Sustainability And The U S Epa

Author : National Research Council,Policy and Global Affairs,Science and Technology for Sustainability Program,Committee on Incorporating Sustainability in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Publisher : National Academies Press
Page : 162 pages
File Size : 50,5 Mb
Release : 2011-09-08
Category : Technology & Engineering
ISBN : 9780309212557

Get Book

Sustainability and the U.S. EPA by National Research Council,Policy and Global Affairs,Science and Technology for Sustainability Program,Committee on Incorporating Sustainability in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Pdf

Sustainability is based on a simple and long-recognized factual premise: Everything that humans require for their survival and well-being depends, directly or indirectly, on the natural environment. The environment provides the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the food we eat. Recognizing the importance of sustainability to its work, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has been working to create programs and applications in a variety of areas to better incorporate sustainability into decision-making at the agency. To further strengthen the scientific basis for sustainability as it applies to human health and environmental protection, the EPA asked the National Research Council (NRC) to provide a framework for incorporating sustainability into the EPA's principles and decision-making. This framework, Sustainability and the U.S. EPA, provides recommendations for a sustainability approach that both incorporates and goes beyond an approach based on assessing and managing the risks posed by pollutants that has largely shaped environmental policy since the 1980s. Although risk-based methods have led to many successes and remain important tools, the report concludes that they are not adequate to address many of the complex problems that put current and future generations at risk, such as depletion of natural resources, climate change, and loss of biodiversity. Moreover, sophisticated tools are increasingly available to address cross-cutting, complex, and challenging issues that go beyond risk management. The report recommends that EPA formally adopt as its sustainability paradigm the widely used "three pillars" approach, which means considering the environmental, social, and economic impacts of an action or decision. Health should be expressly included in the "social" pillar. EPA should also articulate its vision for sustainability and develop a set of sustainability principles that would underlie all agency policies and programs.

Author : National Research Council,Policy and Global Affairs,Science and Technology for Sustainability Program,Committee on Incorporating Sustainability in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Publisher : National Academies Press
Page : 162 pages
File Size : 49,7 Mb
Release : 2011-10-08
Category : Technology & Engineering
ISBN : 9780309212526

Get Book

Sustainability and the U.S. EPA by National Research Council,Policy and Global Affairs,Science and Technology for Sustainability Program,Committee on Incorporating Sustainability in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Pdf

Sustainability is based on a simple and long-recognized factual premise: Everything that humans require for their survival and well-being depends, directly or indirectly, on the natural environment. The environment provides the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the food we eat. Recognizing the importance of sustainability to its work, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has been working to create programs and applications in a variety of areas to better incorporate sustainability into decision-making at the agency. To further strengthen the scientific basis for sustainability as it applies to human health and environmental protection, the EPA asked the National Research Council (NRC) to provide a framework for incorporating sustainability into the EPA's principles and decision-making. This framework, Sustainability and the U.S. EPA, provides recommendations for a sustainability approach that both incorporates and goes beyond an approach based on assessing and managing the risks posed by pollutants that has largely shaped environmental policy since the 1980s. Although risk-based methods have led to many successes and remain important tools, the report concludes that they are not adequate to address many of the complex problems that put current and future generations at risk, such as depletion of natural resources, climate change, and loss of biodiversity. Moreover, sophisticated tools are increasingly available to address cross-cutting, complex, and challenging issues that go beyond risk management. The report recommends that EPA formally adopt as its sustainability paradigm the widely used "three pillars" approach, which means considering the environmental, social, and economic impacts of an action or decision. Health should be expressly included in the "social" pillar. EPA should also articulate its vision for sustainability and develop a set of sustainability principles that would underlie all agency policies and programs.

Author : Tomás Hák,Bedrich Moldan,Arthur Lyon Dahl
Publisher : Island Press
Page : 448 pages
File Size : 53,8 Mb
Release : 2012-09-26
Category : Science
ISBN : 9781597266284

Get Book

Sustainability Indicators by Tomás Hák,Bedrich Moldan,Arthur Lyon Dahl Pdf

While the concept of sustainability has been widely embraced, it has been only vaguely defined and is exceedingly difficult to measure. Sustainability indicators are critical to making the broad concept of sustainability operational by providing specific measures by which decision makers and the public can judge progress. Sustainability Indicators defines the present state of the art in indicator development. It presents a comprehensive assessment of the science behind various indicators, while placing special emphasis on their use as communications tools. The contributors draw on their experience as academics and practitioners to describe the conceptual challenges to measuring something as complex as sustainability at local, regional, national, and global scales. The book also reviews existing indicators to assess how they could be better employed, considering which indicators are overused and which have been underutilized. Sustainability Indicators will help planners and policy makers find indicators that are ready for application and relevant to their needs, and will help researchers identify the unresolved issues where progress is most urgently needed. All readers will find advice as to the most effective ways to use indicators to support decision making.

Author : National Research Council (U.S.). Committee on Scientific Tools and Approaches for Sustainability,National Research Council (U.S.). Board on Environmental Studies and Toxicology
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 44,8 Mb
Release : 2014
Category : Science
ISBN : 0309312329

Get Book

Sustainability Concepts in Decision-making by National Research Council (U.S.). Committee on Scientific Tools and Approaches for Sustainability,National Research Council (U.S.). Board on Environmental Studies and Toxicology Pdf

"Sustainability Concepts in Decision-Making: Tools and Approaches for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency examines scientific tools and approaches for incorporating sustainability concepts into assessments used to support EPA decision making. Using specific case studies, this report considers the application of analytic and scientific tools, methods, and approaches presented in the 2011 NRC report Sustainability and the U.S. EPA. This report examines both currently available and emerging tools, methods, and approaches to find those most appropriate for assessing and/or evaluating potential economic, social and environmental outcomes within an EPA decision context. Sustainability Concepts in Decision Making also discusses data needs and post-decision evaluation of outcomes on dimensions of sustainability. A broad array of sustainability tools and approaches are suitable for assessing potential environmental, social, and economic outcomes in EPA's decision-making context."--Publisher's description.

Author : National Advisory Council for Environmental Policy and Technology (U.S.)
Publisher : DIANE Publishing
Page : 86 pages
File Size : 49,6 Mb
Release : 2002
Category : Environmental policy
ISBN : 9781428900349

Get Book

The environmental future emerging challenges and opportunities for EPA : a report from the National Advisory Council for Environmental Policy and Technology (NACEPT). by National Advisory Council for Environmental Policy and Technology (U.S.) Pdf

NACEPT reviews and recommends environmental foresight methods, and identifies emerging trends and issues relevant to EPA in the next five to ten years.

Author : National Research Council,Division on Earth and Life Studies,Board on Environmental Studies and Toxicology,Committee on Science for EPA's Future
Publisher : National Academies Press
Page : 188 pages
File Size : 45,7 Mb
Release : 2012-12-21
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9780309264891

Get Book

Science for Environmental Protection by National Research Council,Division on Earth and Life Studies,Board on Environmental Studies and Toxicology,Committee on Science for EPA's Future Pdf

In anticipation of future environmental science and engineering challenges and technologic advances, EPA asked the National Research Council (NRC) to assess the overall capabilities of the agency to develop, obtain, and use the best available scientific and technologic information and tools to meet persistent, emerging, and future mission challenges and opportunities. Although the committee cannot predict with certainty what new environmental problems EPA will face in the next 10 years or more, it worked to identify some of the common drivers and common characteristics of problems that are likely to occur. Tensions inherent to the structure of EPA's work contribute to the current and persistent challenges faced by the agency, and meeting those challenges will require development of leading-edge scientific methods, tools, and technologies, and a more deliberate approach to systems thinking and interdisciplinary science. Science for Environmental Protection: The Road Ahead outlines a framework for building science for environmental protection in the 21st century and identified key areas where enhanced leadership and capacity can strengthen the agency's abilities to address current and emerging environmental challenges as well as take advantage of new tools and technologies to address them. The foundation of EPA science is strong, but the agency needs to continue to address numerous present and future challenges if it is to maintain its science leadership and meet its expanding mandates.

Author : Timothy G. Townsend,Jon Powell,Pradeep Jain,Qiyong Xu,Thabet Tolaymat,Debra Reinhart
Publisher : Springer
Page : 472 pages
File Size : 46,5 Mb
Release : 2015-07-16
Category : Science
ISBN : 9781493926626

Get Book

Sustainable Practices for Landfill Design and Operation by Timothy G. Townsend,Jon Powell,Pradeep Jain,Qiyong Xu,Thabet Tolaymat,Debra Reinhart Pdf

Solid waste management is a global concern, and landfilling remains the predominant management method in most areas of the world. This book provides a comprehensive view of state-of-the-art methods to manage landfills more sustainably, drawing upon more than two decades of research, design, and operational experiences at operating sites across the world. Sustainable landfills implement one or multiple technologies to control and enhance the degradation of waste materials to realize a multitude of potential benefits during or shortly after the landfill’s operating phase. This book presents detailed approaches in the development, design, operation, and monitoring of sustainable landfills. Case studies showcasing the benefits and challenges of sustainable landfill technologies are also provided to give the reader additional context. The intent of the book is to serve as a reference guide for regulatory personnel, a practical tool for designers and engineers to build on for site-specific applications of sustainable landfill technologies, and a comprehensive resource for researchers who are continuing to explore new and better ways to more sustainably manage waste materials.

Author : David Demortain
Publisher : MIT Press
Page : 453 pages
File Size : 52,8 Mb
Release : 2020-01-21
Category : Science
ISBN : 9780262537940

Get Book

The Science of Bureaucracy by David Demortain Pdf

How the US Environmental Protection Agency designed the governance of risk and forged its legitimacy over the course of four decades. The US Environmental Protection Agency was established in 1970 to protect the public health and environment, administering and enforcing a range of statutes and programs. Over four decades, the EPA has been a risk bureaucracy, formalizing many of the methods of the scientific governance of risk, from quantitative risk assessment to risk ranking. Demortain traces the creation of these methods for the governance of risk, the controversies to which they responded, and the controversies that they aroused in turn. He discusses the professional networks in which they were conceived; how they were used; and how they served to legitimize the EPA. Demortain argues that the EPA is structurally embedded in controversy, resulting in constant reevaluation of its credibility and fueling the evolution of the knowledge and technologies it uses to produce decisions and to create a legitimate image of how and why it acts on the environment. He describes the emergence and institutionalization of the risk assessment–risk management framework codified in the National Research Council's Red Book, and its subsequent unraveling as the agency's mission evolved toward environmental justice, ecological restoration, and sustainability, and as controversies over determining risk gained vigor in the 1990s. Through its rise and fall at the EPA, risk decision-making enshrines the science of a bureaucracy that learns how to make credible decisions and to reform itself, amid constant conflicts about the environment, risk, and its own legitimacy.

Author : Ronald Brand,Thomas Kelly,A. Stanley Meiburg,Robert Wayland,Susan Wayland,David Ziegele
Publisher : Lexington Books
Page : 220 pages
File Size : 43,7 Mb
Release : 2012-06-21
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9780739171318

Get Book

True Green by Ronald Brand,Thomas Kelly,A. Stanley Meiburg,Robert Wayland,Susan Wayland,David Ziegele Pdf

This book captures the experiences of effective federal environmental executives in order to learn the environmental as well as the management practices upon which actual public service improvement is based. It provides, in their own voices, executives’ insights of over two hundred years of management experience protecting national environmental quality.

Author : Anonim
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 84 pages
File Size : 53,7 Mb
Release : 1995
Category : Electronic
ISBN : CORNELL:31924077826505

Get Book

EPA-SAB-EEC. by Anonim Pdf

Author : Anonim
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 372 pages
File Size : 50,9 Mb
Release : 2008
Category : Environmental management
ISBN : UCR:31210024788141

Get Book

EPA's 2008 Report on the Environment by Anonim Pdf

[The report]... provides the American people with an important resource from which they can better understand trends in the condition of the air, water, land, and human health of the United States. This report uses scientifically sound measures, called indicators, to address fundamental questions relevant to the EPA's mission to protect the environment and human health. To accomplish its mission to protect human health and the environment, EPA must pay close attention to trends in the condition of the Nation's environment. This kind of information, which is captured in EPA's 2008 ROE, can help EPA to prioritize its work and to focus on human health and ecological activities that can lead to improvements in the conditions of the Nation's environment.

Author : Anonim
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 16 pages
File Size : 47,5 Mb
Release : 1976-10
Category : Electronic
ISBN : CORNELL:31924056857851

Get Book

EPA-600/4 by Anonim Pdf

Author : John C. Dernbach
Publisher : Environmental Law Institute
Page : 549 pages
File Size : 52,5 Mb
Release : 2009
Category : Environmental law
ISBN : 9781585761333

Get Book

Agenda for a Sustainable America by John C. Dernbach Pdf

Agenda for a Sustainable America is a comprehensive assessment of U.S. progress toward sustainable development and a roadmap of necessary next steps toward achieving a sustainable America. Packed with facts, figures, and the well-informed opinions of forty-one experts, it provides an illuminating "snapshot" of sustainability in the United States today. And each of the contributors suggests where we need to go next, recommending three to five specific actions that we should take during the next five to ten years. It thus offers a comprehensive agenda that citizens, corporations, nongovernmental organizations, and government leaders and policymakers can use to make decisions today and to plan for the future.

Author : Steven Cohen
Publisher : Columbia University Press
Page : 202 pages
File Size : 44,6 Mb
Release : 2014-12-01
Category : Science
ISBN : 9780231152594

Get Book

Sustainability Management by Steven Cohen Pdf

Written by a former analyst and consultant for the EPA, this book sketches out a unique plan to combine sustainable efforts in water, agriculture, urban, and power management to achieve -- in practice, not just in theory -- a sustainable planet and economy. Steven Cohen begins with the technical, financial, managerial, and political challenges of such a project, and then assesses possible sustainable practices in the manufacturing and service industries. He also addresses renewable and carbon-free energy production; water sustainability, especially with regard to energy issues involving filtration, distribution, and changing rainfall patterns; food cultivation and distribution; and ways to maintain the interdependent systems on which we rely on to live. Taking examples from New York City, one of the most sustainable and sustainability-minded metropolises in the world, Cohen explains how everything from construction to waste management can be designed to facilitate a sustainable environment. He concludes with the global efforts necessary to preserve biodiversity and ecosystems, and the impact of war, terrorism, and human conflict on sustainability.

Author : National Research Council,Division on Earth and Life Studies,Board on Environmental Studies and Toxicology,Committee on Strengthening the US Environmental Protection Agency Laboratory Enterprise: Phase 1 Priority Needs, Guiding Principles, and Overall Goals
Publisher : National Academies Press
Page : 118 pages
File Size : 53,6 Mb
Release : 2014-09-03
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9780309312400

Get Book

Rethinking the Components, Coordination, and Management of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Laboratories by National Research Council,Division on Earth and Life Studies,Board on Environmental Studies and Toxicology,Committee on Strengthening the US Environmental Protection Agency Laboratory Enterprise: Phase 1 Priority Needs, Guiding Principles, and Overall Goals Pdf

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) applies scientific results that have been provided by various parts of its own organization and by external organizations. The agency requires substantial high-quality inhouse scientific expertise and laboratory capabilities so that it can answer questions related to regulation, enforcement, and environmental effects of specific chemicals, activities, and processes. It is also usually faced with situations in which research or analytic work is time-critical, so it maintains dedicated laboratory staff and facilities that can respond quickly to such needs. In recent years, EPA has made several changes to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of its laboratories, such as the designation of national program directors to align the work of research laboratories with the needs of the agency's regulatory program offices. The agency is currently undertaking an integrated evaluation of it laboratories to enhance the management effectiveness and efficiency of its laboratory enterprise and to enhance its capabilities for research and other laboratory-based scientific and technical activities. The results of EPA's evaluation are expected to include options for colocation and consolidation of laboratory facilities. Rethinking the Components, Coordination, and Management of U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Laboratories assesses EPA's highest-priority needs for mission-relevant laboratory science and technical support, develops principles for the efficient and effective management of EPA's laboratory enterprise to meet the agency's mission needs and strategic goals, and develops guidance for enhancing efficiency and effectiveness now and during the next 10 years. EPA's laboratories play a vital role in the agency's work. The findings and recommendations of this report will help EPA to develop an implementation plan for the laboratory enterprise.