State Innovation Grant Program: Washington State
Exploring the Use of a Holistic Facility Performance Measure as a Tool for Finding
a More Comprehensive Method to Regulate the Pulp and Paper Industry
(2005 Competition)
ine t>iaie innovation urani rrogram 10 support enons
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. Asummary of the awards by year appears in the table
below.
State Innovation Grant Program Statistics, 2002-2007
Competition Proposals Proposals Total Program
Year Submitted Selected Funding ($)
2002/2003
$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 Innovation Grants
Project Background:
The EPA Innovation Strategy states that "environmental
programs should address a broader range of issues than they
typically do today. The goal should be greater environmental
responsibility and natural resource stewardship across all of
society, along with successful integration of environmental,
economic, and social objectives." It also states that new
approaches need to "emphasize results more than the means to
achieve them, using regulatory and non-regulatory tools and
working in partnership with others. In such instances, public
accountability should be provided through use of meaningful
performance tools." Applying more holistic and innovative
approaches can help address some of the significant performance
gaps created by the current array of media-specific state and
federal laws and regulations. Media-specific approaches tend to
rely on a "one-size-fits-all" process to establish environmental
priorities and efforts to address a broader range of issues
(beyond compliance) have been limited to voluntary actions by
progressive companies. The Washington State Department of
Ecology (WA DOE), using a US EPA State Innovation Grant,
is developing a performance measurement tool for assessing
environmental, economic, and social impacts for the pulp and
paper industry in Washington State. The project will focus on
eight Washington pulp and paper mills. This sector was chosen
by DOE because:
• it has significant, multi-media experience in regulation
of this sector;
• the industry plays a major role in the State's economy;
• there is a large amount of environmental data available
for these mills; and
• each mill has a significant environmental and economic
impact on the community in which it is located.
Project Description
This project provides a mechanism for industry in collaboration
with WA DOE to test the use of a holistic facility performance
measure as a tool to find a better, more comprehensive method
to reduce the impacts of multi-media facilities. The WA DOE
is implementing this project to test the use of an "Industrial
Footprint" approach.The results of this project may help the
WA DOE design and implement specific regulatory approaches
or other strategic tools, such as integrated permits, to facilitate
NCE
NATIONAL CENTER FOR
ENVIRONMENTAL INNOVATION
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more holistic environmental management.
The sector footprint will consist of a series of measures common
to all the pulp mills, including energy measures, greenhouse gas
production, water use, effluent toxicity, and others. Economic
and social indicators for the sector will be included if agreement
can be reached among the participants. The individual footprint
assessments will include all the sector indicators plus those specific
to the facility and the local community. The project will generally
follow these steps:
1. Selection of indicators for the sector and for each facility;
this will be done in partnership with the facilities and
with input from community members and requires the
development of a stakeholder involvement plan.
2. Measurement of the baseline footprint for the sector
and the facilities using the selected indicators; this step
will require evaluation and analysis of a significant
amount of data.
3. Issuance of an energy challenge to the sector facilities,
using the footprint indicators to measure progress
against the established baseline.
4. Development of a set of environmental priorities for
the sector and each facility, working in partnership with
the stakeholders.
5. Initiation of priority actions for improvement and
measurement of results as appropriate.
6. Assessment of the utility of this approach for
improving environmental results, including identifying
barriers to implementation, recommended
improvements, and follow-up actions; this assessment
will include a comparison of mills within the sector and
a comparison of the holistic performance of those mills
with an EMS in place to those without one.
This Grant Funded Project will last three years until April 2009.
Connection to EPA's Goals
This program directly supports EPAs Strategic Goals as well as
several Cross-Goal Strategies. Exploring the use of a holistic facility
performance measure tool (for Pulp and Paper sector) to improve
environmental performance is consistent with EPAs Strategic Goal
(Goal 5) to "improve environmental performance through
preventing pollution and promoting environmental stewardship."
Project Contacts:
For more specific information on this Washington State
Innovation Grant, please visit:
(http://www.ecy.wa.gov/programs/swfa/industrial/
IndFootprint.html)
Or contact:
Carol Kraege
Manager, Industrial Section
Washington State Department of Ecology
PO Box 47600
Olympia,WA 98504
(360) 407-6906; FAX (360) 407-6102
ckra461 (Stecy. wa.gov
Carolyn Gangmark
US Environmental Protection Agency — Region 10
1200 Sixth Avenue
Seattle, WA 98101 (MC OEA-095)
(206) 553-4072; FAX (206) 553-0119
gangmark.carolyn(g).epa.gov
Kristina Heinemann
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Washington, DC 20460; MC (1807T)
(202) 566-2183; FAX (202) 566-2211
heinemann.kristina(g).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-07-041
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