EPA REGION 1 -

MOVING TOWARD SUSTAINABILITY

NACEPT Meeting

November 2011

Ira Leighton

Deputy Regional Administrator, 

USEPA Region 1 


MOVING TOWARDS SUSTAINABILITY

 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
PUTTING SUSTAINABILITY IDEAS TO

WORK ON THE GROUND IN REGION 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 ongoing 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!
PUTTING SUSTAINABILITY IDEAS TO

WORK ON THE GROUND IN REGION 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
ALL WORK IS SUPPORTED BY

SUSTAINABILITY WORKGROUPS 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 sustainabilityrelated measures

 Make recommendations on ways to measure progress in Region 1

 Work on getting recognition in national reporting systems
PROMOTING SUSTAINABILITY IN CORE

PROGRAM WORK 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 PLAN OF ACTION:

MOVING FROM THE CURRENT TO A DESIRED STATE

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 Not 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 SUSTAINABILITY ACTION:

ZERO-NET ENERGY 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 SUSTAINABILITY ACTION: 

NARRAGANSETT NUTRIENT PROJECT

 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.
SELECTED, SIMPLIFIED CAUSAL

RELATIONSHIPS FOR NITROGEN LOADING IN

NARRAGANSETT BAY. 
SUCCESS WILL LOOK LIKE:

 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.