Sustainability and the U.S. EPA (2011) / Chapter Skim
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Pages 1-6
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has been working to cre ate programs and examining applications in a variety of areas to better incorpo rate sustainability into decision making at the agency. To further strengthen the analytic and scientific basis for sustainability as it applies to human health and environmental protection, EPA asked the National Research Council (NRC)
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The first is the recognition that current approaches aimed at decreasing existing risks, however successful, are not capable of avoiding the complex problems in the United States and globally that threaten the planet's critical natural resources and put current and future human generations at risk, including population growth, the widening gaps between the rich and the poor, depletion of finite natural resources, biodiversity loss, climate change, and disruption of nutrient cycles. Second, sophisticated tools are increasingly available to address cross-cutting, complex, and challenging issues that go beyond the current approach, which is, risk man agement of major threats.
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The Sustainability Assess ment and Management process is intended to be equally applicable to all types of issues, including human health and ecological risks. The committee emphasizes in the report that the adoption of the Sustainability Framework and the application of the Sustainability Assessment and Management approach to particular EPA programs, activities, and decisions are discretionary.
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4 FIGURE S-1 A framework for EPA sustainability decisions. S-1 and 3-1 revised le 7/26/11
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The committee limited its recommendations to EPA, but these recommendations are pertinent to the concerted effort by all federal agencies and sectors of society needed to meet the challenges of achieving a sustainable future. The following recommendations were identified by the committee as key recommen dations because of their importance in directly addressing the four key questions of the statement of task: • The committee recommends that EPA adopt or adapt the comprehen sive Sustainability Framework proposed in Figure S-1.
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• The committee recommends expressly including the term "health" in the social pillar to help ensure that EPA regulatory and scientific staff primarily concerned with human-health issues recognize their existing role in sustainability and recommends that EPA pay particular attention to explaining the role of human health in the social pillar, thereby en suring that staff and stakeholders involved in the area of human health recognize that their activities are an integral part of EPA's sustainability work. Further, expressly including health in the social pillar will more clearly communicate outside of EPA the agency's role in that pillar of sustainability.
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