## EPA R EGION 

## 1

-

M OVING 

## T OWARD 

## S USTAINABILITY



### NACEPT Meeting

November 2011

Ira Leighton Deputy Regional Administrator, USEPA Region 1

## M OVING 

## T OWARDS 

## S USTAINABILITY

 

### How do we meet our program needs of today without compromising the social, economic and environmental 

### needs of tomorrow?

 

### What does it take to put sustainability ideas into practice on the ground 

## ?



# For Region 1: 

# It is an Important and Incremental Process

# P UTTING SUSTAINABILITY IDEAS TO
WORK ON THE GROUND IN 

# R EGION 

# 1

 Hosted first

- ever Sustainability Day (May 18, 2011)

– RA and DRA announce the Region 1 Sustainability Initiative

 Viewed the Fairmount Corridor “One

- EPA” Video

 Held a rotation of five hands

- on workshops to highlight on

going sustainability work:

1. Climate Change

- Existing and Future Conditions

2. Stormwater Control through Rain Gardens

3. Green Remediation

4. Sustainable Facility Management

5. Kendall Station Permit

 Concluded with a brainstorming roundtable open to all R1 EPA staff, which solicited ideas on incorporating sustainability into Region 1 programs.

 Note: Sustainability Day #2

– set for February 2012!

# P UTTING SUSTAINABILITY IDEAS TO
WORK ON THE GROUND IN 

# R EGION 

# 1

Created a cross

- office Sustainability Steering Committee

- January, 2011

 Tapped management and technical staff with necessary skills, perspective, creativity, and commitment.

 Steering Committee Goals:

 Encourage a Region 1 culture change towards greater sustainability (similar to EJ process 15 years ago)

 Promote and implement: 1) education and communication 2) measurement of progress towards sustainability and 3) tool development to support regional sustainability outcomes

 Support National EPA Sustainability Initiatives

 Identify FY 12 Action Plan that includes core projects from each office that will seek to promote incremental, sustainability improvements

## A LL WORK IS SUPPORTED BY 

## S USTAINABILITY 

## W ORKGROUPS DESIGNED TO 

## :

 Support education and outreach

 Help regional employees improve their understanding and incorporation of sustainability into their work and home lives

 Connect with outside organizations and people to both learn from and distribute information.

 Identify and utilize sustainability tools

 Determine existing tools internally and externally used in the Region

 Review availability and appropriateness of existing tools

 Assess the need for additional tools

 Highlight (and possibly identify new) sustainability

measures

 Conduct a survey of systems currently being used for sustainability

related measures

 Make recommendations on ways to measure progress in Region 1

 Work on getting recognition in national reporting systems

## P ROMOTING 

## S USTAINABILITY IN 

## C ORE 

## P ROGRAM 

## W ORK FOR 

## FY 12

Characteristics of Proposed FY12 Actions:

 

### Replicable in other programs and regions, with potential as a national model

 

### Linked to existing program priorities, core environmental goals, and/or cross

- cutting initiatives

 

### Feasible in FY12 with known resources

 

### Incremental progress is demonstrated by the end of FY12

## FY12 P LAN OF 

## A CTION 

## : M OVING FROM THE 

### C URRENT TO A 

### D ESIRED 

### S TATE

Current State of Sustainability at the EPA Sustainability Promoting Actions Desired State of Sustainability at the EPA

• Supported by Pilots, Initiatives, some Existing Program Actions

• Opportunities are EPA Driven, Stakeholder Driven, or No t Planned

• Some Partnerships

• Some Benefits are Measured and Tracked, but most are Not Formally Evaluated  Supported by All Existing Program Actions

 Both EPA and Stakeholder Driven Opportunities

 Program, Office, Community, Private, Region, Agency, State and National Partners

 Outcomes and Leveraged Resources Measured and Tracked

## FY12 S USTAINABILITY 

## A CTION 

## : Z ERO



## - N ET 

## E NERGY FOR 

## WWTF

 About 3% of the nation’s electricity is consumed by drinking water (DW) and waste water treatment plants (WWTP).

 25

- 33% of DW and WWTP budgets are on energy and when operated in a municipality, they represent 30

- 40% of a municipality’s energy cost.

 Clean Water Act (CWA) nutrient requirements may require control technologies that significantly increase energy use.

 EPA New England projects to reduce energy use at DW and WWTP

 Energy efficiency (EE) first, then renewable energy sources (RE) to get to zero net energy

## FY12 S USTAINABILITY 

## A CTION 

## : N ARRAGANSETT 

## N UTRIENT 

## P ROJECT

 The project is exploring integrated strategies for nutrient mitigation.

 The objectives are to:

 assist decision makers by simulating alternative solution scenarios that link environmental, economic, and social factors

 explore how strategic options affect overall sustainability outcomes

 develop a portfolio of interventions to maximize benefits of selected actions

 The goal is to develop a prototype decision process that weighs costs and benefits s transparently and helps project how management decisions will cascade throughout the environment, economy, and quality of life of a given community.

## S ELECTED 

## , S IMPLIFIED 

## C AUSAL 

## R ELATIONSHIPS FOR 

## N ITROGEN 

## L OADING 

## I N 

## N ARRAGANSETT 

## B AY



## .

## S UCCESS 

## W

ILL 

## L OOK 

## L IKE 

## :

 

### Sustainable, incremental and measureable outcomes 

### are achieved.

 

### There has been a Culture Change : Regional workforce understands what sustainability means, knows how to consider the impacts of their actions, 

### and is motivated to strive for sustainable outcomes in their work (following EJ example).

 

### Sustainable Effort viewed not as the initiative du jour but rather the right and most effective thing to be doing.