For printed copies of this or other pollution prevention publications distributed by the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Pollution Prevention, please call the Office of Pollution Prevention at 614/644-3469. A printed copy of the Office of Pollution Prevention publications distribution list, "Pollution Prevention Information Available from Ohio EPA," may also be ordered by calling 614/644-3469. Pollution Prevention Division Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics (7409) US EPA 401 M Street, SW Washington, DC 20460 202/260-3557 October 17, 1995 EPA's Pollution Prevention Program  The Agency's pollution prevention (P2) program began in the late 1980s to promote prevention over EPA's traditional pollution control and cleanup actions, essentially to eliminate or reduce the creation of pollution in the first place.  The Pollution Prevention Act of 1990 established P2 (source reduction) as the preferred approach over recycling, treatment and disposal.  EPA Administrator Carol Browner, on Earth Day 1993 and in a subsequent policy statement to all Agency personnel, identified prevention as the "principle of first choice" and the new "central (environmental) ethic" for all EPA's programs, and has launched a variety of new activities to that effect.  The President, in June 1993, convened the Council on Sustainable Development, a blue-ribbon panel of industry, government and environmental leaders to develop a national strategy on prevention-oriented issues such as sustainable agriculture and land use, and "green" manufacturing.  The Agency, in response to Vice President Al Gore's 1993 National Performance Review and through its various EPA reinvention activities now underway to create an Agency that works better and costs less, has accelerated its efforts to integrate P2 into all regulations, policy and guidance.  The President's Reinventing Environmental Regulation initiative, announced March 16, 1995, identifies actions which will improve the existing regulatory system and provide building blocks for better, preventive environmental management in the 21st century. SEVEN THEMES which characterize EPA's P2 ACTIVITIES 1. Incorporate prevention as the principle of first choice into the mainstream work of the Agency.  Reinventing Environmental Regulation - The President's 25 high priority actions align environmental with economic and technological goals and incentives which emphasize flexibility and partnership. - These actions include open-market air emissions trading and effluent trading in watersheds, one-stop emission reports and public electronic access, small business compliance assistance centers, new incentives for auditing, disclosure and correction, as well as self-certification and multimedia permitting. - The program also accommodates alternative performance-based strategies to current regulation, which allow individual companies (under new Project XL), industry sectors, communities and other federal agencies to identify and demonstrate better ways to protect the environment.  The Common Sense Initiative - EPA-created cross- Agency teams are working with industry, states, the environmental community and others in six pilot sectors -- printing, electronics, auto assembly, metal finishing, iron and steel, and petroleum refining -- to identify and implement "cleaner, cheaper, smarter" preventive environmental management solutions through -- - retrospective review of existing and better coordination of future regulations. - streamlined permitting. - simplified record-keeping and reporting. - innovative approaches to improve compliance. - enhanced environmental technology. Recommendations for EPA program improvements will be made on a recurring basis, although some, like improved public communication of EPA policies, are already being considered by the Agency.  Traditional regulation - EPA's new regulatory Action Development Process and its Source Reduction Review Project (SRRP) target key air, water and solid waste rulemaking for multimedia P2 action, like the Agency's 1993 proposed integrated air/water rule on dioxin in the pulp and paper industry. - A forthcoming SRRP White Paper will identify barriers and opportunities for prevention in regulation. - The President's Regulatory Reinvention Initiative - EPA, working with the regulated community and others, completed a page-by-page review of existing regulations on June 1, 1995, to advise the President of which rules are obsolete or in need of reform.  Permits Improvement Team - The Administrator has commissioned a team of Agency and state officials to identify, review and implement reforms, including P2 preferences, in EPA's environmental permitting systems.  Enforcement - EPA's Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance (OECA) promotes P2 through new innovative compliance projects, such as its Environmental Leadership initiative and new self-auditing policy, and supplemental environmental projects (SEPs) in combination with traditional fines and penalties.  State grants - EPA's media program guidance now encourages P2 solutions through the $650 million in various program support and operating grants its provides to states each year. - Performance partnerships - This new Agency initiative, set for 1996, will allow states flexibility to combine funds from EPA's traditional grant programs to better address their most significant problems, especially through P2.  Research - Tools, such as facility opportunity and life cycle assessment guides, chemical use cluster scoring methods and cleaner technology substitute assessments, advance preventive approaches. 2. Help build and facilitate a national network of prevention programs, particularly among states and local governments.  Pollution Prevention Incentives for States (PPIS) - EPA Regions provide about $6-8 million annually through PPIS to help develop and sustain state P2 program activities and to pioneer new P2 approaches in the states.  P2 technical assistance and information - EPA directs the Pollution Prevention Information Clearinghouse (PPIC, 202/260-1023) to share P2 information, case studies and technologies and is working with states and others to establish a national network to support technical assistance providers.  State association support - The Agency assists the National Pollution Prevention Roundtable, an association comprised primarily of state P2 programs, and has begun working with state media program associations to promote prevention.  Environmental Justice through Pollution Prevention - EPA has begun a new $4.6 million award program to help community-based groups develop collaborative approaches to achieve environmental justice through pollution prevention.  Prevention and public health - The Agency has established new agreements and projects with county public health officials, physicians and others who believe pollution prevention is disease prevention. 3. Identify and pioneer new environmental programs which emphasize cross-media prevention, reinforce the mutual goals of economic and environmental well-being, and represent new models for government/industry interaction.  Climate Change Action Plan - This $60 million effort, joint with the Department of Energy (DOE), private industry and others, reduces the nation's emissions of greenhouse gases through more than 40 related programs. One, Climate Wise, enlists a pledge program and other means to help organizations cut releases. [202/260-4407] - Climate Wise participants expect to save more than $80 million annually by the year 2000.  EPA's "Green programs" - Green Lights, Energy Star Buildings and Computers, and Golden Carrot are among EPA's several voluntary efforts with thousands of private groups to improve energy efficiency and reduce environmental impacts. [202/775-6650] - More than 1,600 organizations in Green Lights are upgrading 4.3 billion square feet of facility space and saving an average of more than 25% in utility bills.  33/50 Program - This voluntary effort highlights 17 toxic substances for industry emission reduction of 33% in 1992 -- a target which many participating firms met or exceeded -- and 50% reduction by the end of 1995. EPA is now considering options for the next generation of this initiative. [202/554-1404]  WasteWi$e - Firms, through this voluntary program, set commitments with EPA to reduce their municipal solid waste through prevention, recycling and by buying or manufacturing recycled products. [800/EPA-WISE] - One participating firm, among the 370 companies now in the program, eliminated 1.5 million pounds of packaging waste at $4.5 million savings.  Design for the Environment - DfE, through collaborative ventures, promotes the design of safer products and processes in areas such as dry cleaning, screen printing and electronics, and harnesses environmental information, especially by accountants, bankers and insurers, to advance new prevention approaches and technologies among business and industry. [202/260-1023] - The Agency's environmental accounting project, a collaborative effort with business, trade associations and academia, promotes environmentally sound management accounting and capital budgeting practices and helps develop new tools, like "P2/FINANCE" software.  Water Alliances for Voluntary Efficiency (WAVE) - WAVE, a water efficiency partnership with the lodging industry, encourages water conservation while increasing efficiency, profitability and competitiveness. - WAVE's five charter members are expecting to save over 2.25 billion gallons of water annually for a yearly savings of $8.5 million in water, sewer and energy costs.  Other new EPA programs promote national waste minimization, environmentally conscious building design, alliances to improve indoor air, use of more desirable pesticides and improve water quality management by major municipal suppliers. 4. Establish new federal partnerships to promote prevention within the national government.  Executive orders, signed by the President, require federal facilities to report emissions, to take leadership in recycling and, with new guidance from EPA, to identify and procure "environmentally preferable products." - EPA's new guidance on environmentally preferable products (EPP), published September 29, 1995, launches a national debate on general principles and parallels several new EPP pilot projects. - Federal agencies and completed and published comprehensive P2 plans for their various facilities.  The Agency has cooperative ventures and /or joint grant programs to -- - integrate waste reduction and energy efficiency with DOE, - promote pesticides use reduction and sustainable agriculture with the Department of Agriculture, - foster "green" procurement with the General Services Administration, and other similar prevention efforts with federal agencies. 5. Generate and share environmental information to promote prevention, track progress through measurement systems, and better empower consumer decisions.  Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) - TRI, expanding to include more chemicals and additional types of facilities, collects emission and source reduction information from industry for Agency assessment and public review. - The 1993 TRI data, announced on March 27, 1995, showed that reported industrial releases declined by almost 13% -- 406 million pounds -- from 1992. - TRI emissions have dropped nearly 43% since 1988, despite steady waste generation increases up to 33.5 billion pounds in 1993. - The President, in August 1995, issued an executive order requiring companies doing business with the federal government to comply with TRI and directing EPA to consider right-to-know program facility and chemical use expansion. - EPA's Report to the President on October 2, 1995, demonstrates that chemical use reporting is essential to achieving the full benefits of community right-to-know laws, and begins an open process to determine how this can best be accomplished.  Environmental marketing/eco-labeling - EPA, through research, outreach and its new Consumer Labeling Initiative (CLI), is examining ways to provide better environmental information on products to consumers, including through improved product labels.  The Agency has established an internal network to provide formal input to key voluntary environmental management standard setting activities, including the new 14000 series under the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). 6. Develop partnerships in technological innovation with the private sector to increase industrial competitiveness and enhance environmental stewardship.  Environmental Technology Initiative - EPA, along with DOE, DOC and other federal agencies, is offering more than $60 million to improve environmental protection, efficiency and competitiveness.  Green Chemistry - Under EPA's DfE program, this partnership program with the chemical industry, the National Science Foundation and the academic community is designing and developing safer chemicals. - A new Green Chemistry challenge program, one of the President's 25 Reinventing Environmental Regulation initiatives, will establish financial incentives and EPA awards for companies which participate.  Advanced Technology Program - This $232 million National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) program is creating dozens of new Manufacturing Technology Centers across the nation which emphasize sound environmental practice, especially prevention.  DOE national laboratories and defense conversion - The Agency is working to advance prevention and other environmental considerations in DOE's new technology development ventures and Department of Defense's Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA), which helps manage defense conversion to domestic application. 7. Seek changes, where justified, in federal environmental law that will encourage source reduction.  An Agency senior leadership team was commissioned in July 1995 to develop comprehensive, multi-media proposals for increasing EPA's statutory flexibility.  EPA is identifying P2 opportunities in environmental statutes that are up for reauthorization, including those which address water, Superfund and toxics. ********* For more information, contact the Pollution Prevention Information Clearinghouse 202/260-1023 202/260-0178 Fax EPA's Pollution Prevention Division Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics (7409) US EPA 401 M Street, SW Washington, DC 20460 202/260-3557