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7 Applying Sustainability Tools and Methods to Strengthen Environmental Protection Agency Decision-Making
Pages 94-104

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From page 94...
... The formalization of risk assessment and risk management processes had been evolving in EPA in the 1970's, but they received more direct and official codification by a series of policy pronouncements issued by several EPA administrators in the 1980s and beyond (NRC 1983) .1 Rather than displacing earlier frameworks however, the risk-assessment–risk-management paradigm added to the scientific tools and approaches used by EPA in implementing its statutory authorities.
From page 95...
...  Providing greater clarity and understanding of EPA's mission and value to the American people at a time of public uncertainty over many public-health and environmental issues and EPA's role in resolving them. "NUDGING THE FUTURE": THE ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY'S EVOLVING ROLE IN MANAGING SUSTAINABILITY ISSUES Numerous government reports, scholarly analyses, and private-company investments attest to the growing importance of mitigation and adaptation strategies necessary to respond to problems as varied as climate change, natural-resource scarcities, public-health protection, and building of more sustainable communities.3 As the concept of adaptation advances, there are direct implications for how government 2 EPA's Common Sense Initiative and Project XL were prominent examples of these types of initiatives in the 1990s.
From page 96...
... Each is consistent with the agency's existing statutory authorities and, in fact, builds on initiatives previously implemented. Setting and Enforcing Regulatory Standards Furthering the incorporation of sustainability as a core principle of EPA's mission includes consideration of fundamental public-health and environmental protections related to a suite of air, land, and water issues that are administered at the federal, state, and local levels of government.
From page 97...
... Managing and Synthesizing Data EPA is responsible for collecting, managing, and interpreting a number of diverse databases for a variety of policy decisions. These efforts range from support of air-quality monitoring stations to evaluate compliance with National Ambient Air Quality Standards in specific air sheds, review of water-discharge data to assess compliance with National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permits, analysis of data submitted by chemical manufacturers to assess whether to allow new chemicals to enter the marketplace under the Toxic Substances Control Act, and the collection and publication of Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act Title III data.
From page 98...
... EPA's history contains many examples of its application of convening authority, including voluntary initiatives with companies to report reductions of high-priority toxic releases, acquisition of data from testing of high-production-volume chemicals, development of test methods for identifying endocrine-disruption potential, and conducting formal regulatory negotiations as a precursor to formal rulemaking on such issues as residential wood heaters, equipment leaks from chemical processes, and cleaner fuel development. Further developing EPA's role as a convener would have several advantages, including  Obtaining access to scientific and other data generated by less traditional sources that are relevant to EPA decision-making, such as information from private sector and NGO partnerships, initiatives led by NGOs to develop global standards, and newer consortia of private companies, NGOs, and universities (for example, The Sustainability Consortium)
From page 99...
... EPA was charged with the responsibility to promulgate regulations by 1995 that would result in cleaner fuels by reducing volatile organic compounds and other air toxics. EPA quickly concluded that such a mandate could not be successfully achieved by focusing on petroleum refiners alone, so it convened a process through which many of the major participants in the fuels value chain contributed scientific data, modeling scenarios, and test results of varied fuel compositions and emission performance of various families of fuels and vehicles.
From page 100...
... EPA converted the accord into a formal rulemaking proposal subject to public notice and comment before a final rule promulgation that was achieved in advance of the statutory deadline.6 There are substantial environmental sustainability challenges along a number of important value chains. Examples include reducing packaging in consumer products, such as clothing, electronics, and food; decreasing the carbon and water footprints of the manufacturing and service sectors; and reducing the carbon intensity and fine-particle emission of the nation's energy-production system.
From page 101...
... The present committee's evaluation of how best to integrate risk assessment and other sustainability tools and methods is based on a consideration of four major factors: 7 For an examination of recent coalitions between businesses and NGOs, see Grayson and Nelson 2013. 8 In some cases, such as a short timeframe for a decision, the formal four-step risk assessment will not help to discriminate among potential decision options in a sustainability framework.
From page 102...
... 102 F FIGURE 7-1 Corr respondence betwe the component of the sustainability and management approach and the risk-assessment and risk-management frame een ts i m n w works used by EPA Source: NRC 2011a.
From page 103...
...  Evaluate how EPA can apply risk–sustainability tools to specific value chains.  Conduct a selected number of postdecision evaluations to determine the efficacy and effects of integrated risk–sustainability methods, assess how and whether they would have changed the outcomes achieved, identify risk tradeoffs, and identify new opportunities for solving sustainability challenges.
From page 104...
... Such an integrated approach should include an updated set of appropriate tools and methods for specific issues and scenarios, examination of how EPA can apply risk assessment and other sustainability tools throughout specific value chains, and selected postdecision evaluations to identify lessons learned and new opportunities to inform future decisionmaking. (See Recommendation 7g)


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