|
The facility planning requirements under Executive Order 12856 were established to encourage Federal facilities to develop pollution prevention programs. As such, developing a facility-wide pollution prevention program plan is only a beginning. The facility pollution prevention plan only identifies activities that should help to integrate pollution prevention into your facility's mission. The real effort begins once the plan has been finalized. At that point, you and your co-workers must translate the facility pollution prevention plan into activity. If not, the facility pollution prevention plan will become just another study. To get the program off to a fast start, you should select a few low-cost, high-profile pollution prevention projects for immediate action. To support you in conducting cost-benefit analyses to justify projects, EPA developed the Costing and Life Cycle Analysis for Pollution Prevention Investments manual. This manual provides guidelines for conducting financial evaluations of pollution prevention options (see Section III). The results of these initial projects can demonstrate the utility and effectiveness of pollution prevention in meeting environmental quality standards. Moreover, these initial projects can be used to build support for the pollution prevention program. Once the pollution prevention program demonstrates waste reductions and cost savings, it will gain legitimacy, support, and interest. Various organizations at your facility may want to pursue pollution prevention alternatives once your initial efforts demonstrate savings and reductions in waste and pollution. By developing a pollution prevention plan, each Federal facility will meet Executive Order 12856 planning requirements. In implementing its plan, each Federal facility will improve its environmental program and contribute to its agency-specific reduction goals, also required under Executive Order 12856. Ultimately, through its pollution prevention plan, each facility will have the opportunity and mission to demonstrate environmental stewardship that will benefit the Federal government and the nation as a whole. STARTING A POLLUTION PREVENTION PROJECT |
IMPLEMENTATION OF THE PLAN