AEPA
EPA-190-B-10-005
FY 2011-2015 EPA Strategic Plan
Cross-Cutting Fundamental Strategy: Expanding the Conversation on Environmentalism
Engage and empower communities and partners, including those who have been historically
under-represented, in order to support and advance environmental protection and human health
nationwide.
We have begun a new era of outreach at EPA and seek to include a broader range of people and
communities in our work and expand our engagement with communities historically under-represented
in our decision-making processes. We will build stronger working relationships throughout the country,
particularly with tribes, communities of color, economically-distressed cities and towns, young people,
and others.
To accomplish these goals, we will:
1. Call for innovation and bold thinking and ask all employees to bring their creativity and talents to
their everyday work to enhance outreach and transparency in all our programs.
2. Ensure that our science is explained clearly and accessible to all communities, communicating and
educating in plain language the complexities of environmental, health, policy, and regulatory issues.
3. Educate and empower individuals, communities, and Agency partners in decision making through
public access to environmental information and data.
4. Ensure that the Agency's regulations, policies, budget, and decision-making processes are
transparent and accessible through increased access to environmental data sources, community
right-to-know tools, and direct stakeholder engagement.
5. Address barriers to improve engagement with historically under-represented sectors of the nation.
6. Use traditional and new media to inform and educate the public about Agency activities and provide
opportunities for community feedback.
7. Encourage citizens to understand the complexities and impacts of environmental issues and
environmental stewardship, and provide avenues and tools that enhance their ability to participate
in processes that could affect them.
FY 2011 Action Plan: Expanding the Conversation on Environmentalism
This Action Plan lists the specific actions that EPA will carry out in FY 2011 to achieve the goals of the
Strategy for Expanding the Conversation on Environmentalism as described in the FY 2011-2015 EPA
Strategic Plan. Annual Action Plans will be developed for each year of the Plan.
In FY 2011 a key focus is institutionalizing broader access and outreach of information across the
Agency. The following actions are expected to result in more standardized documentation and data
availability, via new and increased traditional vehicles, to population groups that have been historically
under-represented in environmental decision-making. This will serve as a building block to expand and
support additional goals of engaging citizens, increasing transparency, and otherwise expanding the
conversation on environmentalism.
Final FY 2011 Action Plan: Expanding the Conversation on Environmentalism Page 1 of 2
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1. Increase development of and public access to multi-lingual communications and informational
materials (Supports Principles 1, 2, 5, and 6).
• Implement EPA's Translation Protocol, an Agency-wide directive by Executive Order 13166
outlining requirements, processes, and procedures for multi-lingual communications.
• Revise and launch Spanish language website. Enhance development and quality of Spanish
content in a variety of media, especially those materials focusing on environmental health
issues, health advisories, and important EPA actions.
2. Expand interactions with media outlets that reach historically under-represented groups (Supports
Principles 4, 5, 6, and 7).
• EPA will launch at least two micro-websites tailored to specific audiences to enhance
community engagement or reach historically under-represented groups.
• Develop and implement regional communications plans for all ten regions targeting new media
outlets, including newspapers, magazines and web sites, that reach historically under-
represented groups.
3. Improve communication of environmental sampling results to the public in environmental
emergency situations and at contaminated sites by using new communication methods to improve
community engagement (Supports Principles 2, 3, 4, 6, and 7).
• Conduct pilot studies at a contaminated site in each of ten EPA regions. Activities in pilot
communities include providing simplified scientific language to explain sampling results, visual
illustrations and clear explanations of contamination levels and associated risks, and
recommended actions the public should take to protect themselves during environmental
emergencies. Evaluate the effectiveness of a color-coded methodology to explain sampling
results and provide recommendations to the Agency for potential expanded use.
4. Improve access to and transparency of EPA environmental data to support community and citizen
involvement in decision-making (Supports Principles 1, 2, 3, 5, and 7).
• Publish ten environmental data sets via data.gov that can help community action groups and
citizens make informed discussions of environmental issues at local and regional levels.
Develop a process to collect public input on the types of data that are most useful.
• Expand the capability of the GeoData Gateway on data.gov to manage both mapping and other
types of data.
5. Expand public awareness and opportunities for involvement in advance of and throughout the
development of rules and regulations through social media tools including regulations.gov,
rulemaking gateway, Greenversations, webinars and other tools (Supports Principles 3, 4, 6 and 7).
• Use the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System's (NPDES) electronic reporting
website to provide background information in advance of the formal rulemaking process to
announce upcoming stakeholders meetings, host discussion forums, etc.
• Evaluate the NPDES Exchange Forum pilot and post results and "lessons learned" for EPA and
government-wide use. Develop options for expanded use of the Exchange tool as a viable
rulemaking pre-proposal dialog tool. Identify other pre-proposal activities that could use social
media tools to expand dialog with affected/impacted communities.
Final FY 2011 Action Plan: Expanding the Conversation on Environmentalism Page 2 of 2
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