JvEPA State Innovation Grant Program: Massachusetts
Implementing a States Common Measures Project for Improving ERP
Compliance Strategies (2005 Competition)
In 2002 EPA introduced the State Innovation Grant Program to support
efforts led by state environmental agencies to test innovative approaches for
achieving better environmental results and improved efficiency in permitting
programs. Between 2002 and 2007, the State Innovation Grant program
competition awarded over six million dollars to support 35 state projects that
test permitting innovation for a variety of regulated entities including several
small business sectors. A summary of the awards by year appears in the
table below.
State Innovation Grant Program Statistics, 2002-2007
I Competition Proposals Proposals
Year Submitted Selected
2002/2003 I 9Q i fi
Total Program
Funding ($)
$618,000
$1.425 Million
$1.479 Million
Cumulative
$1.243 Million
$1.611 Million
$6.376 Million
"Innovation in Permitting" has been the theme of the State Innovation Grant
competition since its inception. In the last three competition cycles states
received awards for projects in the following three categories:
• The Environmental Results Program (ERP) is an innovative
approach to improving environmental performance based on a system
of the interlocking tools of compliance assistance, self-certification
(sometimes, where permissible, in lieu of permitting), and
statistically-based measurement to gauge the performance of an entire
business sector. The program utilizes a multimedia approach to
encourage small sources to achieve environmental compliance and
pollution prevention. (See: http://www.epa.gov/permits/erp/)
• Environmental Management System (EMS) is a system involving a
continual cycle of planning, implementing, reviewing and improving the
processes and actions that an organization undertakes to meet its
business and environmental goals. EMSs provide organizations of all
types with a structured system and approach for managing environmental
and regulatory responsibilities to improve overall environmental
performance and stewardship. (See: www.epa.gov/ems/info/index.htm)
• Performance Track is a partnership that recognizes top
environmental performance among participating US facilities of all types,
sizes, and complexity, both public and private.
(See: http://www.epa.gov/performancetrack/)
NCEI has provided awards also for projects testing watershed-based
permitting, and for permit process streamlining in past competitions. For
more information on the history of the programs, including information on
solicitations, state proposals, and project awards, please see the EPA State
tion Grants website at httD://www.eDa.aov/innovation/state
Project Background:
A number of states are testing a variety of innovative
approaches to ensure environmental compliance, including
various adaptations of the Environmental Results Program
(ERP) initially implemented by Massachusetts for the dry
cleaning and printing sectors. These initiatives involve
experimenting with combinations of regulatory and non-
regulatory tools to improve compliance and environmental
performance within specific business sectors. Although
state agencies currently collect information about business
sector activities and their general performance, complete
information is rarely available to assess group performance.
Adopting a common approach to measuring the
environmental performance of specific business sectors
can enable states to compare the effectiveness and
efficiency of differing state strategies for improving
compliance and environmental performance for a given
sector or group of facilities.
Project Description
The Massachusetts Department of Environmental
Protection (MA-DEP), along with its partners, the
Northeast Waste Management Officials Association
(NEWMOA) and State environmental agencies from
California, Colorado, Connecticut, Maine, New Hampshire,
New York, New jersey, Rhode Island, and Vermont, is
working to identify reliable, accurate, and common
environmental performance measures. The project is
intended to promote:
• the broad use of ERP-type indicator performance
measurement to inform decisions about
environmental program priorities and resource
allocation;
• the use of ERP-type measurement within and across
state programs to help inform the most effective and
efficient environmental performance improvement
strategies for the regulated community.
This project, funded by a US EPA State Innovation Grant,
will provide guidance for all states in the application of
performance measures for existing and new environmental
programs. The goals of the project are to develop a
common set of ERP-hke performance metrics that
NCEI
NATIONAL CENTER FOR
ENVIRONMENTAL INNOVATION
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participating states can use to evaluate the compliance/
performance of regulated facilities, and then to use those
metrics to compare the effectiveness of different
approaches that states are using to improve the compliance
of those facilities. For each sector selected, the states will
quantify environmental performance based on the
indicators selected. An environmental performance index
score will be established and states will measure sector
environmental performance and, potentially, changes within
the sector over time. The compliance assurance and
performance enhancement strategies employed in the
project states will be reported and compared to the index
scores. The project will assess the effectiveness and
efficiency of different state compliance assurance strategies
within the same sector.
Project goals:
• Improve the ability of state environmental agencies to
develop, implement, and analyzeinnovative
environmental performance measures forvanous
business sectors.
• Improve the ability of state environmental agencies to
develop and implement innovative compliance strategies,
including ERR
• Develop and test a common core set of
performance measures for business sectors on a
multi-state basis.
• Promote the implementation of innovative compliance
strategies, including ERP, in the states in the Northeast
that have not yet begun these initiatives.
• Develop a comparative assessment of the
environmental outcome data that is collected from the
states using the core performance measures for at least
one business sector and analyze and present the results.
The project will also enable participating states to better
focus their limited resources on specific problem areas
and to use those strategies that achieve the greatest
demonstrated environmental results improvements for the
future.
Project start date is May 22, 2006, and is planned for
completion in May, 2009.
For more information on the Massachusetts State
Innovation Grant, please visit the Northeast Waste
Management Officials' Association at: http://
wwwnewmoa.org/hazardouswaste/measures
Connection to EPA's Goals
This States Common Measure Project meets EPA's Strategic
Goal (Goal 5) by supporting the development of a multi-
state approach to implementing and analyzing strategies
that effectively combine multi-media compliance
improvement and pollution prevention on a sector basis.
Project Contacts:
Steven A. DeGabriele
Director, Business Compliance Division,
Bureau of Waste Prevention,
8th Floor, One Winter St.
Boston, MA 02108
(617) 556-1120, FAX (617) 556-1063
steveii.degabriele@state.ma.us
Marge Miranda
US Environmental Protection Agency — Region 1
1 Congress Street, Suite 1100
Boston, MA 02114
(617)918-1825
miranda.marge@epa.gov
Scott Bowles
US Environmental Protection Agency
Washington, DC 20460; MC (1807T)
(202) 566-2208; FAX (202) 566-2220
bowles.scott@epa.gov
Program Contact:
Sherri Walker
State Innovation Grant Program
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Washington, DC 20460 (MC1807T)
(202)-566-2186; FAX (202) 566-2220
walker.sherri@epa.gov
United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
Office of Policy,
Economics and Innovation
(1807T)
October 2007
EPA-100-F-07-037
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