spur environmentally beneficial technological
innovation. Section 5 describes the Agency's
heightened focus on the particular needs associated
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with specific environmental resources, communities,
and regions. Section 6 examines EPA efforts to
expand public awareness of environmental issues
through education and improved access to
environmental information. Section 7 describes
some of the Agency's international activities that
foster sustainable development, or advance its basic
tenets, both within the United States because of
cooperative international efforts and at a global
level. Finally, EPA activities undertaken in
cooperation with other agencies are discussed
throughout these sections. The examples provided
demonstrate the importance of interagency
coordination and integrative approaches in
promoting sustainable development, and underscore
the fact that EPA is only one of many potential
contributors to policies and actions supporting
sustainable development.
2 EXPANDING OUR HORIZONS
Strategic Planning
Since its creation in 1970, EPA has achieved
many successes as the primary Federal regulatory
agency responsible for preserving and improving
environmental quality. Under environmental
legislation enacted by Congress, EPA has developed
programs to control air pollution, water pollution,
hazardous and other wastes, toxic substances, and
other threats to the environment. Much progress
has been made in these two decades. Yet many
environmental problems remain. Moreover,
scientific research and technological developments
have revealed the fragility, complexity, and
interrelatedness of global ecosystems, as well as the
pace and scale of human modifications to the
natural environment.
As our understanding of environmental
problems grows, EPA is committed to strengthening
its leadership role in anticipating and addressing
current and future environmental challenges. These
include such intractable problems as indoor air
pollution, water pollution from agricultural and
urban runoff, global climate change, stratospheric
ozone depletion, and loss of biological diversity.
The Agency must serve as an effective agent for
change and develop innovative approaches to
anticipate and solve environmental problems.
To foster a more anticipatory, integrated
approach to environmental problems, the Agency
has strengthened its use of strategic planning.
While EPA's planning has historically focused on
year-to-year statutory implementation activities and
emergency responses to crises, strategic planning
will increasingly use goal-oriented approaches to
address longer-term priorities. The Agency is now
working to define and make greater use of
environmental goals in its strategic plans by setting
measurable environmental goals for the range of
media-specific and multi-media problems it
addresses. While the Agency has not established
sustainable development as an environmental goal,
many of these measurable goals support the tenets
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discussed in Section 1. By developing goal-oriented
policies and using environmental indicators as
measures of progress towards the goals, the Agency
can Enhance its ability to address environmental
problems and tb assess its effectiveness in Solving
these problems. Environmental goals will
supplement the more conventional administrative
goals used by the Agency.
Strategic planning has also provided EPA with
the opportunity to employ more holistic approaches
to environmental problems. EPA's organizational
structure, which divides the Agency into offices that
address specific media and types of pollution (i.e.
ah-, water, solid waste, pesticides and toxic
substances), has at times resulted in inconsistent
responses to environmental challenges. The longer-
term perspective provided by strategic planning
fosters development of "cross-media" initiatives,
which utilize Agency resources and tools more
consistently. Geographic initiatives, for example,
allow the Agency to focus all its legal authorities
and programs hi an integrated response to threats
to specific environmental resources, such as the
Chesapeake Bay, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Great
Lakes. These whole-watershed protection
approaches will provide more effective means of
protecting both environmental quality and natural
resources. Cross-media initiatives are not isolated
from EPA's media-specific work; instead, they
exploit opportunities to improve existing Agency
programs to obtain better environmental results.
Several new directions at the Agency serve to
support the Agency's enhanced use of strategic
planning. One is use of risk assessment and risk
reduction concepts for setting priorities and
assessing strategic options. Because environmental
protection may be costly and public funds are
scarce, EPA is working to identify and to devote
resources first to the environmental problems that
pose the highest risks to human health and the
environment. Following internal EPA efforts to
prioritize environmental concerns, the Agency's
Science Advisory Board (SAB) in 1990 published
Reducing Risk: Setting Priorities and Strategies for
Environmental Protection. This report provided a
comparative risk analysis of the environmental
problems facing EPA. Among the highest-priority
problems identified by the SAB were global climate
change, stratbspheric ozone depletion, habitat
alteration, and loss of biological diversity.14
To facilitate implementation of the SAB
recommendations, EPA in 1992 established ten
strategies that set an Agency-wide framework for
policy decisions. These are described hi Strategies
and Framework for the Future,™ published in July
1992. The strategies include: (1) strategic
implementation of statutory mandates; (2)
improving science and the knowledge base; (3)
pollution prevention: EPA's preferred choice; (4)
geographic targeting for ecological protection; (5)
greater reliance on economic incentives and
technological innovation; (6) improving cross-media
program integration and multi-media enforcement;
(7) building state/local/tribal capacity, (8)
enhancing international cooperation; (9)
strengthening environmental education and public
outreach; and (10) better management and
infrastructure. Many of these strategies are directly
relevant to sustainable development and its basic
tenets, and several will be discussed in detail later
in this report.
A second new Agency direction that supports a
greater role for strategic planning is the use of
"future studies." The Agency has recently
established a future studies function within its
strategic planning office to support anticipatory
approaches to environmental challenges. The
results of this work will give EPA a better vision of
the environmental problems of tomorrow, so that
we can begin development of cost-effective solutions
today.1*
Scenario development requires a greater
understanding of the economic, demographic,
institutional, and social forces which will drive
change in the future. Technological and social
trends which may have significant environmental
consequences will be monitored and analyzed. In
particular, EPA is examining the relationships
between current and anticipated activities in various
sectors of the economy and environmental quality.
The Agency's future studies serve to improve our
understanding of the long-term interdependence of
the environment and the economy.
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In addition to these new directions supporting
an enhanced role for internal strategic planning,
EPA is also involved in broader efforts to set long-
term environmental priorities. For example, EPA is
an active participant in a joint effort by several
government agencies, industry, academia, and
citizen groups to identify key issues relating to long-
term planning of water resource management. The
initiative, Water Quality 2000, is a three-phase study
to identify long-term problems and solutions
regarding loss of water quality and quantity hi the
United States.17 Over 80 organizations have
participated, including many Federal agencies in
addition to EPA, such as the Army Corps of
Engineers, the Department of the Interior (Bureau
of Land Management, Fish and Wildlife Service,
and U.S. Geological Survey), the Department of
Transportation, and the Department of Agriculture
(Agricultural Research Service, U.S. Forest Service,
and Soil Conservation Service).
The evolving strategic planning process is
beginning to change the way the Agency approaches
environmental challenges. Anticipatory approaches
guided by environmental goals can help us address
long-term environmental issues more effectively.
Equity
Our ethical responsibility to bestow a healthy
environment upon future generations is an
important tenet of sustainable development.
Because future generations are not able to express
preferences in the marketplace or in the political
process, fulfillment of intergenerational
responsibilities will require that we adopt a long-
term perspective and work to protect the
environment for future generations.
Our ability to ensure sustained environmental
quality for future generations depends on our ability
to estimate the long-term impacts of today's
patterns of development. The need for the strategic
planning and future studies efforts described above
is therefore critical, and recent Agency efforts to
strengthen these functions will provide mechanisms
for greater consideration of future needs.
Several EPA programs are directed primarily at
achieving results over the long term. For example,
the benefits of Agency efforts to protect
stratospheric ozone, to mitigate or adapt to
potential climate change, to eliminate persistent
pesticides that contaminate soil, water, and
sediments, and to protect ecological resources will
accrue largely to future generations.
Equity issues encompassed by sustainable
development include not only concerns about future
generations but also the needs of the disadvantaged
of today. Substantial linkages exist between
alleviating poverty and protecting the environment.
For example, since the poor have fewer resources
to avoid, prevent, or remedy environmental
problems, they will often face disproportionate
exposures to environmental hazards but will benefit
most from environmental improvements if these are
implemented equitably.
In response to growing concerns about
environmental equity, EPA estabh'shed an
Environmental Equity Workgroup in July 1990 to
examine the issue. The Workgroup released its
final report, Environmental Equity: Reducing Risk
for All Communities, in June, 1992." The Report
recommends improved consideration of equity
issues in such EPA functions as risk assessments,
permitting actions, grants, monitoring activities,
enforcement actions, and outreach efforts. It calls
for more attention to the variations hi exposure to
environmental hazards, and to the associated health
effects, faced by different racial, ethnic, and
socioeconomic groups. Other recommendations
include improved communication of information
about environmental risks to racial minorities and
low-income populations and development of
information that will allow identification of
populations that may be subjected to special
environmental risks. The Report also suggests ways
the Agency can incorporate environmental equity
into strategic planning, management, and other
activities, as well as the activities of state
environmental agencies.
EPA has also undertaken a number of
initiatives to address the equity issue. In one
regional project, the Agency is analyzing the
locations of certain environmentally hazardous
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industries relative to low-income and minority
communities. Another project focuses on the
exposure of certain inner-city residents to lead.
The Agency is currently engaged in a cooperative
agreement with the Columbia River Intertribal Fish
Commission (CRTTFC) to investigate the levels of
potential exposure to dioxins from fish. Because
Native Americans from the Commission's Tribes
rely heavily on fish in their diet, they may be at
higher risk from dietary exposure to dioxins.
Low-income and minority populations may also
benefit substantially from EPA's overall
environmental programs. The new Clean Air Act
vill improve air quality for more than 15 million
Vfrican-Americans and more than eight million
lispanics living in areas with relatively poor air
uality."
3 DEVELOPING A KNOWLEDGE
BASE
Progress toward sustainable development must
build on knowledge about the ecosystems in which
we live and work and how our activities and
patterns of development affect these ecosystems.
EPA is actively working to improve the information
available to government officials and the public on
the environment and its linkages to development
and human welfare. This information is needed to
shape programs and policies that will be most
conducive to sustainable development and the
values it suggests.
A variety of Agency programs and initiatives
support efforts to build this knowledge base. Some
of these programs are designed to collect and
interpret environmental data. Others monitor long-
term environmental trends. EPA is also conducting
research on global environmental problems that
may be especially relevant to sustainable
development, since these problems call into
question the sustainability of current patterns of
development at an unprecedented scale. The
Agency is conducting research on many aspects of
ecosystems and the valuable services they provide to
people; better information about ecological systems
will enable us to identify activities and policies that
prevent degradation of the ecosystem processes on
which all life depends. Other research activities are
intended to enhance our knowledge of the
interdependence of the economy arid the
environment, and to improve our ability to utilize
the social sciences more effectively to understand
and protect our environment.
Environmental Statistics and Information
To measure progress towards environmental
objectives, we need statistically and scientifically
credible environmental indicators. These will
provide the baseline and measures of environmental
trends and conditions necessary to assess both
national and world progress towards sustainable
development.
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In the United States a variety of Federal, state,
local, and nongovernmental organizations collect
environmental data; we have plentiful
environmental data, but our ability to obtain useful
information from those data has been impeded by
the lack of an overall structure for organizing and
acquiring data. EPA has recognized the need for
an active, centralized focus for environmental
statistics and the need to establish a statistically and
scientifically rigorous multi-media information base.
The Office of Policy, Planning, and Evaluation
recently has taken steps to develop a centralized
statistical function for the Agency. This will provide
Agency decision-makers and the public with
scientifically credible data and information on status
and trends in the environment and, in conjunction
with other Agency monitoring and data
management activities, will provide assessments of
the relative significance of the factors associated
with environmental changes. This new function will
provide the Agency and the Nation with
information for the assessment of progress towards
environmental and programmatic goals compatible
with sustainable development.
EPA is also contributing to North American,
Organization for Economic Cooperation and
Development (OECD), and global efforts on
environmental statistics. As part of a long-term
effort, the Agency is developing and implementing
joint activities with Canadian and Mexican
counterparts on environmental statistics and state-
of-environment reporting.
Long-Term Monitoring
The ability to evaluate environmental status and
trends to assess long-term progress towards
sustainable development goals is critical to
designing and managing programs compatible with
sustainable development. EPA has initiated
programs to provide statistically rigorous
information about status and trends in the Nation's
ecological systems and in the exposure of
Americans to toxic environmental contaminants.
EPA is implementing a statistically-based
Environmental Monitoring and Assessment
Program (EMAP) to further our scientific
understanding of ecosystems in the United States
and the status of and long-term trends in these
systems. This program is EPA's first major effort
to provide a large-scale, multi-media assessment of
ecological status and trends.2*
EMAP will use a nationwide sampling grid and
a statistically-based survey design to monitor the
condition of the Nation's ecological resources,
including forests,, agroecosystems, arid lands,
wetlands, estuaries, inland surface waters and the
Great Lakes. An important contribution of EMAP
is research to develop a variety of appropriate
indicators of ecological condition for each of these
different types of ecosystems. The Program will use
these indicators as measures in monitoring the
ecosystems, and the results will allow detection pf
environmental trends in ecosystems at risk from
multiple environmental stressors.
EMAP selects indicators that relate to
environmental processes ranging from the causes to
the effects of human impacts on ecosystems. For
example, some indicators relate to aspects of the
environment with immediate value to the public,
such as forest productivity, wildlife biodiversity,
flood protection and water purification functions of
wetlands, recreational value, or other ecosystem
"services" provided by the environment. EMAP
"response" indicators also may identify ecosystem
disturbances that are less readily perceived as
significant by the public but that nonetheless could
portend damage to economically important
resources. Examples include shifts in nutrient
processing rates in forest soils that presage damage
to trees, or shifts in zooplankton species that lead
to shifts hi the composition of fish communities.
EMAP is a comprehensive program that builds
on the expertise of many U.S agencies, including
the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the U.S.
Geological Survey, the National Park Service, the
Fish and Wildlife Service, and National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration. Currently EPA is
cooperating with seventeen governmental agencies
and national laboratories in conducting pilot and
demonstration studies.
EMAP can also serve as a model for
international development of a global ecological
-------
monitoring-network that would allow assessment of
world-wide environmental status and trends. U.S.
scientists are working with universities and
governments around the world to develop and apply
relevant mapping and remote sensing techniques for
indicator selection and to help adapt EMAP
sampling design to the spatial scales of other
nations. EMAP staff are working with the United
Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) to
extend EMAP technology transfer capabilities and
to help catalogue and integrate existing monitoring
activities on a global scale. Some of the projects
the U.S. has provided assistance for include a study
on the decline of Brazil's rain forests using EMAP
design, characterization of Australia's arid lands
using EMAP characterization methodology, and a
comparative study of EMAP and Czechoslovakian
forest soil indicators. EMAP scientists have also
consulted with Canada, Finland, France, Nepal,
New Zealand, Romania, and the former Soviet
Union.
EPA is also extending its monitoring and
assessment activities to the area of human exposure
and health. The National Human Exposure
Assessment Survey (NHEXAS) is being planned to
provide an extensive assessment of exposure of
Americans to toxic substances. The data collected
through NHEXAS will be used to document the
current status of exposure, historical trends in
exposure levels, and the potential for future
exposures to selected contaminants. The
statistically-based survey will be a critical link in the
assessment of human exposure, and the Agency's
approach to more effective control of toxic releases.
NHEXAS is being designed to assist managers in
identifying priorities for exposure mitigation based
upon relative risks to human health.
Research on Global Environmental Issues
The discovery of environmental problems of
global dimensions has heightened international
concerns about the sustainability of human
activities. Problems such as global climate change,
stratospheric ozone depletion, and loss of
biodiversity are now central to discussions of what
will be necessary to promote sustainable
development. The worldwide participation at the
recent United Nations Conference on Environment
and Development in Brazil, which served as a
forum for international debate and agreements on
global environmental issues, reflects the breadth of
concern about these challenges.
The Environmental Protection Agency sponsors
research to improve understanding of global
environmental issues and to develop effective
policies to address them. These research efforts
are coordinated with those of other federal agencies
through EPA's partnership hi the U.S Global
Change Research Program (USGCRP). The
Agency more than doubled its budget for research
on global change between 1989 and 1992.21
The Agency is conducting a number of research
efforts to further understanding of the potential
causes of global climate change. EPA is working to
quantify the relative warming potential of the
various greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide
(COj) and methane. This information will be
necessary for formulation of a comprehensive
greenhouse gas policy. The Agency is also working
with the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration (NASA), the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and the U.S.
Geological Survey (USGS) to monitor the rates of
global deforestation and burning of biomass. The
results will be used to assess the extent of the
contributions of these activities to increased
atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases in
the atmosphere. Other EPA research seeks to
reduce uncertainty about the fate of atmospheric
carbon emissions in order to facilitate more precise
predictions of the consequences of changing
emissions. The Agency has also been developing
and testing, in conjunction with the Department of
Energy, more advanced models of the impacts of
carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions.
EPA is sponsoring research on the potential
impacts of climate change within the United States
and around the globe. Using an integrated
approach that incorporates models of climate
change, models of its potential effects on
agriculture, forests, water use, and ecosystems, and
economic models, the Agency is developing
10
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estimates of the societal and economic losses that
climate change could cause in the United States.
This effort builds on other Agency research efforts.
For example, in cooperation with NASA, the
Agency is studying the responses of key crops to
increased temperature and CO2 concentrations, and
examining how these responses may vary by region.
EPA is also assessing the vulnerability to potential
climate change of selected animal species and their
critical habitats. The results will be used in
modelling agricultural and ecological impacts of
potential climate change.
EPA is conducting research to support
development of effective climate change mitigation
policies. For example, in cooperation with the
Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, the Agency in 1992
published a guidebook on the use of tree planting
and surface coloring to reduce urban heat island
effects and conserve energy.22 Seven
municipalities are now working with EPA to
implement the recommendations in the guidebook.
The Agency is examining the potential use of
managed forests and agricultural soils in the U.S.
for reducing concentrations of carbon hi the
atmosphere. EPA has also worked with the private
sector to demonstrate innovative approaches to
reduce-anthropogenic methane emissions. In
cooperation with the Department of Energy and
private industry, EPA is studying ways to enhance
the use of renewable energy sources, such as
biomass combustion to fuel electric power
generation and solar photovoltaics to produce
electricity hi small end-user applications. These
uses can reduce fossil fuel consumption and
greenhouse gas emissions.
The Agency will continue to aid other nations,
particularly Eastern European and developing
nations, in preparing the national implementation
plans required by the Framework Convention on
Climate Change signed at the UNCED in Rio and
ratified by the United States this October. EPA is
designing methodologies that other countries may
use to prepare these plans. The Agency is also
developing country studies that include emissions
inventories, projections of future emissions based
on current policies, and assessments of the
effectiveness of various climate change policy
options. EPA has already assessed the potential
climate change impacts on sixty different countries,
focusing on implications for human health,
agriculture, forests, rivers, and coastal areas that
may be affected by sea level rise.
The Agency's stratospheric ozone program
sponsors research on the effects of increased
ultraviolet (UV-B) radiation on human health and
terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. This research
will continue to examine the relationships between
UV-B dose and damage to humans and sensitive
ecosystems. Research also continues on ways to
reduce emissions of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs),
Halons, hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs), and
other ozone depleting compounds (ODCs). As
private industry and EPA's research programs
identify compounds that may be used as substitutes
for ODCs, the Agency is evaluating these potential
substitutes to determine if they can replace ODCs
without causing other environmental problems.
EPA research is also supporting development of
environmentally safe recovery, reuse, and disposal
techniques to minimize emissions of the existing
inventory of ODCs.
Ecological Research
EPA is enhancing its ecological research efforts
and is extending the perspective of this research
beyond small scale efforts with local environments.
The Agency is looking at regional, continental, and
even global scales for the effects of continuing,
persistent, and cumulative pollution. EPA is also
focusing on multiple stresses to ecosystems, such as
the simultaneous effects of habitat destruction and
chemical contamination. Better scientific
understanding of the ways in which multiple
stressors impact ecosystems at various scales is
needed to predict the effects of our activities on the
resources that we need to sustain over generations,
such as the planet's diversity of ecosystems and
species. EPA's research supports the Agency's
implementation of statutes such as the Clean Water
Act, hi which biodiversity is a key indicator hi
assessing impacts from factors including non-point-
source pollution.
11
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The Agency is also conducting anticipatory
research on the ecological impacts of promising
new technologies and practices. For example,
biotechnology products have numerous potential
applications, ranging from production of alternative
fuels and new industrial materials to improvements
in agricultural productivity and food quality. EPA's
research will help identify risks that these products
may pose to ecosystems or to human health and
find ways to reduce or control these potential risks.
Similarly, innovative agricultural practices hold
great promise for reducing the ecological impacts of
farming. EPA is working in cooperation with the
Department of Agriculture to study the ecological
benefits of implementing innovative agricultural
techniques on midwest farms. This joint effort,
known as the Integrated Farm Management System
initiative, is designed to assess the economic
advantages of these techniques as well as their
impacts on habitat, species diversity, and water
quality.
In keeping with the Agency's heightened
emphasis on protection of ecological systems, the
EPA has developed a Framework for Ecological
Risk Assessment.23 This framework will provide
the basis for evaluation of ecological risk posed by
environmental stressors. It provides an approach
conceptually similar to that used for assessment of
human health risk, although ecological risk
assessments can consider effects beyond those on
individuals of a single species and may examine
populations, communities or ecosystems. The
Agency has prioritized the improvement of its
ecological risk assessment techniques and their
application to regulatory initiatives.
EPA is currently conducting research on many
aspects of ecological risk. Objectives of this
research include improved characterization of fate
and transport of pesticides and other toxic
substances; identification of ecological endpoints,
such as increased mortality, reproductive failures,
and behavioral changes in animal populations; and
development of models to integrate data and depict
risk. Another aim of Agency research is reduction
of uncertainty hi ecological risk assessments
through, for example, identification of the
contributions to assessment uncertainty made by
temporal variability in ecosystems. This work is
conducted in conjunction with EMAP and NOAA.
The Values of Ecosystems and Other
Economic Research
Ecosystems provide a variety of benefits to
humans and other species. Some of the goods and
services supplied by ecosystems include food and
natural resources; habitat for species that are
important for economic, scientific, aesthetic,
spiritual, and other reasons; recreational
opportunities for people; creation of soils;
decomposition and detoxification of pollutants and
wastes; protection from erosion, siltation of rivers,
and flooding; and regulation of regional
temperatures and precipitation. Together, these
and other ecosystem services provide the economy
with inputs of natural resources, sinks for the
outputs of our activities, and the life-support system
that makes possible human society and the
biological diversity of the planet.
The importance of some of these ecosystem
services to society can be effectively quantified,
using scientific assessment methods, and valued,
using economic valuation techniques. But neither
science nor economics provides techniques that are
well-suited to assessment of the full value of many
ecosystem services, such as the capacity of large
ecosystems to moderate regional climates. Better
scientific understanding of ecosystems and their
importance is needed to provide economists with
the information they need to value ecosystem
services. Some of EPA's efforts to improve our
ecological knowledge base are described in the
previous section. At the same time, new economic
tools are needed to improve valuation of the full
range of services provided by ecosystems, and to
assess the significance of changes in ecosystem
service flows when ecosystems are affected by
human activities.
EPA's Science Advisory Board (SAB), hi
Reducing Risk, emphasized the importance of
improving economic techniques for valuing
ecosystems and the services they provide."
Following the SAB's report, the Agency hi 1990
12
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established the Ecosystem Valuation Forum, a
group of prominent economists, ecologists, and
other natural and social scientists, to explore
opportunities for improving our ability to value
ecosystem services. In its initial report, the Forum
identified ecosystem valuation concepts and
problems suitable for research by both economists
and ecologists, and thus began to bridge the
interdisciplinary gaps that have hindered
progress.25 Following up on Forum's findings, the
Agency will be undertaking case studies of
ecosystem valuation. One such case study, focusing
on the wetlands of the Chesapeake Bay, will
examine potential linkages between ecological value
and economic value. EPA will continue research to
improve methods for measuring the economic
benefits of environmental resources.
At a larger scale, ecosystems and the
environment make important contributions to the
Nation's economy. Like conventional economic
assets which provide flows of income to their
owners, the environment provides flows of benefits
to its users and to society at large. Yet, measures
of macroeconomic health and prosperity, such as
the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), generally do
not account for the contributions provided by the
environment. For example, when environmental
quality is improved, Americans may enjoy the
benefits of cleaner, healthier air and water for years
to come, but no change is registered in our national
economic accounts. Similarly, an economic and
environmental catastrophe, such as the Exxon
Valdez oil spill, may substantially impair the value
of the environment as an asset by reducing its
capacity to provide, valuable fisheries, recreational
opportunities, and natural beauty that many
Americans enjoy for its own sake. But the disaster
may show up as a gain in GDP, because of all the
goods and services expended in the cleanup.2*
Environmental accounts attempt to resolve
these problems by integrating environmental assets
and service flows into conventional economic
accounting systems. EPA recently completed a
pilot project to develop and apply a system of
environmental accounts to the Chesapeake Bay
area.. EPA is also working with other federal
agencies and international organizations to develop
and implement environmental accounting systems.
The Agency's work to improve valuation of
ecosystem services will also serve to strengthen
environmental accounting capabilities, since these
depend in part on accurate assessments of the
economic value of environmental assets.
Environmental accounting offers a framework
for identifying and measuring the linkages between
the economy and the environment, and it thus has
the potential to operationalize sustainable
development concepts. The economic and
environmental data used in the accounting
framework allows us to assess the sustainability of
our current patterns of development, and it will be
an important tool in measuring progress toward
sustainable development.
Social Science Research
As EPA faces new types of environmental
challenges and begins to employ new tools to
address these (see Section 4), the issues addressed
by the social sciences are becoming increasingly
important in the Agency's work. Disciplines such as
economics, psychology, social psychology, political
science, and sociology can contribute to our
understanding of how individuals and society make
decisions affecting the environment, and how these
decisions might collectively foster a transition to
sustainable development. Social science research
thus complements the contributions of research in
the natural sciences by analyzing individual and
societal responses to scientific knowledge about the
environment.
EPA has conducted, within its various
programs, research on social science issues since its
creation, but these efforts have not previously been
coordinated across the Agency. EPA's Science
Advisory Board (SAB), in its 1988 report, Future
Risk: Research Strategies for the 1990s, and in its
1990 report, Reducing Risk: Setting Priorities and
Strategies for Environmental Protection,
recommended that EPA give higher priority to
social science research. In response to these and
similar recommendations from outside the Agency,
13
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the Agency has initiated development of a Social
Science Research Agenda."
A draft of the agenda identifies over 200
potential social science research topics addressing
two types of issues: those covered by specific EPA
programs and those affecting many different
programs. The former include indoor air pollution
and radon, global climate change, stratospheric
ozone depletion, and wetlands protection, while the
latter include such issues as pollution prevention,
international trade and its relationship to
environmental protection, the anticipation of future
environmental problems, economic incentives, and
risk communication and the role of information in
influencing private behavior. Recommended
research ranges from applied research on tools for
addressing specific environmental issues to research
designed to assess the overall effectiveness of
environmental programs.
One example illustrates how the Social Science
Research Agenda addresses the heightened
importance of social science issues for the Agency's
programs. EPA is making greater use of both
economic incentives and voluntary programs.
Neither approach mandates specific actions or
pollution limitations, but instead, each relies on
individuals and private businesses to make their
own environmentally sound decisions. Our ability
to design effective programs using these approaches
will depend on our understanding of the factors that
shape private decisions affecting the environment.
The Social Science Research Agenda recommends
research to expand our understanding of how
private decisions reflect such factors as economic
and non-economic incentives, information about
environmental risks and other issues, and the
economic status and educational background of a
decision-maker.
The course of our Nation's development will
ultimately depend upon the multitude of choices we
make daily as businesspeople, public officials, and
citizens. The draft Social Science Research
Agenda, by focusing on these choices and their
impacts, represents a expanded EPA emphasis on
issues that will ultimately be crucial in the
promotion of sustainable development.
4 NEW TOOLS FOR
ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION
Pollution Prevention
Most of EPA's efforts in the last twenty years
have focused on treatment and cleanup of pollution
and existing environmental problems. As the
Agency seeks to adopt more anticipatory
approaches to these problems, it has identified
economically efficient pollution prevention as the
preferred method of achieving environmental
results. Prevention eliminates environmental
degradation before it occurs, can obviate costly
cleanups of wastes and restorations of degraded
resources, avoids the possibility that pollutant
emissions may have unanticipated, deleterious
consequences in the future, can conserve natural
resources, and can cut costs immediately by
improving efficiency in the use of natural resources,
energy, and water. The long-run benefits of
prevention and its combination of economic and
environmental advantages makes pollution
prevention a particularly useful tool in pursuing
sustainable development.
In accordance with the national policy set forth
by the Pollution Prevention Act of 1990, EPA is
working to promote pollution prevention by
government agencies and institutions, businesses,
and consumers. In particular, the Agency
encourages "source reduction": increased efficiency
in the use of raw materials, energy, water, and
other resources; protection of natural resources by
conservation; and modifications of equipment,
processes, products, or materials that reduce
creation of pollutants. Taking advantage of the
links between pollution prevention and cost-saving
efficiency, the Agency is also promoting voluntary
programs that help businesses prevent pollution and
save money.
Sector Strategies. In 1990, Congress requested the
Agency to develop pollution prevention strategies
for the agriculture, energy and transportation,
Federal government, and consumer sectors. Some
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of the Agency's sector strategies are described
below.
Agriculture. The Agency has worked jointly
with the Department of Agriculture to develop an
agricultural pollution prevention strategy. In April
1992, the two agencies signed an agreement to
develop an overall pollution prevention plan that
contains strategic objectives for incorporating
environmental goals; programmatic approaches;
institutional roles; financial, human, and
technological resources; geographic targets; and a
specific schedule for achieving objectives.2* This
agreement and the initiatives that flow from it will
enhance the focus on stewardship in the Nation's
agricultural policies. At the same time, the
agreement will accommodate efficient production of
the food and the fiber upon which our economy and
welfare depends. The agreement stresses the use of
a variety of tools to reach these ends, including
voluntary and cooperative efforts in the farm and
commodity area, such as the use of integrated pest
management techniques (IPM), low input
sustainable agriculture (LISA) methods, market
incentives, technical assistance, education, research
and development, and—when necessary and
appropriate-regulatory and enforcement
approaches. This agreement is also supported by
EPA's activities to reduce non-point-source
pollution, including pollution from agricultural
lands, under the Clean Water Act (§319). EPA is
also working in cooperation with the USDA to
support the Wetland Reserve Program, which was
established under the 1990 Farm Bill to encourage
farmers to restore valuable wetlands. EPA research
suggests that these reforested wetlands substantially
reduce the loss of nitrogen and sediment from
agricultural lands, expanding the lifetime of
agricultural land while restoring diverse land uses
including forestry and recreation.
To stimulate the innovation and to demonstrate
the technologies which will help make these
objectives a reality, EPA's Pollution Prevention
Division has developed, in cooperation with
USDA's Cooperative State Research Service, a
grants program designed to promote the adoption
of sustainable agricultural practices and
demonstrate their viability on the farm. Called
"Agriculture in Concert with the Environment"
(ACE), the program funds innovative approaches to
reduce the use of chemical inputs and protect the
ecological capital of our agricultural lands.
Energy and Transportation. The Agency is
developing a pollution prevention strategy for the
energy and transportation sector aimed at
stimulating demand side reduction activities in key
areas, encouraging cleaner supplies, and providing
for more accurate accounting of the true social
costs of generating and using energy.29
EPA has established a joint program with the
Departments of Energy and Commerce to fund
industrial sector demonstration projects that
capitalize on the linkages between economic
competitiveness, energy conservation, and pollution
prevention. The program has a secondary objective
of forging links between the regional and state
agencies responsible for energy, commerce, and
environment. EPA is also conducting research on
alternative fuels to determine their emissions
characteristics and suitability for use as
replacements for gasoline in urban areas.
The Agency is also supporting the development
and use of innovative technologies for managing
storm-water runoff to enhance surface water
quality. Runoff from roads and paved surfaces is a
significant source of hydrocarbons and heavy metals
in the Nation's waters. Improvement of water
quality in lakes, rivers, and coastal areas will
require better management of runoff water. The
Agency is working to assist state and local
governments in establishing demonstration projects
to manage runoff. One major effort focuses on
retrofitting older treatment devices by adding oil
and grease separators to runoff drains and
collectors.
Federal Sector. EPA is working with the
Federal community to take advantage of pollution
prevention opportunities in three key areas: the
Federal Government's generation of wastes; its
procurement and consumption of goods, energy,
and resources; and its development and
implementation of policies and regulations. Initial
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efforts have focused on the first two areas of
opportunity. For example, the Department of
Defense has taken a lead in reviewing Federal
military procurement standards to identify
opportunities to replace or reduce the use of the
seventeen priority chemicals identified in the EPA
Industrial Toxics Project (see below). In general, as
a large-scale consumer, the U.S. Government can
help create demand that stimulates development of
markets for goods ranging from recycled paper to
safer substitutes for potentially hazardous materials.
EPA regional offices are also working to take
advantage of pollution prevention opportunities in
Federal Government operations. For example,
EPA Region 2 is working with the U.S. Postal
Service (USPS) to complete an assessment of
vehicle pollution prevention opportunities at the
USPS General Mail and Vehicle Maintenance
facilities in Buffalo. The results of the study should
be more broadly applicable to other USPS facilities,
fleet operators, and the package handling industry.
Voluntary and Collaborative Efforts. In January,
1991, EPA issued a Pollution Prevention Strategy
that serves as the blueprint for a national, cross-
media program.3* The strategy provided the
framework for the Industrial Toxics Project ("33/50
Program"), which calls for voluntary reductions in
industrial emissions of seventeen high priority
chemicals included in the Toxics Release Inventory.
Targets are a 33% reduction in releases by the end
of 1992 and a 50% reduction by 1995. Seven
hundred of the largest businesses in the United
States have joined this program, and then-
commitments will result in an estimated 300 million
pound reduction in toxic emissions by 1995.
Similarly, the Green Lights Program seeks private
and public "partners" to commit, on a voluntary
basis, to reduce power consumption through the
installation of more efficient lighting in work areas.
Over 400 corporations, nine states, the government
of the U.S. Virgin Islands, as well as cities, counties,
schools, and environmental groups have signed on.
EPA estimates that full implementation of Green
Lights commitments to date will save $700 million a
year in electricity costs and reduce emissions of
carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen oxides
by more than seven million metric tons annually.31
A New RegaMory Focus on Prevention. EPA's 1991
Pollution Prevention Strategy provided guidance
and direction for efforts to incorporate pollution
prevention within EPA's existing regulatory and
non-regulatory programs. The strategy also set
forth a schedule for achievement of specific, near-
term objectives in pollution prevention. The
Agency's pollution prevention program has
established the source reduction review project to
examine potential reductions in releases to all
environmental media through adoption of
alternative manufacturing or handling processes.
This project supports regulatory and non-regulatory
EPA activities and focuses on source control and
source reduction.
Economic Incentives
In the market economy of the United States,
the collective actions of private businesses and
consumers will play the key role in determining the
path of development that our country follows. One
of the most important steps we can take to ensure
that development proceeds in sustainable directions
is to provide economic incentives that encourage
environmentally beneficial private choices. Such
incentives help harmonize private interests and the
broader social need to maintain a quality
environment.
Economic incentives share three key advantages
over command-and-control systems. First, if
properly designed, economic incentives programs
can effect environmental protection at lower cost
than command-and-control systems; they therefore
allow more of society's resources to be directed to
other sustainable development priorities. Second,
because they make pollution more costly, well-
designed economic incentives encourage continuous
movement toward less expensive and more effective
pollution prevention and control techniques. Third,
because economic incentives establish a direct link
between environmental protection and market
decisions, they can help set the economy onto a
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sustainable course. Since markets will in large part
determine the development path that the United
States will take, incorporation of environmental
protection priorities in private economic decisions
will be a prerequisite for sustainable development.
The Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990
contain many provisions for the use of economic
incentives, and implementation of this statute will
help EPA advance both theory and practice
regarding these tools. For example, Title IV
mandates the establishment of a system of tradable
"allowances" for electric utilities' emissions of sulfur
dioxide. After 1994, utilities covered under the law
must have or purchase allowances to emit sulfur
dioxide. This system creates an incentive to reduce
sulfur emissions, since reduced emissions allow
utilities to sell more (or buy fewer) allowances.
The program has both economic and
environmental advantages over the conventional
command-and-control approach, which might simply
set a legally binding standard to be achieved by
each utility. The allowance system allows the
utilities flexibility in reducing emissions, so that the
cost of the emissions reductions to the industry and
consumers is minimized. In fact, the system is
expected to be $700 million to $1 billion less
expensive than a more rigid command-and-control
approach.32
Even more important in the long run, the
allowance system should spur research and
development of new, cost-effective pollution
prevention technologies, since the allowances create
a continuous financial incentive for lowered
emissions. While a command-and-control approach
gives utilities the incentive to reduce emissions
down to the level specified by a standard (to avoid
prosecution), tradeable allowances create an
incentive to lower emissions below levels mandated
by regulation.
The Clean Air Act Amendments contain other
provisions for the use of economic incentives. For
example, the statute sets fees for certain sources of
volatile organic compounds in ozone non-attainment
areas (areas where ozone concentrations exceed
National Ambient Air Quality Standards). Title VI
establishes a system of tradable allowances for
reduction of chlorofluorocarbons.
In addition to these opportunities to use
economic incentives in its air program, the Agency
is investigating the use of incentives in its water and
solid waste programs and promoting the use of
incentives by state and local environmental
agencies. For example, a system of trading could
be introduced to reduce water pollution from "non-
point sources." These sources, which include the
runoff from agricultural and urban areas, have
proven difficult to control with conventional water
pollution control tools. In general, economic
incentives may be very useful for preventing or
reducing forms of environmental degradation that
EPA previously has been less successful in
addressing.
Public-Private Partnerships
Because private businesses are forced by
competitive pressures to keep costs down, they may
be able to provide certain services more cost-
effectively than can government agencies. Public-
private partnerships take advantage of these cost
savings by involving private firms in activities that
have historically been public-sector functions.
These partnerships offer an innovative approach for
financing environmental protection-saving public
funds while expanding private sector interest and
expertise in environmental issues. In the long run,
involvement of private firms in environmental
protection activities also puts the dynamic
marketplace to work in finding new technologies
and methods suitable for protecting the
environment.
Through its Environmental Finance Program,
EPA is working to help state and local governments
use public-private partnerships and other alternative
financing mechanisms to fund environmental
protection activities. A particularly important
application of the partnership approach is in small
and economically disadvantaged communities,
where government financing of operations such as
wastewater treatment can be prohibitively
expensive. Privatization of these operations may
significantly reduce costs to these communities.
One initiative that will help showcase partnerships
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is EPA's demonstration project program. The
Agency has established over forty demonstration
partnerships with state and local governments,
universities, and private firms to increase awareness
of partnership opportunities. These demonstrations
provide seed money to communities to explore
alternative financing techniques when planning
environmental projects. The projects provide useful
case studies for other communities while enabling
small communities to meet increasingly stringent
environmental protection standards. Moreover, the
demonstrations provide an opportunity for the
Agency to promote pollution prevention as a
preferred and cost-effective option for achieving
environmental progress at the state and local levels.
EPA also works with regional organizations to
promote partnerships; for example, the Agency has
formed an alliance with the Appalachian Regional
Commission to make joint awards for
demonstration projects in the Appalachian region. .
EPA will be establishing Environmental
Finance Centers at land grant universities to
provide training, advisory services, publications, and
analysis to states and communities on options for
funding of environmental programs and services.
Two potential pilot Centers are the University of
Maryland and the University of New Mexico. The
Centers will also serve to coordinate programs like
the Revitalizing Environmental Infrastructure
through Volunteerism (REV) Program, which is
currently under development as a source of pro
bono engineering advice for disadvantaged
communities of all sizes.
Technological Innovation
A concern voiced by some economists and
industry groups is that environmental regulation -can
stifle innovation and lessen America's
competitiveness. The 1990 Clean Air Act
Amendments address this concern through
extensive use of performance standards and market-
based incentives that promote, rather than hinder,
innovation. EPA is also addressing concerns about
regulatory barriers and economic disincentives that
may impede the development of innovative
environmental technologies. Some of these barriers
include unresolved questions about technology-
based regulatory standards and regulatory reliance
on "available" technology; public concern over risk;
inadequate data on the potential market for various
technologies; and the regulatory difficulties hi
obtaining permits or field trials for research, testing,
or marketing.
EPA is taking steps to improve its role in
promoting the development and transfer of
environmentally beneficial technologies. In a 1991
report, EPA's National Advisory Council for
Environmental Policy and Technology
recommended that the Agency establish a
technology advocate function.33 In response to this
recommendation, EPA created the Innovative
Technology Council to coordinate Agency efforts to
foster new environmental technologies and to
leverage private and Federal investments in these
technologies. EPA is also working with the
Departments of Defense and Energy to facilitate
the use of Federal facilities for testing and
demonstration of innovative environmentally
beneficial technologies.
The Federal Technology Transfer Act (FTTA)
has set up a framework that government and
private-sector researchers can use to collaborate on
promising environmental technologies. A key
provision of the law establishes the authority for
government and industry to enter into Cooperative
Research and Development Agreements on specific
technologies that will cost-effectively reduce
environmental pollution. In addition, the Agency is
actively supporting the National Technology
Initiative, designed to bring together officials in the
Federal government, industry, and academia to
promote U.S. competitiveness through technology
development. To stimulate commercial use of
environmental technologies developed by EPA
laboratories, the Agency is sponsoring a series of
workshops for business leaders to showcase these
products.
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5 FOCUSING ON REGIONS AND
COMMUNITIES
Sustainable development objectives may be
pursued at many levels, from the global-scale efforts
at international conferences, such as the UNCED in
Brazil, to individual efforts to conserve natural
resources and prevent pollution. Local and regional
programs and policies supporting sustainable
development will be integral parts of larger-scale
efforts, just as programs designed to protect
regionally important ecological resources will play
an important role in preserving the Nation's
ecosystems. EPA is increasingly active in working
to meet local and regional environmental needs and
in protecting special environmental resources.
Geographic Targeting
In its two decades of work to protect the
environment, EPA has generally employed
nationwide strategies to control specific pollutants
and pollution sources. Though this national
pollutant-by-pollutant, source-by-source approach
has yielded much progress in the restoration and
preservation of our air, land, and water resources,
its effectiveness may be limited in some areas
where unique environmental characteristics or
conditions call for more tailored, integrated
approaches. Geographic targeting is such an
approach. It focuses on the environmental
problems and needs of a particular geographic area,
such as a watershed, and seeks to involve the full
array of local stakeholders to address the broad
range of local—often interrelated—environmental
problems. Thus, geographic targeting is an
important step in advancing the integrative
approaches that will be necessary to achieve
sustainable development. The Agency currently has
geographic initiatives ranging in scale from
programs with very large focuses, such as the Great
Lakes and Gulf of Mexico programs, to efforts
covering mid-size areas, including Puget Sound and
the Chesapeake Bay, and finally to the smaller-scale
watershed-based approaches being developed by the
Office of Water.
EPA's Region 9 has developed a geographic
initiative that illustrates the value of geographic
targeting in pursuing sustainable development. The
initiative focuses on the Central Valley of
California, where many areas are experiencing rapid
urban growth and associated environmental
problems. In addition, intensive agricultural
activities have created major water quality and
quantity conflicts. A stronger emphasis on
sustainable agricultural practices will be a key
element in any long-term solutions to problems in
the area. The Region is currently developing an
inventory of public and private sustainable
agriculture programs and initiatives in the Valley
and will use this as a basis to target future EPA
work on this issue.
Most of the geographic initiatives, however, do
not currently focus explicitly on sustainable
development. They are nonetheless developing
many components of the infrastructure that will be
needed to make lasting progress toward
sustainability. These include improved knowledge
of ecological relationships and stresses within an
area, programs for risk-based priority setting, and
institutions to bring parties with widely disparate
interests together to facilitate coordination and
planning. Geographic initiatives can serve as
models for application, on a manageable scale, of
sustainable development concepts.
Regional, State, and Local Programs
Throughout the United States, regional, state,
and local initiatives are incorporating concepts of
sustainability into development plans and
government programs. The Agency is working to
support and assist these efforts, many of which are
associated with the geographic initiatives discussed
above. A few examples are described here to
provide a sense of the scope of these activities.
EPA's Region 10 has undertaken a sustainable
development initiative to examine new approaches
for achieving long-term improvements in
environmental quality by using sustainable
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development as an integrating objective. In its
initial stage, this work centers on finding new
opportunities for cooperation with government
agencies, non-governmental organizations,
businesses, and universities that are working to
foster or promote sustainable development. The
Region is also exploring opportunities to assist
other sustainability initiatives in the Northwest, such
as "sustainable city" programs, sustainable
agriculture projects, and private-public forums
focusing on sustainability. In the next phase of this
program, Region 10 will select areas in which it can
be most effective in enabling or initiating progress
toward sustainable development. The lessons we
learn in these northwestern states will help the
Agency to employ successful sustainable
development approaches elsewhere.
Over the last several years, each EPA Region
has worked to identify the environmental problems
that pose the highest risks to humans and to
ecosystems. These regional "comparative risk"
efforts complement the Agency's efforts to identify
high-priority environmental problems on a national
basis (see Section 2), and allow it to devote
resources to the greatest regional and local threats
to sustainable development.
Similarly, a number of states and cities have
worked to identify and prioritize environmental
problems. Several EPA Regions are working with
their state and local counterparts to integrate
environmental priorities into state and local
economic development and growth management
activities. The Agency provides technical assistance
for these efforts. For example, Washington
Environment 2010, a joint project of the State of
Washington and EPA, developed Toward 2010: An
Environmental Action Agenda, which identified
major environmental challenges facing Washington
and set forth recommendations for "creating a
sustainable future."34 Similar approaches are also
being utilized by some cities. EPA has provided
resources that were used to help fund the
Sustainable City Project in Portland, Oregon, and
San Jose and San Francisco, California.
Region 10 has also initiated, through grants to
states, cities, and counties, a program to develop
long-term wetland conservation plans. The
development of these plans will bring disparate
interests together to foster an understanding of
what must be sustained to protect the role of
wetlands in providing habitat and other
economically important services. This program will
provide a model for long-term efforts to sustain
important ecological resources. Such efforts will be
essential components of any comprehensive
sustainable development policy.
In Region 2, the development of a Special Area
Management Plan Environmental Impact Statement
(SAMP/EIS) for the Hackensack Meadowlands of
New Jersey provides an example of integrated
management approaches for environmental quality
and economic development. The SAMP is to be
included as part of New Jersey's Coastal Zone
Management Plan for the management of an
environmentally sensitive tidal wetland. The project
involves balancing the intense development
pressures in the area with wetlands wildlife
protection, water quality, air quality, waste
management, and other environmental
considerations. It will provide the basis for the
development and management of the 32-square-
mile area over the next thirty years.
Implementation of the SAMP should offer
substantial environmental and economic benefits
over the current project-by-project approach to
environmental decisions in the area.
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6 ENHANCING PUBLIC
AWARENESS AND
PARTICIPATION
While governments, international organizations,
and non-government organizations can take
leadership roles in promoting sustainable
development, achievement of sustainable
development will ultimately require the full
participation and support of the public. It is in our
everyday decisions as consumers, investors,
employers and employees, parents, neighbors, and
citizens that we decide the course of development
our Nation will take. Through educational
programs designed to improve public understanding
of the environment, EPA seeks to foster private
decisions that support environmental protection and
sustainable development.
Education
In the long run, the Nation can only achieve
and maintain sustainable development when its
citizens understand this concept and embrace it as a
national priority. Since sustainable development
encompasses a multitude of issues—scientific
concerns, ethical principles, economic interactions
on a broad scale, and others—many institutions will
share the responsibility both to study the practical
meaning of the concept and to educate the public
about the results of such study. EPA's educational
responsibilities stem both from its general mission
to protect the environment and from specific
legislative mandates of Congress. EPA has a
particularly important role in ensuring that the
public is informed about our environment and
about what can be done by private citizens to
protect and enhance environmental quality.
EPA has undertaken a number of education
programs that will improve environmental education
in the United States. Under the authorities of the
National Environmental Education Act, for
example, EPA administers an Environmental
Education Grants Program. Grants are awarded to
support state, local, and non-profit environmental
education efforts. Interest in the program has been
enormous; over 3,000 grant applications have been
received for the fiscal year 1992 program, and
proposals exceed the available monies by nearly
$100 million. The Agency will also be funding a
national Environmental Education and Training
Program. This "train the trainer" program, to be
headed by the University of Michigan, will create a
rapidly expanding network of environmental
educators by training both in-service teachers and
informal educators, who will in turn train others hi
the field. By training people to train others, the
program obtains maximum leverage from public
funds.
EPA's education program is also utilizing
cooperative approaches that will be necessary to
promote useful understanding of a concept as broad
as sustainable development. EPA participates in
the efforts of the Federal Coordinating Council for
Science, Engineering, and Technology to identify
and assist U.S. Government programs that will help
train a work force ready for the challenges--
including the environmental challenges—that will
face the country in the year 2000. The Agency is
actively pursuing public-private partnerships, such as
a recent cooperative effort with General Motors to
produce an award-winning video on the
environment for schoolchildren. The video, which
required no public funding, has been requested by
over 100,000 schools. The Agency also sponsors a
variety of other programs to fund hands-on research
by students, to honor students for outstanding
environmental projects, and to facilitate teacher
access to environmental education materials.
Other EPA education efforts focus on specific
sectoral activities. For example, EPA, in a
cooperative effort with the American Institute of
Architects (AIA), is sponsoring the development of
an Environmental Resources Guide to provide
architects and builders with guidance on how to
select more environmentally friendly materials for
construction.35
EPA is also seeking to advance environmental
education internationally. In September 1992, EPA,
the Canadian Department of the Environment, and
the Mexican Secretariat of Social Development
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signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU)
on Environmental Education. The purposes of the
MOU include increasing public awareness and
fostering attitudinal change contributing to the
achievement of sustainable development.3*
Improving Public Access to
Environmental Information
The Agency is working to improve public access
to information on environmental issues. The
Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-
Know Act of 1986, commonly known as Title in (of
the Superfund Reauthorization and Amendments
Act of 1986), provided communities with
unprecedented access to information about toxic
chemicals in their communities and created
mechanisms to minimize the threats posed by these
substances. One of the most important features of
Tide HI is its creation of the EPA-administered
Toxics Release Inventory (TRI), an annual
inventory of releases and transfers from over 20,000
manufacturing sources. The TRI contains extensive
data on 320 listed toxic chemicals, waste
management practices, and releases to the
environment, and is designed to improve public
access to information for community decision
making.37 Public awareness and involvement are
viewed as key forces in spurring voluntary pollution
prevention actions by industry. The TRI has
already been instrumental in serving as a basis for
voluntary efforts to reduce the use and release of
hazardous materials to the environment. Over 700
private firms will use the TRI as a baseline for
reductions in emissions as participants in the 33/50
program (see Section 4). EPA will continue to
work with all interested parties to develop
techniques and incentives for preventing chemical
risks to human health and the environment.
To foster exchange of information that can be
used to protect the environment, EPA continues to
operate information clearinghouses that facilitate
public information access. The Pollution
Prevention Information Clearinghouse and the
International Cleaner Production Information
Clearinghouse publicize industry initiatives to make
environmentally friendly product modifications or to
minimi?*-, wastes. Other clearinghouses such as the
Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA)
and Wetlands Hotlines, as well as the Alternative
Treatment Technology Information Center
(ATTIC), provide public access to information on
environmental restoration and protection efforts.
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7 INTERNATIONAL EFFORTS
EPA's international programs support
sustainable development, both domestically and
abroad, and the integration of economic and
environmental policies, an important prerequisite
for sustainable development. These programs fall
into three general categories: protecting shared
ecosystems; protecting the global environment; and
cooperation with other countries and international
organizations on scientific, economic and
technological aspects of environmental protection
that are of mutual concern.
Protecting Shared Ecosystems
Concern about the effects of transboundary
pollution goes back to 1909, when the U.S. and
Great Britain signed the Boundary Waters Treaty,
which included provisions to protect water quality in
the rivers that form or cross the U.S.-Canada
border, the Great Lakes, and other shared inland
water resources. The treaty was intended to
prevent pollution in shared water resources from
causing injury to health or property in either
country. The 1978 U.S.-Canada Great Lakes Water
Quality Agreement, amended in 1987, furthered
long-term cooperation by establishing a
comprehensive framework to protect and improve
water quality in this large region.
More recently, in March 1991, the U.S. and
Canada signed a historic Air Quality Agreement
that requires both nations to reduce emissions of
sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides, the damaging
ingredients of acid rain. The agreement also sets
up an institutional framework to address other
transboundary air pollution issues. Another
bilateral agreement with Canada establishes notice
and consent procedures for hazardous waste
crossing the border in both directions.
In the Northwest, there is a growing discussion
of the need for more integrated planning and
information exchange between the U.S. and Canada
in the'urbanized corridor stretching from Portland,
Oregon to Vancouver, British Columbia. The EPA
Region 10 Office is an active participant in these
discussions, which focus on sustaining high quality
natural resources and marine ecosystems in the face
of rapid population and economic growth hi the
area. Participants include a wide variety of public
and private interests from both sides of the border.
EPA's Region 10, the environmental agencies
of the Northwest States and British Columbia, and
the Canadian Department of Environment Regional
Office established in 1991 a regional Memorandum
of Understanding (MOU) on hazardous waste.
This MOU serves as a framework for addressing
issues such as generation of hazardous wastes in the
region and the region's capacity to treat and dispose
of these wastes.
In the Northeast, EPA is contributing to U.S.-
Canadian cooperation through a State-Provincial
agreement to protect and conserve the Gulf of
Maine marine region. This effort includes long-
term sustainable development objectives for the
Gulf.
U.S. environmental cooperation with Mexico
began more than 50 years ago with the formation of
the International Boundary and Water Commission
to develop bilateral water and sanitation projects
along the border. This cooperation was significantly
expanded with the signing of the 1983 Border
Environment Agreement covering sanitation in
Tijuana, transboundary movement of hazardous
wastes, air pollution, and emergency response. This
year, the first stage of a formal Integrated
Environmental Plan for the Mexican-U.S. Border
Area was approved. It provides for strengthening
cooperative strategies for the enforcement of
existing laws, reducing pollution through new
investment initiatives, and increasing cooperative
planning, training and education.
The proposed North America Free Trade
Agreement (NAFTA) has served as a catalyst for
trilateral cooperation on environmental protection
of the continent. In September 1992, former
Administrator William Reilly hosted a meeting with
his counterparts from Canada and Mexico that
addressed NAFTA, related environmental issues,
and possible approaches to enhancing cooperation
23
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among the three countries on critical sustainable
development issues.
This year, EPA furthered cooperation with
concerned parties to facilitate the establishment of
the Caribbean Environment and Development
Institute.3* The Institute is a non-profit
organization that is designed to develop public-
private partnerships in support of regional
environmental protection efforts. It initially will
support activities to reduce pollution from land-
based sources that contribute to the degradation of
coastal ecosystems, which are critical to tourism and
other economic activities in the Caribbean.
EPA plays a leading role in the development
and operation of the Arctic Monitoring and
Assessment Program (AMAP), a component of the
Arctic Environmental Protection Strategy agreed to
by the U.S. and the seven other Arctic countries in
June 1991. EPA also is extensively involved in the
work of the Convention on Long-Range
Transboundary Air Pollution (LRTAP) of the U.N.
Economic Commission for Europe (ECE).
Protecting the Global Environment
Since the U.S. banned the production of
aerosols containing chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) in
1978, this country has been a leader hi international
efforts to protect the ozone layer. These efforts led
to the Vienna Convention for the protection of the
ozone layer and the Montreal Protocol on
substances that deplete the ozone layer. EPA has
worked closely with U.S. industry to develop
substitutes for CFCs and .with developing countries
to encourage the use of these substitutes. EPA
provides assistance to developing countries in
meeting their reduction targets for ozone-depleting
substances under the Montreal Protocol.
EPA and China have launched a multi-faceted
program aimed at curtailing growth of the CFC
market in that country. EPA is working with
Chinese ministries and industries to convert
refrigerator factories to enable them to use
CFC-substitutes, with additional benefits in energy
efficiency. Production of household refrigerators in
China, expected to reach 10 million units hi this
decade, would otherwise require approximately
10,000 metric tons of CFCs for initial operation.
Another EPA project will establish a plan to
replace halons used hi fire-fighting, which
accounted for almost 40% of Chinese consumption
of ozone-depleting chemicals in 1989. Through
these and other activities, the bilateral ozone
program with China will promote sustainable
development by fostering economically sound
projects which protect the global environment.
EPA has been a leading player hi international
efforts to prevent damage to the marine
environment from dumping wastes at sea. EPA
also is strongly promoting international cooperation
to control land-based sources of marine pollution,
both at the regional level and through UNCED and
the United Nations Environment Programme
(UNEP). UNCED's Agenda 21 calls upon UNEP
to convene an intergovernmental meeting on
protection of the marine environment from land-
based sources of pollution.3* EPA will take an
active role hi this conference. EPA is also
participating hi and leading initiatives to control
long range transboundary ah* pollution and hi
efforts to protect environmental quality in the
Arctic and Antarctic regions.
EPA also plays an important role hi
international programs related to mitigation of and
adaptation to potential global climate change. The
U.S. has committed to provide $25 million over two
years to help fund climate studies for selected
developing countries. These countries are expected
to account for the largest growth hi greenhouse gas
emissions during the coming decades, so efforts to
encourage energy efficiency and reduce
deforestation hi these countries are an important
adjunct to domestic actions.
Other International Environmental
Cooperation
EPA has established cooperative agreements
with more than 20 developed and developing
countries, and takes part hi the environmental
programs and initiatives of some 15 international
24
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organizations. EPA receives more than 2000
foreign visitors per year, who are eager to consult
with our experts at headquarters, the regional
offices and laboratories.
In the area of chemical safety, EPA is working
with the World Health Organization (WHO),
UNEP, and OECD to develop lexicological
standards which provide more uniform health and
safety information, reduce duplicative testing, and
avoid unnecessary barriers to trade, in chemicals.
This work is strongly supported by the chemicals
industry and by environmental groups.
Additionally, EPA has been promoting the use of
community right-to-know programs internationally
based on the success of such programs in the U.S.
(see Section 6).
EPA is engaged with other OECD countries in
implementing a major new program of national
environmental performance reviews, under which
the environmental performance of each OECD
country will be assessed by "peer" countries every
four years. Promotion of sustainable development
is an explicit aim of the program. It is based on
OECD's "Environmental Strategy for the 1990s"
that contains three principal goals: reducing the
pollution burden in OECD countries, integrating
economic and environmental policies, and
strengthening international cooperation.1* EPA
staff recently took part in a pilot environmental
performance review of Germany. In addition, EPA
plans to support the decision of the U.N. ECE to
extend the OECD environmental performance
review program to the entire ECE region: the
U.S., Canada, all of Europe, the former Soviet
Union and Israel.
EPA has formal agreements with a number of
international organizations to facilitate the exchange
of information and personnel, joint research
activities and training. At the UNCED, EPA
signed agreements with the United Nations
Development Programme (UNDP), the United
Nations Industrial Development Organization
(UNIDO), and the World Health Organization.
EPA works closely with the Agency for
International Development (AID) and the Peace
Corps in providing environmental expertise in
Central and Eastern Europe, the former Soviet
Union, and the developing world. Under the
Support for East European Democracy (SEED)
Act of 1989, EPA has provided technical assistance
in monitoring and controlling air and water
pollution in Krakow, Poland, and helped establish
the Regional Environmental Center hi Budapest,
Hungary. More recently, EPA has been working
with local officials in Central and Eastern Europe
to develop and test environmental management
training modules and to implement several
comparative risk assessments in the Czech and
Slovak Federal Republics and Bulgaria with
assistance from resident Peace Corps volunteers.
EPA is providing technical assistance,
information, and training materials to other
countries in an effort to share U.S. "lessons learned"
in environmental protection, both successes and
failures. This year, EPA distributed sets, of
Technical Information Packages (TIPS) to 116
countries around the world. These packages
organize some of the Agency's best technical
information into compact resource libraries on
fourteen environmental issues. TIPS provide an
explanation of the threats posed by various
environmental problems, options for dealing with
these problems, sources of technical advice and
ways to access key EPA publications and
databases.41 EPA has also developed, in
cooperation with Purdue University, a set of
environmental education software packages that are
being distributed throughout the world.
EPA is a leading member of the U.S.-Asia
Environmental Partnership, which is providing
assistance to strengthen environmental management
in target Asian countries and to open new markets
for U.S. suppliers of environmental goods and
services. The U.S. Environmental Training Institute
(USETI), a public-private initiative launched by
EPA, is a key feature of the Partnership. Through
USETI, key officials from developing countries
receive technical training from leading U.S.
environmental industries. One result of USETI
activities has been the formation of regional
networks for sharing information on environmental
and developmental issues.
EPA is active in a number of international
programs to respond to and prevent environmental
25
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emergencies. EPA worked closely with Kuwait and
Saudi Arabia to address environmental and human
health threats posed by oil fires and spills which
occurred during the Persian Gulf War. Working
through the United Nations Environment
Programme, the International Maritime
Organization, and the OECD, EPA has been a
leader in developing and implementing programs
throughout the world to respond to chemical
accidents. To complement and build on these
efforts, EPA recently played a major role in
negotiating and concluding a new U.N. ECE
convention on transboundary effects of industrial
accidents.
EPA has actively encouraged increased funding
for international environmental programs oriented
towards sustainable development, such as
establishment of debt-for-nature programs and the
Environment for the Americas initiative, which
permits qualifying Latin American and Caribbean
countries to use the interest that would have
otherwise been paid on certain U.S. Government-
held debt for the support of grass-roots
environmental protection programs in their own
countries. EPA works in close cooperation with the
Treasury Department, AID and other agencies to
support environmental improvement and sustainable
development through the loan and grant programs
of multilateral banks. Examples of EPA's activities
with the World Bank and the four regional
development banks include reviewing the
environmental implications of development loans
and grants; encouraging the transition to
environmentally sustainable portfolios; supporting
the development of environmentally appropriate
bank policies on natural resources, emission
controls and environmental assessment; sharing
technical information on good environmental
management practices; and helping shape the
policies and programs of the new Global
Environment Facility.
EPA believes that trade and environmental
policies can be mutually supportive in the pursuit of
sustainable development and that trade
liberalization is an important tool in achieving
economic growth and efficiency. EPA is making
important contributions to resolving environmental
issues associated with NAFTA and is a leading
player in trade and environment initiatives
underway at the OECD and the General
Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). The
OECD's work program includes, among other
dungs, developing guidelines for design and
implementation of "trade policies and agreements
which reflect environmental considerations and
accommodate and assist the achievement of
sustainable development" as well as "effective
environmental policies and agreements that
minimize trade distortions."
EPA's National Advisory Council for
Environmental Policy and Technology (NACEPT)
is examining a range of trade and environment
policy issues, and sustainable development is a
central and explicit reference point for this work.
NACEPT is preparing a report on trade and
environment issues that may be useful in GATT
and NAFTA negotiations.
EPA understands the importance of public
participation and access to information, and is
promoting these values at the GATT, the OECD
and elsewhere. EPA also recognizes the special
concerns of developing countries in regard to trade,
environment and sustainable development, such as
gaining access to industrialized country markets,
strengthening environmental protection policies and
institutions, and acquiring more environmentally
benign technologies.
26
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16 See, for example: U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency, Office of Strategic
Planning and Environmental Data. "Futures."
(quarterly publication) (Washington, D.C.).
17 Water Pollution Control Federation. Water
Quality 2000: A Cooperative Effort to Improve
the Nation's Water Quality Program. Phase II
Report. (Alexandria, Virginia: 1990).
18 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office
of Policy, Planning and Evaluation.
Environmental Equity: Reducing Risk For All
Communities. EPA/230-R-92-008 (2 vols.)
(Washington, D.C.: June 1992).
19 William K. Reilly, "Environmental Equity:
EPA's Position," EPA Journal (175N-92-001)
vol. 18, no. 1 (March/April 1992): p. 22.
20 Hunsaker, C.T., and D.E. Carpenter, eds.
Ecological Indicators for the Environmental
Monitoring and Assessment Program. EPA
600/3-90/060. (Research Triangle Park, NC:
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office
of Research and Development, September
1990).
21 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office
of Communications and Public Affairs,
Securing Our Legacy: An EPA Progress Report
1989-1991, EPA/175 R 92-001 (Washington,
D.C.: April 1992), p. 36.
22 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office
of Policy, Planning, and Evaluation. Cooling
Our Communities: A Guidebook on Tree
Planting and Light-Colored Surfacing.
EPA/22P-200L (Washington, D.C.: January
1992).
23 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Risk
Assessment Forum. Framework For Ecological
Risk Assessment. EPA/630/R-92/001.
(Washington, D.C.: February 1992).
24 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency,
Science Advisory Board, p. 25.
25 Issues in Ecosystem Valuation: Improving
Information for Decision Making. Phase I
Report of the Ecosystem Valuation Forum to
the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Draft. (Washington, D.C.: Resolve, 14
January 1992).
26 William K. Reilly. "The Green Thumb of
Capitalism."
27 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office
of Policy, Planning and Evaluation and Office
of Research and Development. Stimulating
Environmental Progress: A Social Science
Research Agenda. Draft. (Washington, D.C.:
30 December 1991).
28 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the
U.S. Department of Agriculture. Agriculture
Pollution Prevention Strategy. Draft.
(Washington, D.C.: 1 July 1992).
29 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office
of Policy, Planning and Evaluation. Pollution
Prevention Strategy for the Energy Sector.
Draft. (Washington, D.C.: 14 August 1991).
30 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency Pollution
Prevention Strategy. (Washington, D.C.:
January 1991).
31 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office
of Communications and Public Affairs,
Securing Our Legacy: An EPA Progress Report
1989-1991, pp. 20-22.
32 Federal Register, vol. 56, no. 232 (3 December
1991): p. 63097.
29
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33 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office
of the. Administrator, Office of Cooperative
Environmental Management. Permitting and
Compliance Policy: Earners to U.S.
Environmental Technology Innovation.
EPA101/N-91/001. (Washington, D.C.:
January 1991).
34 Washington Environment 2010. Towards 2010:
An Environmental Action Agenda. (Olympia,
WA: Washington Department of Ecology,
July 1990).
35 American Institute of Architects.
Environmental Resources Guide. (Serial
publication) (Washington, D.C.).
36 Memorandum of Understanding on
Environmental Education Among the
Department of the Environment, Canada, and
the Secretariat of Social Development, Republic
of Mexico, and the Environmental Protection
Agency, United States of America.
(Washington, D.C: 17 September 1992).
37 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office
of Pesticides and Toxic Substances. Toxics in
the Community: National and Local
Perspectives. The 1989 Toxic Release Inventory
National Report. EPA 560/4-91-014.
(Washington, D.C.: September 1991).
38 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Wider
Caribbean Program. "A Commitment to
Address the Environmental and Development
Problems of the Wider Caribbean." (Santurce,
Puerto Rico).
39 United Nations Conference on Environment
and Development. Agenda 21. (Unpublished
draft). (United Nations: 1992).
40 Organization for Economic Cooperation and
Development, Environment Directorate,
Environment Committee. Environmental
Performance Reviews: Detailed Plan and
Implementation Strategy. Document ENV/EC
(91)21/REV1. Paris: 27 March 1992.
41 Packages include fourteen issue summaries
together with EPA documents referenced in
each summary. An example of a summary
document is: U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency, Office of Research and Development,
Office of International Activities, and Office of
Policy, Planning and Evaluation. Pollution
Prevention. EPA/600/M-91/036 (Washington,
D.C.: November 1991).
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8 CONCLUSION
Sustainable development tenets offer promise
for shaping new and more successful environmental
policies that promote economic well-being, public
health, and the integrity of ecological systems. At
present, the concepts of sustainable development
provide a useful framework for discussion of the
Nation's long-term environmental and economic
priorities, although these concepts have not been
developed yet to the extent that they provide a basis
for EPA's operational planning. EPA is committed
to promoting public dialogue on sustainable
development and on its practical meaning at local,
national, and international levels. To this end, we
invite comment on this report and on the
applications of sustainable development in public
policy. Please direct any comment to
Assistant Administrator for Policy, Planning
and Evaluation (PM-219)
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
401 M Street, SW
Washington, DC 20460
27
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ENDNOTES
1 Departments of Veterans Affairs and Housing
and Urban Development, and Independent
Agencies Appropriations Bill, 1992 (Senate
Report 102-107), p. 90. The request reads:
In keeping with the Committee's support of
long-term strategic planning efforts, the
Committee is interested in EPA's efforts to
explore the concept of sustainable
development. In particular, the Committee is
interested in how environmental concerns can
best be incorporated in national, State, and
local development and economic planning and
decisionmaking processes. The Committee
directs EPA to provide a report by July 15,
1992, which describes in detail how EPA has
incorporated, or plans to incorporate, the
concept of sustainable development into the
Agency's operations.
2 Quoted by William K. Reilly in "A Perspective
from EPA," EPA Journal (20K-9004) vol. 16,
no. 4 (July/August 1990): pp. 12-14.
3 National Environmental Policy Act of 1969
(NEPA), Section 101(b)(l).
4 World Commission on Environment and
Development, Our Common Future (New
York: Oxford University Press, 1987), p. 40.
5 Group of Seven. Summit of the Arch:
Economic Declaration. (Paris: 16 July 1989).
6 Group of Seven. London Economic Summit
1991: Economic Declaration. (London: 17
July).
7 United Nations General Assembly. United
Nations Conference on Environment and
Development. Resolution 44/228. (New York:
22 December 1989).
8 Governor Bill Clinton and Senator Al Gore.
Putting People First: How We Can All Change
America. (New York: Times Books, 1992), pp.
94-5.
9 World Commission on Environment and
Development, p. 43.
10 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office
of Policy, Planning, and Evaluation.
Environmental Investments: The Cost of a
Clean Environment. Report to Congress.
EPA-230-11-90-083. (Washington, D.C.:
1990).
11 International Bank for Reconstruction and
Development, World Development Report 1992
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1992),
pp. 222-23.
12 F. Henry Habicht II. "U.S. Environmental
Policy and Economic Growth: How Do We
Fare?" Address to the Center for Policy
Research, American Council for Capital
Formation, 12 September 1991. 175-K-92-003.
(Washington, D.C.: U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency, Office of Communications
and Public Affairs).
13 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office
of Policy, Planning and Evaluation.
Sustainable Development: Concepts,
Implications, and Recommended Actions.
(Unpublished report). (Washington, D.C.:
July 1990).
14 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency,
Science Advisory Board. Reducing Risk:
Setting Priorities and Strategies For
Environmental Protection. EPA/SAB-EC-90-
021. (Washington, D.C.: September 1990).
15 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Strategies and Framework for the Future.
(Washington, D.C.: 16 July 1992).
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