SUSTAINABILITY

RESEARCH STRATEGY

DRAFT 

June 13, 2007 

Final version will be issued 


after receipt of final report 


of the Science Advisory Board 


and any subsequent revisions of 


Sustainability Research Strategy. 


OFFICE OF RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT 

U.S. ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY 
ORD Sustainability Research Strategy – Internal Draft: June 13, 2007 

FOREWORD 

The mission of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Research and 

Development (ORD) is to identify, understand and solve current and future 

environmental problems. The Sustainability Research Strategy (SRS) tackles some of the 

most pressing current and future national environmental and development issues. A 

growing population and expanding economy present new challenges on how best to 

protect human health and our natural resources. Science and technology are two key 

elements in ensuring that people understand the full implications of their actions and that 

the best possible decisions are made by individuals, industry, and at all levels of 

government. 

ORD presents this Sustainability Research Strategy to improve understanding of the 

earth’s natural and man-made systems, assess threats to those systems, design and apply 

innovative and cost-effective industrial practices, and develop and apply new 

technologies and decision support tools. 

The focus on sustainability research recognizes the changing nature of environmental 

problems society faces today. While in the past EPA operated as largely a pollution 

control agency, today its programs have evolved to address a broader set of 

environmental issues resulting from population and economic growth, energy use, 

agriculture, and industrial development. 

EPA is one of the few regulatory agencies with a strong internal research capability. The 

ability to directly link research and policy in one agency puts EPA and ORD in a good 

position to lead on environmental sustainability. This Research Strategy recognizes that 

system-wide impacts on society demand system-wide responses; it is thus an essential 

linchpin in promoting and achieving sustainable development at home and around the 

world. 

George Gray 

Assistant Administrator for Research and Development 

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ORD Sustainability Research Strategy – Internal Draft: June 13, 2007 

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 

We acknowledge and thank the drafting team of Gordon Evans, Douglas Young, 

Heriberto Cabezas, Michael Gonzalez, Frank Princiotta, Cynthia Gage, and Tim Johnson 

(National Risk Management Research Laboratory); Diana Bauer and Julie Zimmerman 

(National Center for Environmental Research); Anita Street (Office of Science Policy): 

and Donna Perla, Richard Iovanna, and Edward Fallon (Office of the Assistant 

Administrator) for preparing this Research Strategy. 

Gary J. Foley 

Director, National Center for Environmental Research 

Sally Gutierrez 

Director, National Risk Management Research Laboratory 

Alan D. Hecht 

Director, Sustainable Development 

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ORD Sustainability Research Strategy – Internal Draft: June 13, 2007 

PEER REVIEW HISTORY 

Peer review is an important component of developing a research strategy. The following 

is the peer review history for this Research Strategy: 

Office of Research and Development Science Council 

September 7, 2005 

EPA Science Policy Council 

November 21, 2005 

External Peer Review 

Science Advisory Board, June 13-15, 2006 

Environmental Engineering Committee Augmented for Sustainability 

Advisory 

Dr. Michael J. McFarland, Utah State University, Logan, UT, Chair 

Chartered Science Advisory Board (SAB) Members 

Mr. David Rejeski, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, 

Washington, DC 

Dr. Thomas L. Theis, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL 

Dr. Valerie Thomas, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 

Members of the Environmental Engineering Committee 

Dr. Viney Aneja, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 

Dr. John C. Crittenden, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 

Dr. David A. Dzombak, Carnegie-Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 

Dr. T. Taylor Eighmy, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH 

Dr. Joseph B. Hughes, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 

Dr. Michael Kavanaugh, Malcolm Pirnie, Inc., Emeryville, CA 

Dr. Catherine Koshland, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 

Dr. Reid Lifset, Yale University, New Haven, CT 

Dr. William Mitsch, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 

Dr. Susan E. Powers, Clarkson University, Potsdam, NY 

Dr. Mark Rood, University of Illinois, Urbana, IL 

Dr. John R. Smith, Alcoa Technical Center, Alcoa Center, PA 

Member of SAB Environmental Economics Advisory Committee 

Dr. Anna Alberini, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 

Peer Review Coordinator 

Ms. Kathleen White, Designated Federal Officer, EPA Science Advisory Board Staff, 

Washington, DC 

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ORD Sustainability Research Strategy – Internal Draft: June 13, 2007 

ACRONYMS 

BOSC Board of Scientific Counselors 

BRIC Brazil, Russia, India, and China 

CNS Collaborative Science and Technology Network for Sustainability 

EDS Environmental and Decision Sciences 

EERS Environmental Economics Research Strategy 

GEOSS Global Earth Observation System of Systems 

IAC Innovation Action Council 

ISA Integrated Systems Analysis 

LCA Life Cycle Assessment 

MFA Material Flow Analysis 

MYP Multi-Year Plan 

NAS National Academy of Sciences 

NHEERL National Health and Environmental Effects Research Laboratory 

NPD National Program Director 

NRMRL National Risk Management Research Laboratory 

NSF National Science Foundation 

ORD Office of Research and Development 

OSWER Office of Solid Waster and Emergency Response 

P2NT Pollution Prevention and New Technology 

P3 People, Prosperity, and Planet Student Design Program 

RoE Report on the Environment 

RCC Resource Conservation Challenge 

SAB Science Advisory Board 

SRS Sustainability Research Strategy 

STS Science and Technology for Sustainability 

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ORD Sustainability Research Strategy – Internal Draft: June 13, 2007 

TABLE OF CONTENTS

 Foreword...................................................................3 

 Peer Review History.....................................................4 

 Acronyms ...................................................................5 

 Table of Contents.........................................................6 

 Executive Summary .....................................................7 

Chapter 1. Introduction and Purpose ..............................................11 

Describes the Strategy's organization and its national benefits 

Chapter 2. Rationale for the Strategy..............................................16 

Assesses the impact of selected future stressors and 

justifies the need for sustainable use of resources 

Chapter 3. Definition and Scope.......................... ..........................23 

Defines an EPA context for sustainability 

Chapter 4. Six Research Themes........................................ ...........27 

Defines six sustainability research themes 

Chapter 5. Research Objectives .....................................................41 

Describes how ORD will organize its research activities 

Chapter 6. Roadmap for Implementation ....................................... 52 

Describes ORD’s roadmap for implementing the 

Sustainability Research Program 

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ORD Sustainability Research Strategy – Internal Draft: June 13, 2007 

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 

Chapter 1: Introduction and Purpose 

Every day we all make decisions that affect our quality of life and that of future 

generations: these decisions together determine how sustainable our future will be. To 

assist governments, businesses, communities, and individuals make sustainable choices, 

our Sustainable Research Strategy aims to better understand the earth as a natural system 

and to develop models and tools that will support sustainable decision-making. Our 

Strategy incorporates both core research that advances fundamental understanding of key 

biological, chemical, and physical processes underlying environmental systems and 

problem-driven research that targets specific environmental problems or customer needs. 

The Strategy draws on and integrates across the many research programs within the 

Office of Research and Development and focuses this research to support sustainable 

decision-making. 

Chapter 2: Rationale for the Strategy 

A combination of forces—including unprecedented growth in population, economy, 

urbanization, and energy use—is imposing new stresses on the earth’s resources and 

society’s ability to maintain or improve environmental quality. To permit the 

continuation of improved environmental protection, human health, and living standards, 

our generation must move to mitigate or prevent the negative consequences that can 

accompany growing population and economy. The increasing stresses require new 

approaches to environmental protection that go beyond end-of-pipe control strategies 

concerned principally with pollutant emissions. Based on our understanding that 

environmental problems are rarely contained within a single resource area or geographic 

area, we must develop and implement integrated and systems-based approaches to meet 

society’s needs today and ensure a more sustainable future. 

Chapter 3: Definition and Scope 

The concept of sustainable development marries two important insights: that 

environmental protection does not preclude economic development and that economic 

development must be ecologically viable now and in the long run. Sustainable 

development, which requires an integration of economic, social, and environmental 

polices, cannot be achieved by any single federal agency, for it relies on policy coherence 

across government agencies. EPA’s contribution to sustainability is to protect human 

health and the environment and this and future generations. Our Sustainability Research 

Strategy rests on the recognition that sustainable environmental outcomes must be 

achieved in a system-based and multimedia context that focuses on the environment 

without neglecting the roles of economic patterns and human behavior. This recognition 

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ORD Sustainability Research Strategy – Internal Draft: June 13, 2007 

begets a fundamental change in research design: in a systems-based approach, the 

traditional goals of achieving clean air or water or protecting ecosystems and human 

health can be fully understood only through a multimedia approach. EPA and its partners 

will develop the integrating decision-support tools (models, methodologies, and 

technologies) and supporting data and analysis that will guide decision-makers toward 

environmental sustainability and sustainable development. 

Chapter 4: Six Research Themes 

Emphasizing an integrated and systems-based approach to achieving sustainability, we 

focus on six broad research themes. 

1. Renewable Resource Systems: The sustainability of natural systems is critical to 

protecting human health, supporting our economy, and maintaining our quality of life. 

Sustainability demands that we determine how best to obtain the benefits that renewable 

resources provide, while considering the system-wide effects that their use has on the 

regenerative capacity of the entire system. Three of our Research Strategy aims are 

especially relevant to renewable resources: (1) defining clear measures of sustainable 

renewable systems, (2) improving understanding of ecosystem processes and services, 

and (3) developing and applying advanced systems models and tools for decisionmaking. 

2. Non-Renewable Resource Systems: The extraction, processing, and use of fossil fuels, 

minerals, and other materials are critical elements of our economic life. Sustainability 

calls for greater conservation and efficient use of these non-renewable resources, as well 

as greater reliance on renewable energy, development of substitutes for toxic and 

dangerous materials, and emphasis on management of materials (thereby preventing 

waste) rather than on disposal of waste products. Our Strategy seeks to promote more 

sustainable management of non-renewable resource operations and to support the shift to 

use of renewable resources. Its research will include life cycle assessment and material 

flow analysis; application of models that will assess the regional impacts of various 

energy sources on emissions and air quality; and alternative chemicals and new industrial 

methods. Climate change research and assessment, a major global sustainability issue, 

will continue to be a collaborative effort of many programs at EPA and other agencies. 

3. Long-Term Chemical and Biological Impacts: The intergenerational dimension of 

sustainability means that society must be mindful of the long-term threat posed by 

chemical and biological impacts on the environment. Improving our use of materials, 

shifting to environmentally preferable materials, and protecting human health all rely on 

assessing and eliminating the long-term impacts posed by harmful chemical and 

biological materials. Our research will aim to develop alternate chemicals and new 

industrial processes, as well as decision-support tools for evaluating the environmental 

dimensions of the new chemicals and processes. It will also employ life cycle assessment 

and material flow analysis to evaluate environmental releases from industrial systems and 

from nanomaterials. 

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ORD Sustainability Research Strategy – Internal Draft: June 13, 2007 

4. Human-Built Systems and Land Use: The growth of urbanized areas over the past 

century has shown that human-built systems can significantly harm ecosystems and 

undermine their ability to provide critical services. This Strategy will include research on 

such topics as sustainable building design and efficiency, management of urban systems, 

life cycle assessment for building design and land use, and decision-support tools for 

urban land development and revitalization. ORD scientists and engineers will work 

directly with key customers and stakeholders who can most benefit from our research 

capabilities in these areas—such as those at state and local levels responsible for myriad 

decisions on urban development, land use, and provision of public services. 

5. Economics and Human Behavior: Since the sustainable management of natural and 

man-made systems depends on human behavior and choice, our Strategy is closely linked 

with research in economics and behavioral science, such as developing ecosystem 

valuation methods and analyzing the role of incentives in decision-making and the causes 

of market failures. Research in this area is led by ORD’s Economics and Decision 

Science Research Program, with which activities in this Sustainability Research Strategy 

will be closely coordinated, as outlined in the implementation plan in Chapter 6. 

6. Information and Decision-Making: The establishment of an information infrastructure 

of sustainability metrics and environmental monitoring is a necessary component on any 

strategy advancing sustainability. Our Strategy is closely linked with the Global Earth 

Observation Systems of Systems (GEOSS) program, whose GEOSS vision is a future in 

which decisions and actions are informed by coordinated, comprehensive, and sustained 

earth observations and information. GEOSS will “take the pulse of the planet” by 

compiling a system of all relevant databases (or systems), thus revolutionizing our 

understanding of how earth works. Over time, GEOSS will contribute greatly to 

sustainability by providing important scientific information for sound policy and 

decision-making in every sector of society. 

Chapter 5: Research Objectives 

The five principle research objectives of our Strategy represent areas of strong ORD 

competence. Our research aims first to advance systems understanding—to better 

comprehend the interconnections, resilience, and vulnerabilities over time of natural 

systems, industrial systems, the built environment, and human society. Our research aims 

to further develop decision support tools to assist decision-makers. A third key element 

of our Strategy is developing and applying new technologies that will be needed to 

develop inherently benign and less resource-intensive materials, energy sources, 

processes, and products. Our research is committed to collaborative decision-making and 

aims to develop an understanding of motivations for decision-making and to develop 

approaches to collaborative problem solving. Fifth and finally, our Strategy emphasizes 

developing metrics and indicators to measure and track progress toward sustainability 

goals, to send early warning of potential problems to decision-makers, and to highlight 

opportunities for improvement 

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ORD Sustainability Research Strategy – Internal Draft: June 13, 2007 

Chapter 6: Roadmap for Implementation 

Our Sustainability Research Strategy builds on ORD’s traditional focus on risk 

assessment and risk management and dovetails with EPA’s commitment to stewardship 

and sustainable outcomes. The Strategy supports shifts by Program Offices toward 

material management, green chemistry, urban and brownfield revitalization, and 

ecosystem management. To implement this Strategy we will take these steps: 

• Demonstrate the value of sustainability research by identifying key priority 

national issues where application of sustainability approaches can be most 

effective in promoting sound and sustainable economic growth. 

• Advance core sustainability research and development of new tools and 

methodologies by transitioning the current Pollution Prevention and New 

Technologies (P2NT) research program into the Science and Technology for 

Sustainability (STS) Research Program. 

• Leverage all ORD resources by coordinating and integrating research across 

ORD that builds a critical knowledge base for sustainability, such as 

identifying synergies, gaps to be filled, and high-priority emerging areas 

among existing research strategies. 

• Leverage all EPA resources by coordinating and strengthening collaborations 

and partnerships—with EPA Program and Regional Offices, other federal 

agencies, state and local governments, communities, industry, nonprofit 

organizations, universities, and international partners—that address critical 

sustainability issues and stimulate broader progress towards sustainability in 

both research and implementation. 

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ORD Sustainability Research Strategy – Internal Draft: June 13, 2007 

CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION AND PURPOSE 

This chapter relates the Sustainability Research Strategy to the mission of the 

Office of Research and Development and describes the Strategy’s goals, 

outcomes, and organization. 

Sustainability and the ORD Mission 

From the perspective of the Office of Research and Development, the science of 

sustainability is developing the underlying knowledge base that allows decision-makers 

to make sustainable choices. For natural resource managers, this means how to manage 

our natural resources to provide maximum services today and in the future. For urban 

planners, this means how to build cost-effective and efficient urban systems that protect 

both human health and the environment. For decision-makers in industry, this means how 

to enhance economic growth while minimizing industry’s footprint on the environment. 

The science of sustainability aims to anticipate problems and promote innovation. A 1997 

National Academy of Engineering report, The Industrial Implication for Environmental 

Design and Management, suggests that the path to sustainability “involves the creative 

design of products, processes, systems and organizations, and the implementation of 

smart management strategies that effectively harness technologies and ideas to avoid 

environmental problems before they arise.” 

ORD conducts cutting-edge research and fosters the use of sound science and technology 

to fulfill the Agency’s mission of protecting human health and safeguarding the natural 

environment. ORD research is a mix of (1) core research that seeks to advance 

fundamental understanding of key biological, chemical, and physical processes that 

underlie environmental systems, and (2) problem-driven research that focuses on specific 

environmental problems or customer needs. The Sustainability Research Strategy 

encompasses both core and problem-oriented research, aiming first at understanding 

biological, physical, and chemical interactions through a systems approach, and secondly 

at developing effective models, tools, and metrics that enable decision-makers to achieve 

sustainable outcomes.

1 

This important goal of helping society make good decisions was identified by the 1998 

House Committee on Science report, Unlocking Our Future: 

While acknowledging the continuing need for science and engineering in 

national security, health and the economy, the challenges we face today 

cause us to propose that the scientific and engineering enterprise ought to 

move toward center stage in a fourth role; that of helping society make 

1

 National Research Council, Building a Foundation for Sound Environmental Decisions. Washington: 

NAS Press, 1997. 

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ORD Sustainability Research Strategy – Internal Draft: June 13, 2007 

good decisions. We believe this role for science will take on increasing 

importance, as we face difficult decisions related to the environment.2 

Recent external reviews of two other ORD research programs have re-emphasized the 

theme of this Congressional guidance. The 2005 reviews by ORD’s Board of Scientific 

Counselors (BOSC) of the Ecological Research Program and Global Change Research 

Program both emphasized a need for activities that lead to “wise decision-making” and 

that are “demand-driven and participatory.”3 

Purpose of the Strategy 

Recognizing its responsibility to lead EPA in science applications for decision-making, 

ORD management identified two objectives for this Research Strategy: 

• Develop a crosscutting sustainability research plan that will tie together the 

ORD Multi-Year Plans (MYP) that concern component parts of sustainability; 

and 

• Develop a revised MYP for Pollution Prevention (P2), entitled “Science and 

Technology for Sustainability,” that will identify new annual and long-term 

goals and annual performance outcome measures to better focus pollution 

prevention and innovative technology on sustainability. 

In moving to establish an integrated sustainability research program across ORD, 

management recognizes three challenges: (1) defining clear and comprehensive 

sustainability goals that are meaningful to EPA and which “connect the dots” among 

existing ORD research strategies, (2) initiating and leveraging new activities within a 

limited range of budget options, and (3) overcoming a tradition of media-specific 

(“stovepipe”) approaches to environmental problems. 

Through this Strategy, ORD aims to address these challenges by defining sustainability 

within EPA and identifying research priorities and management steps necessary to 

achieve the dual national goals of supporting a growing economy and advancing 

environmental protection. 

2

 Unlocking Our Future: Toward a New National Science Policy. House Committee on Science. September 

24, 1998. 

3

 The BOSC Review of ORD Global Change Research Program (draft, December 13, 2005) noted: 

Two underlying themes have surfaced in the Program’s approach to its work. The first is 

that its emphasis now and for the future should be on decision support—improving the 

ability of those who control actions to make wise choices in the face of global change 

through provisions of useful research and activities. The Subcommittee concludes that 

this is the right emphasis and that it should be a guiding star for the efforts of this 

Program. The second emphasis is on stakeholder involvement—being ‘demand-driven’ 

and participatory. 

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ORD Sustainability Research Strategy – Internal Draft: June 13, 2007 

Stakeholder Input and Strategy Goals and Outcomes 

This Sustainability Research Strategy was derived from input gathered through internal 

and external activities: 

• Consultation with Regional and Program Offices on the types of research that 

can provide the greatest benefit to their programs, 

• Recommendations of the EPA Science Advisory Board (SAB) and Board of 

Scientific Counselors (BOSC), 

• Review of the sustainability research literature and consultation with outside 

experts, 

• Review of EPA-sponsored workshops related to sustainability, and 

• Review and consultation with other national governments, the European 

Commission, and multilateral organizations. 

Economic Benefits 

The economic benefits of applying sustainable management practices for current and 

future energy construction, greenhouse gas emissions, material and chemical use, 

ecosystems services and health protection are only now being fully appreciated. One 

illustrative example (see Chapter 4) is that by 2030 new and replacement building 

development will amount to 204.1 billion square feet, equal to almost 90 percent of the 

built space that existed in 2000. All of this amounts to about $30 trillion in total new 

development (including infrastructure) that will occur between 2000 and 2030. A new 

focus on biofuels as an energy source will demand new infrastructure and transportation 

systems in nearly all ecozones of the United States. Rebuilding the aging U.S. water 

infrastructure will translate into billions of dollars. EPA’s Clean Water and Drinking 

Water Infrastructure Gap Analysis (2002)4 estimated that if capital investment and 

operations and maintenance remain at current levels, the potential funding shortfall for 

drinking water and wastewater infrastructure could exceed $500 billion by 2020. 

Aiming to affect present and future economic development and encourage sound 

taxpayer and public investment, the goals of the Strategy include these: 

• Improve understanding of earth systems to better protect human health, 

manage natural resources, and design cost-effective and sustainable policies; 

• Enable EPA, states, and communities to more successfully envision, plan, 

develop, manage, and restore their infrastructure and spaces so that human 

4

 www.epa.gov/waterinfrastructure/ 

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ORD Sustainability Research Strategy – Internal Draft: June 13, 2007 

health and quality of life, and the quality of air, water, and land are protected 

for the future; and 

• Design, manufacture, and manage chemicals and materials so as to protect the 

environment and public health, prevent pollution, and conserve resources, 

while advancing global competitiveness and societal objectives. 

Criteria for measuring the success of this Strategy and the companion ORD MYPs are 

outlined in Goal V of the Draft 2006-11 EPA Strategic Plan. (See box: “Goal V”) 

Goal V of the Draft EPA Strategic Plan for 2006-2011 

Objective 5.4: Enhance Society=s Capacity for Sustainability through Science and Research. 

Conduct leading-edge, sound scientific research on pollution prevention, new technology 

development, socioeconomics, sustainable systems, and decision-making tools. By 2011, the 

products of this research will be independently recognized as providing critical and key evidence 

in informing Agency polices and decisions and solving problems for the Agency and its partners 

and stakeholders 

Sub-objective 5.4.2: Conducting Research. Through 2011, conduct leading-edge, sound scientific 

research on pollution prevention, new technology development, socioeconomics, sustainable 

systems and decision-making tools. The products of this research will provide critical and key 

evidence in informing Agency policies and decisions affecting the Agency programs in Goal 5, as 

well as EPA partners and stakeholders. 

Outline of Chapters 

The Strategy’s Chapter 2 forecasts the needs of future generations for clean air and water, 

energy, land use, and materials, and then considers those needs in light of population 

increases, economic growth, and trends in consumption of natural resources and 

degradation of natural systems. 

Chapter 3 proposes a framework of sustainability for EPA and identifies six integrating 

research themes. Chapter 4 reviews these research themes and relates them to EPA’s 

proposed sustainability outcome goals. 

Chapter 5 discusses the approaches needed to address the research questions. One of the 

most important Strategy components will be developing appropriate metrics and 

indicators that can track progress towards sustainable outcomes, complementing EPA’s 

Draft Report on the Environment.

5

 Chapter 5 also presents a discussion of other scientific 

approaches and the importance of collaborative efforts that will be used to address the 

research questions. 

5

 www.epa.gov/indicators/roe 

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ORD Sustainability Research Strategy – Internal Draft: June 13, 2007 

Chapter 6 presents a roadmap for implementing this Sustainability Research Strategy, 

including descriptions of how the research programs within EPA must evolve in order to 

meet the future needs of environmental protection and to achieve sustainable 

environmental protection. 

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ORD Sustainability Research Strategy – Internal Draft: June 13, 2007 

CHAPTER 2. RATIONALE FOR THE STRATEGY

A host of far-reaching, interrelated, and complex factors—such as growing 

human populations, increases in waste production, growing energy demands, 

and land development—are all contributing to stresses on the earth’s natural 

systems. Protecting human health and safeguarding the natural environment in 

the face of these stressors is a national priority—and a daunting challenge. 

To meet that challenge, EPA’s Sustainability Research Strategy explores an 

integrated, scientific approach to defining and achieving sustainability goals in six 

key natural resource systems: energy, air, water, materials, land, and 

ecosystems. 

Given the breadth of existing ORD research activities, this chapter explain the 

rationale for the new Strategy, concluding that a more crosscutting and systemoriented research strategy is needed to address existing and emerging 

environmental problems. 

Externalities Affecting the Environment 

Water, air, land, and energy research are all interrelated and affected by a host of 

externalities related to economic growth, demographic changes, and energy use. 

Economic growth is essential for maintaining social well-being; how this growth is 

achieved determines a society’s quality of life. Most countries have clearly learned that 

sustainable environmental polices are an essential component of sound economic growth. 

Research that supports this goal is thus an area of national priority. 

As illustrated in Figures 2.1 and 2.2, world population and economic growth will expand 

rapidly during the coming decades. Global population is expected to increase by about 50 

percent by 2050. 

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ORD Sustainability Research Strategy – Internal Draft: June 13, 2007 

Figure 2.1. World Population Projections 

0 

1000 

2000 

3000 

4000 

5000 

6000 

7000 

8000 

9000 

10000 

Population 

(millions) 

North America 

Oceania 

Europe 

Latin America 

China & India 

Other Asia 

Africa 

2000 2005 2010 2015 2020 2025 2030 2035 2040 2045 2050

Source: United Nations Secretariat, "World Population Prospects.” http://esa.un.org/unpp 

Figure 2.2. Projected World Relative GDP Growth 

0 

0.5 

1 

1.5 

2 

2.5 

3 

3.5 

4 

Africa 

Other Asia 

China & India 

Latin America 

Europe 

Oceania 

North America 

OECD 

Countries 

Developing

Countries 

2000 2005 2010 2015 2020 2025 2030

Source: International Energy Agency, "World Energy Outlook 2002", www.worldenergyoutlook.org 

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ORD Sustainability Research Strategy – Internal Draft: June 13, 2007 

When EPA was founded in 1970, the U.S. population was just over 203 million; in 2006 

it reached 300 million, reflecting a 35-year increase approaching 40 percent. This growth, 

however, has not been distributed evenly. About one-third of the U.S. population resides 

in the 17 Western states, which include seven of the nation’s 10 fastest growing states. 

Through 2030 the population of the Southwest is projected to increase as a proportion of 

the U.S. population. The population increase has already greatly affected the allocation 

and use of resources, as approximately one acre of land becomes urbanized or otherwise 

developed for each additional U.S. inhabitant. Many Western and Southwestern states 

with rapidly expanding population are also experiencing urban expansion, increasing 

energy demand, and diminishing water resources.6 The U.S. population is also aging, 

thereby creating new needs for health and human services. These changes require a 

heightened awareness of potential future challenges, especially increasing demand for 

water and energy in much of the nation. 

The global challenge of growth is also becoming apparent. Over the next 30 years, while 

the U.S. GDP is expected to double, the GDP in China and India is projected to 

quadruple. By 2030 over 60 percent of the world’s population will live in cities, many in 

Africa, Asia, and Latin America, where the urban populations will grow from 1.9 to 3.9 

billion people. Economic growth in the “BRIC” countries (Brazil, Russia, India, and 

China) will significantly impact future global and trans-boundary environmental issues.7 

Together these changes will place considerable stress on the earth’s resources and on 

humanity’s ability to maintain or improve environmental quality. Unless steps are taken 

to address the consequences of growing populations and economies, the resilience of the 

global ecosystem will be undermined. The challenge is to prevent or minimize the 

potential negative consequences. 

Achieving Sustainability 

This challenge means that achieving sustainable environmental outcomes must be a longterm national environmental goal. This is a key goal of the new EPA report, Everyday 

Choices: Opportunities for Environmental Stewardship, in which senior EPA managers 

have identified sustainable outcomes in six resource systems relevant to the Agency’s 

mission. The report is the first explicit statement of EPA senior leadership focused on 

recommendations for sustainability outcomes that the nation should seek. While much 

more discussion and debate will be needed to refine these goals, the report’s linkage of 

stewardship with sustainable outcomes has set a direction for future policy development 

and research. 

6

 Population data is taken from Water Availability in the Western United States. U.S. Geological Survey 

Circular 1261 (2005). 

 Dreaming with BRICS: The Path to 2050. Goldman Sachs Economic Report #99. October 2003. 

www.gs.com/insight/research/reports/report6.html 

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ORD Sustainability Research Strategy – Internal Draft: June 13, 2007 

Table 2.1. Proposed Sustainable Outcome Measures 

Natural Resource 

Systems 

Sustainable Outcomes 

Energy Generate clean energy and use it efficiently. 

Air Sustain clean and healthy air. 

Water Sustain water resources of quality and availability for desired uses. 

Materials Use materials carefully and shift to environmentally preferable 

materials. 

Land Support ecologically sensitive land management and development. 

Ecosystems Protect and restore ecosystem functions, goods and services. 

Source Everyday Choices: Opportunities for Environmental Stewardship, Innovation Action Council Report 

to the Administrator, November 2005. www.epa.gov/innovation 

Achieving these outcomes will also be greatly affected by the trends presented in Table 

2.2. For example, growing population and GDP will significantly impact the six resource 

systems. Population increases will affect how and where land is developed and thus the 

viability of ecosystems. Population growth has historically led to increased use of energy, 

water, and materials—and increased production of waste, leading to greater pollution of 

air, water, and land, with associated negative consequences for ecosystems and human 

health. Economic growth has usually required greater quantities of energy, materials, and 

water from expanded agriculture and industry, leading to more waste, toxics, and 

pollution of air and water. The land and thus ecosystems change as materials are 

extracted, goods produced, infrastructure built, and wastes disposed of. 

EPA’s 2003 Draft Report on the Environment outlined U.S. successes in environmental 

protection and identified many remaining challenges and data gaps. Table 2.2 lists 

examples of trends identified in this report for each of the six resource areas, revealing a 

few of the many potential stresses stemming from the expected U.S. population and 

economic growth. Other potential impacts of stressors on the environment have been 

identified through a survey of EPA senior Program Officers and from external future 

studies. 

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ORD Sustainability Research Strategy – Internal Draft: June 13, 2007 

Table 2.2. Potential Consequences of Growing U.S. Population and GDP 

Resource Current Trends1 Consequences Projected over 20 

Years 

Energy In the last 30 years energy 

consumption has increased by 42%. 

Between 1982 and 2001, NOx 

emissions rose by 9%, primarily 

from increased diesel fuel use. 

Demand for petroleum, natural gas, and 

coal each will increase by 25-40%. 

Passenger miles driven and number of 

road vehicles will increase by 30-40%. 

CO2 emissions will grow by 28%. 2 

Air 133 million people live in areas with 

air quality not meeting NAAQ 

standards (indoor air pollution is 

associated with asthma in children). 

Increased transportation demand will 

increase NAAQS exceedances.3 

Between 23 and 33 million additional 

housing units will be needed.3 

Water 408 billion gallons of water per day 

are withdrawn. 

Excess nitrogen and phosphorus 

have degraded aquatic life in 2.5 

million acres of lakes and 84,000 

miles of rivers and streams. 

In some areas, existing water supplies 

will be inadequate to meet demands for 

people, cities, farms and the natural 

systems an biota.4 

Reduced water availability is projected 

to impede electric power plant growth.5 

Materials Per-capita MSW over the last 

decade has leveled at 4.5 

lbs/person/day. 

Waste systems are managing 

growing quantities of toxic 

chemicals. 

Under “business as usual” scenarios, a 

24% projected increase in population 

will result in a comparable increase in 

total waste generation.3 

Land The pace of land development 

between 1992 and 1997 was more 

than 1.5 times the rate of the 

previous 10 years. 

About 10% of forested land is expected 

to be converted to urban and developed 

use.6 

Ecosystems Coastal wetland area has decreased 

by 8% since the 1950s. 

One third of native species are at 

risk. 

Worldwide, flux of nitrogen to coastal 

ecosystems will increase by 10-20%; 

species extinction rates are projected to 

be ten times higher than current rate.7 

1 Extracted from the 2003 Draft Report on the Environment Technical Document. 2 Department of Energy 

Annual Energy Outlook, 2004. 3 Extrapolated from trends. 4 Department of the Interior, Water 2025. 5 Electric 

Power Research Institute, 2001. 6 Climate Change Science Program, 2003. 7 United Nations, Millennium 

Ecosystem Assessment, 2005. 

Even as population and GDP impact a particular resource system, that system in turn 

interacts with other areas in complex, dynamic, and interrelated ways. For example, since 

1971 each 1% increase in worldwide GDP has resulted in a 0.64% increase in energy use. 

Most of the energy has been produced from fossil fuels, so the increased energy use has 

led to greater emissions of air pollutants from the combustion of these fuels. Nearly half 

of U.S. water withdrawals are used for cooling power plants and water is also used to 

scrub air pollutants from flue gas; so increased energy use increases both demand for and 

20
ORD Sustainability Research Strategy – Internal Draft: June 13, 2007 

pollution of water. Extraction of fossil fuels from the earth requires use of more 

materials, changes the surrounding land, and produces more wastes (i.e. unwanted 

“materials”). Finally, increased energy use impacts ecosystems through such factors as 

silt run-off from energy extraction activities and the decline in water quality caused by 

runoff from mining facilities. Such “response” impacts are shown in the first row of 

Table 2.3. Interactions like these demonstrate forcefully that a systems approach offers 

the best strategy for understanding environmental impacts and for designing costeffective and sustainable policy responses. 

Table 2.3. Linkages among Resource Systems 

Resources Potential Response to the Stressed Resource System 

under Stress Energy Air Water Materials Land Ecosystems 

Energy 

(Increased 

use) 

Increased 

pollutants 

Increased 

demand 

Increased 

extraction 

Extraction 

impacts 

Extraction 

impacts 

Air 

(Increased 

pollutants) 

Increased 

energy for 

clean-up 

Pollutant 

deposition 

from air 

Increased 

demand, 

Degradation 

Waste 

disposal 

Increased 

negative 

Impacts 

Water 

(Increased 

pollutants) 

Increased 

energy for 

clean-up 

Transfer of 

pollutants 

from water 

Increased 

demand, 

Degradation 

Waste 

disposal 

Increased 

negative 

impacts 

Material 

(Increased 

use) 

Increased 

demand 

(processing 

energy) 

Increased 

pollutants 

Increased 

demand, 

Increased 

pollutants 

Extraction 

impacts, 

Waste 

disposal 

Increased 

negative 

impacts 

Land 

(Increased 

development) 

Increased 

demand 

Increased 

pollutants 

Increased 

pollutants, 

Run-off 

Reduction 

of resources 

Reduction of 

resource 

Ecosystems 

(Decreased 

availability) 

Increased 

energy for 

restoration 

Reduced 

natural 

processing 

capacity 

Reduced 

natural 

processing 

capacity 

Reduced 

renewable 

resources 

Erosion 

Sewerage provides another example of interaction among resource areas. As shown in 

Table 2.3, polluted sewer water requires energy for cleanup; air pollutants of methane 

and nitrogen compounds are produced, and solid waste is generated and typically sent to 

landfills. Finally, sewerage overflows can impact ecosystems. These examples illustrate 

how a change in one resource area can negatively reverberate through other areas. 

The Need for a Systems Approach 

Ensuring continued improvement in environmental quality and in the protection of 

human health under these increasing stresses requires new approaches. Fortunately, that 

21
ORD Sustainability Research Strategy – Internal Draft: June 13, 2007 

is not without precedent, as approaches to environmental protection have evolved over 

the decades to meet emerging challenges and the advance of science. 

In its early years, EPA developed “end-of-pipe” strategies that targeted emissions of 

pollutants from, for example, smokestacks or sewer lines. As these strategies matured, 

new problems were recognized, and accordingly were met with new “upstream” 

approaches, such as waste minimization and pollution prevention. 

As additional environmental stressors became recognized, the evaluation and choice of 

pollution control and mitigation options required greater understanding of the overall 

context of problems. This led to the development of life cycle assessments, which 

demonstrated that the vast majority of environmental problems are not contained within a 

single resource area or within a single product’s life cycle, but extend across multiple 

areas and timeframes. It is now clear that a more integrated approach to environmental 

protection is needed. 

As environmental protection has become more complex, the Agency has evolved, 

moving from point-source pollution controls associated with particular industries to 

larger problems of regional emissions, such as those associated with agricultural 

operations, urban transportation, and emerging contaminants. Successfully meeting all of 

these challenges—significant increases in stressors, impacts across resource areas, 

emissions from diffuse sources, and emerging contaminants—will require a continued 

evolution in how environmental protection approaches sustainability. 

Is the problem of sustainability urgent? Does it address the national interest? There is no 

doubt that improving the health and well being of people today and in the future while 

growing the economy and protecting natural resources is a national priority. Prudent 

scientific management would suggest launching a program aimed at better understanding 

the linkages among the six resource systems and aimed at developing effective means to 

disseminate and apply the research results. 

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ORD Sustainability Research Strategy – Internal Draft: June 13, 2007 

CHAPTER 3. DEFINITION AND SCOPE

ORD focuses its sustainability research portfolio on capturing and quantifying systems 

dynamics, assessing and managing variability, and understanding resilience of systems 

to stresses and disturbances, both expected and unexpected. Sustainability research is 

an essential foundation that incorporates new research approaches with the established 

foundation of ORD’s existing research focused on individual media (land, air, and water). 

Sustainability research will focus on six broad crosscutting themes, which are 

coordinated with ORD’s economic and behavioral science research and global monitoring 

programs. 

Toward Sustainable Development 

The concept of sustainable development marries two important insights: that 

environmental protection does not preclude economic development and that economic 

development should be ecologically viable.8 Sustainable development also addresses the 

question of trade-offs between the welfare of people today and the welfare of people in 

the future. In the words of the 1987 report, Our Common Future—better known as the 

Brundtland Report—development is sustainable when it “meets the needs of the present 

without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”9 

Sustainable development fosters policies that integrate environmental, economic, and 

social values in decision-making. The National Environmental Protection Act (NEPA)— 

drafted in 1969 before EPA was established—provides that the federal government, in 

partnership with the states, should “use all practicable means and measures ... to create 

and maintain conditions under which man and nature can exist in productive harmony, 

and fulfill the social, economic, and other requirements of present and future generations 

of Americans.” Federal policies and actions that today promote stewardship and 

collaborative problem solving are implementing the NEPA provision. Subsequent 

legislation and executive orders have directed federal agencies to pursue sustainable 

management of federal facilities and to measure and report on economic, environmental, 

and social responsibilities of their operations.10 On January 24, 2007, President Bush 

signed Executive Order 13423, “Strengthening Federal Environmental, Energy, and 

Transportation Management,” that sets goals in the areas of energy efficiency, 

acquisitions, renewable energy, toxics reductions, recycling, sustainable buildings, 

electronics stewardship, vehicle fleets, and water conservation. The order explicitly 

8

 Dan Esty, “A Term’s Limits.” Foreign Policy. September/October 2001, pg. 74-75. 

9

 World Commission on Environment and Development, Our Common Future. London: Oxford University 

Press, 1987. 

 “Achieving Sustainability of Government Operations,” LMI Research Institute Report IR 521 R1. 

September 2005 

23

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ORD Sustainability Research Strategy – Internal Draft: June 13, 2007 

directs heads of federal agencies to implement sustainable practices in these areas, and 

defines sustainable as meaning “to create and maintain conditions, under which humans 

and nature can exist in productive harmony, that permit fulfilling the social, economic, 

and other requirements of present and future generations of Americans.”11 The 

Government Accountability Office has also recently assessed the role that federal 

agencies are playing in complementing U.S. business goals of promoting global corporate 

social responsibility.12 

Environmental Sustainability 

EPA has moved steadily over the past 36 years to ensure that its policies and programs 

are responsive to changing environmental stresses. U.S. environmental policies have 

evolved from reliance on laws and regulations requiring only compliance, to new 

emphasis on policies and incentives that encourage industry to go beyond compliance. 

Growing use of market-based economic instruments, voluntary programs, public 

reporting by industry, and creative public-private partnerships are bringing a new era of 

environmental management. But as former Administrator William K. Riley noted, 

I don’t think we will be able to say, in the popular phrase of the moment, that we 

have attained a sustainable level of development until we function in harmony 

with these ecosystems, and learn to keep them productive ... We are not, nor 

ought to be, fundamentally about reducing this effluent or that emission, but 

rather about protecting the totality of the environment.13 

The Brundtland Report recognized that environmental protection is different from but 

related to sustainable development: “Environmental protection and sustainable 

development must be an integral part of the mandates of all agencies of government, of 

international organizations, and of major private-sector institutes.”14 Sustainable 

environmental policies are critical for achieving sustainable development. EPA and ORD 

are in position to lead those policies by developing a strong research foundation that 

contributes to policies supporting sustainable development. 

This Strategy will promote environmental sustainability by seeking outcomes that protect 

and enhance the resilience of natural systems to environmental stress and that reduce the 

industrial and urban burdens on the environment. 

Sustainability Research 

11 www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2007/01/20070124-2.html 

 Government Accountability Office. Globalization: Numerous Federal Activities Complement U.S. 

Business Global Corporate Social Responsibility Efforts. GAO-05—744. August 2005. 

13 William K Reilly. Oral History Interview, “Ecosystem Management.” EPA 202-K-95-002. September 

1995. www.epa.gov/history/publications/reilly/21.htm 

14 World Commission on Environment and Development, pg. 311. 

24

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ORD Sustainability Research Strategy – Internal Draft: June 13, 2007 

The Strategy’s definition of sustainability research can be clarified through an analogy 

with non-traditional research being conducted in the investment and insurance 

communities. Traditionally, these sectors allocated resources and managed risk with a 

principle focus on short-term performance and economic measures, ignoring a host of 

external social and environmental factors. Today they have a growing interest in the 

impact of extra-financial issues on long-term risk and investment. For example Swiss Re, 

the leading reinsurance firm, has asserted that “Unsustainable development increasingly 

needs to be understood as having the potential to substantially change the risk landscape” 

and has launched an extensive research program on the early detection and assessment of 

environmental and health risks.15 

In the investment world, asset owners and managers have formed the Enhanced Analytics 

Initiative, an international consortium aimed at encouraging better investment research, 

especially research focused on “... the alignment of management and board with longterm company value, the quality of human resources management, risks associated with 

governance structure, the environment, branding, corporate ethics and stakeholder 

relations.”

16 

The insurance and investment sectors are both promoting “better research for better 

investment decisions”—an approach based on future projections, capturing system 

dynamics and points of leverage, and assessing and managing variability and 

uncertainty. EPA can learn and benefit from such forward-looking, system-oriented 

research that broadens the application of risk analysis to reflect a wider range of 

environmental and social issues. 

ORD’s Sustainability Research Strategy mirrors the expanded research goals of cuttingedge insurance and investment firms, for sustainability research similarly seeks “to 

promote more informed and sustainable decisions.” Like the financial sectors, ORD must 

project the impact of future economic and demographic changes on natural and manmade systems to help decision-makers attain more sustainable outcomes.17 Research in 

the realms of insurance, investment, and environmental protection aims to connect the 

dots to better understand how systems work and how they are affected by change. ORD 

sustainability research aims to capture system dynamics, manage variability and 

uncertainty, and understand system resilience to foreseen and unforeseen stresses. 

Improved scientific understanding must be translated into useable outcomes. To do this, 

15 Swiss Re, Sustainability Report 2004. Swiss Re has built an extensive research program around detection 

and assessment of risks. Its SONAR research project (Systematic Observations of Notions Associated with 

Risk) is an extensive data analysis and systems study that can detect risk signals too weak to show up on 

the radar screen of a wider audience. See 2004 Report, page 9. www.swissre.com 

 The Initiative currently represents companies with managing assets of more than US$1 trillion (See 

www.enhancedanalytics.com/Fiesta/EDITORIAL/20060630/CommPresse/PR15_InvestecjoinsEAI_19050 

6.pdf). Quote is from David Blood and Al Gore, “It is Essential that Investors Look to the Long Term,” 

www. ft.com, July 6, 2005; Financial Times, July 7, 2005. Available at www.generationim.com/media/pdfft-david-blood-al-gore-07-07-05.pdf. 

17 “Shaping our Environmental Future: Foresight in the Office of Research and Development.” In press 

2007. After publication, will be available at www.epa.gov/sustainability. 

25

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ORD Sustainability Research Strategy – Internal Draft: June 13, 2007 

EPA and its partners ill develop integrating decision support tools (i.e. models, 

methodologies, and technologies) that produce the data and understanding to help 

decision-makers shift toward practices promoting environmental sustainability and 

ultimately sustainable development. 

Emphasizing a systems approach to achieving sustainable environmental management, 

we focus on six broad research themes. 

• Renewable Resource Protection 

• Non-Renewable Resource Conservation 

• Long-Term Chemical and Biological Impacts 

• Human-Built Systems and Land Use 

• Economics and Human Behavior 

• Information and Decision-Making 

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ORD Sustainability Research Strategy – Internal Draft: June 13, 2007 

CHAPTER 4. SIX RESEARCH THEMES 

To promote the integration of research across disciplines and existing ORD research 

programs and to underscore the importance of a systems approach to future planning, 

this chapter serves three important functions: 

• It identifies priority research topics related to the six themes listed in Chapter 3

and to the sustainable outcomes in Table 4.1. 

• It identifies existing ORD and EPA research programs that relate to the research 

questions (Table 4.2). 

• It describes how this Research Strategy and the focus on sustainable 

environmental outcomes advance ongoing EPA efforts. 

Achieving any one of EPA’s proposed sustainable outcome measures (shown in Table 

4.1) will be a formidable challenge, for there are no technological “quick fixes” offering 

simple solutions or approaches to achieving any of these outcomes. Instead, research 

across physical science, economics, social science, and other disciplines must be 

combined in meaningful ways. In turn, the resulting science must be made available to 

decision-makers and integrated into effective public policy. 

Table 4.1. Proposed Sustainable Outcome Measures 

Natural Resource 

Systems 

Sustainable Outcomes 

Energy Generate clean energy and use it efficiently. 

Air Sustain clean and healthy air. 

Water Sustain water resources of quality and availability for desired uses. 

Materials Use materials carefully and shift to environmentally preferable 

materials. 

Land Support ecologically sensitive land management and development. 

Ecosystems Protect and restore ecosystem functions, goods and services. 

Source Everyday Choices: Opportunities for Environmental Stewardship, Innovation Action Council Report 

to the Administrator, November 2005. www.epa.gov/innovation 

By itself, ORD can address only a small part of the overall research required to advance 

sustainability, but it can partner with Program and Regional Offices and other federal and 

state agencies and can use its research results, methods, and tools to assist clients both 

inside and outside EPA in pursuing sustainable outcomes. 

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ORD Sustainability Research Strategy – Internal Draft: June 13, 2007 

Table 4.2. Sustainability Research Themes Addressed by Multi-Year Plans 

X – Some association XX – Strong association 

National 

Program 

Director Area Multi-Year Plan Rene

wable 

Resources 

N

on-rene

w

a

ble

Resources Che

mical & 

Biol. Impacts Hum

an-built 

EnvironmentEconomics & Behavior Information & Decisions 

Air Air Toxics X X 

Particulate Matter X X 

Tropospheric Ozone X X X 

Global Change 

& Mercury 

Global Change X X XX X X 

Mercury X XX 

Water Quality Water Quality XX X 

Drinking Water Drinking Water XX 

Human Health Human Health XX X 

Ecological 

Risk 

Ecological Research XX X X 

Pesticides, 

Toxics, and 

ECDs 

Endocrine Disruptors XX 

Safe Pesticides XX 

Toxics XX 

(not an NPD 

area) 

Computational 

Toxicology 

XX 

Contaminated 

Sites/ 

Resource 

Contaminated Sites 

Hazardous Waste XX 

Conservation Economics and Decision 

Sciences 

XX XX 

Table 4.2 shows the extent of existing ORD multi-year plans. The following sections 

discuss how these programs relate to each other and to the sustainability research 

questions. An example of the possible integration (and leveraging of resources) among 

existing ORD research strategies—the coordination of the Sustainability Research 

Strategy and the Economics and Decision Sciences Strategy—is illustrated in Figure 4.1 

near the end of this chapter. 

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ORD Sustainability Research Strategy – Internal Draft: June 13, 2007 

1. Natural Resource Protection (Air, Water, Ecosystems) 

The health and well-being of all societies depend on ecosystems and the services they 

provide. Natural resources are an essential support for a nation’s economy and quality of 

life. Where natural systems are undermined, then the economic and social well-being of 

people is threatened. This is true at local levels where the expansion of urbanized areas is 

undermining the ecological integrity of ecosystems by bringing about declines in 

biological diversity, degradation of water quality, and loss of other ecological services. It 

is also true at regional levels where unsustainable industry and urban development are 

threatening the long-term health of great water bodies like the Chesapeake Bay and the 

Great Lakes. And it is certainly true at global scales where widespread ecosystem loss 

may affect global atmospheric processes and human health. 

The natural resource basis is a complex and dynamic system of plants, animals, and the 

physical environment that interact with each another. Lessons learned over the years on 

different approaches and techniques for managing natural resource system, at both small 

and large scales, demonstrate the need to better understand the resilience of a natural 

system to “tolerate disturbances while retaining its structure and function.”18 Achieving 

sustainability in managing natural systems therefore requires a better understanding of 

the complexity of these systems, including their critical thresholds, resilience and 

adaptability. 

In a sustainable world, society greatly benefits from ecosystem services at all levels from 

local flood control to global climate protection. A critical test of society’s ability to 

sustainably manage its natural resource base is fast approaching. Our nation is committed 

to making cellulosic ethanol (i.e., ethanol derived from fibrous, woody, and generally 

inedible portions of plant matter) cost-competitive with corn-based ethanol by 2012 and 

to replacing by 2030 at least 30 percent of the motor gasoline demand of 2004. This 

transition will require large supplies of sustainable feedstock, major feedstock and 

conversion technology advances, large-scale integrated biorefinery demonstrations, and 

massive new infrastructure development that will affect land use and ecosystems. Given 

these policy directions, it will be important for EPA and ORD to assess how to produce, 

harvest, and deliver an estimated 1 billion dry tons of cellulosic biomass in an 

economically and environmentally sustainable way. 

None of these challenges are new to EPA, which has made healthy communities and 

ecosystems of its five key long-term goals. Existing EPA programs extend from 

protecting existing ecosystems from risks posed by release of harmful substances to 

expanding and restoring ecosystems. Filling gaps in current EPA and federal agency 

programs, the Sustainability Research Strategy aims to sharpen the focus on achieving 

sustainable management of renewable resources by aiming at three goals: (1) defining 

clear measures of sustainable renewable systems, (2) improving understanding of 

18 Joseph Fiksel, “Designing Resilient, Sustainable Systems,” Environmental Science & Technology. 37 

(December 2003), 5330-5339. 

29
ORD Sustainability Research Strategy – Internal Draft: June 13, 2007 

ecosystem processes and their impacts on human health, and (3) developing and applying 

advanced systems models and tools to assist decision-makers. 

Efforts to achieve the first goal are tied to building consensus within EPA on terms and 

definitions. ORD is leading an EPA-wide effort to more clearly define outcome goals and 

measures. Efforts to achieve the second goal depend on greater coordination of existing 

efforts across ORD, EPA Program and Regional Offices, and universities. Efforts to 

achieve the third goal depend on expanded in-house ORD research and on collaboration 

with ORD customers and stakeholders. 

Current ORD systems research aims to address complex, long-term environmental 

problems in ways that go beyond traditional compliance and pollution prevention 

approaches to those that focus on sustainable outcomes. This effort builds on a growing 

body of academic research that has demonstrated how the integrated assessment of a 

sustainable system cannot be accomplished by simply linking together a collection of 

domain-specific models. Research on the bio-complexity in large lake systems shows that 

new modeling approaches are needed.19 Frontier interdisciplinary research in EPA’s 

Science to Achieve Results (STAR) program is exploring the relationship among 

anthropogenic stressors within ecosystems, changes in host and/or vector biodiversity, 

and infectious disease transmission.20 

This new research focuses on understanding the environmental and social factors that 

contribute to biodiversity change, the population dynamics of animal reservoirs and 

vectors of disease, biological mechanisms that influence transmission of diseases to 

humans, and the processes by which infectious diseases emerge and spread. Research on 

the links between anthropogenic stressors, biodiversity, and infectious disease can have 

an important impact on our view of biodiversity, the services provided by natural 

ecosystems, and how we manage these resources to protect human health and the 

environment. 

Priority Research Topics 

• Demonstrating and quantifying the value of ecosystem services (informing decisionmakers) in environmental protection and human health 

• Understanding long-term chemical and biological interactions and cycles among air, 

land, and water resources and their impact on biodiversity (systems analysis) 

• Exploring interactions among natural resource systems that may lead to unrecognized 

side effects of management initiatives, such as loss of soil resilience due to overharvesting of biomass (systems analysis) 

19 See Conference Report on “Toward Sustainable Systems.” Ohio State University, March 2-3, 2006. 

20 See http://es.epa.gov/ncer/rfa/2007/2007_biodiversity_health.html 

30
ORD Sustainability Research Strategy – Internal Draft: June 13, 2007 

• Modeling linkages between human-built and natural resource systems in terms of 

material and energy flows (systems analysis) 

• Understanding the resilience and adaptability of ecosystems to change (resilience and 

vulnerability) 

• Improving understanding and quantification of natural carrying capacity under 

various environmental conditions and human activity patterns (forecasting) 

• Developing early warning signs of critical system overloads beyond natural 

variability (forecasting) 

• Identifying trends that have been and are expected to continue affecting ecological 

processes that sustain ecosystems (forecasting) 

• Developing future regional scenarios and models integrating land, water, and 

ecosystems to assess impact on ecosystem services (forecasting) 

2. Non-Renewable Resource Conservation (Energy and Materials) 

Each phase of non-renewable energy production (exploration, extraction, refining, 

transporting, and storing) and manufacturing affects the quality of air, the quality and 

availability of water, global climate, short- and long-term use of land, and resiliency of 

ecosystems. For these resources and processes, sustainability requires greater focus on 

conservation and enhanced use of renewable energy, greater emphasis on managing 

materials rather than disposing of waste products, and finding substitutes for toxic and 

dangerous materials. The historic consequences of unsustainable non-renewable resource 

management are evident in landscape modification, growth of greenhouse gases in the 

atmosphere, and climate change. Fossil fuel use, with its potential effects on climate 

change and on environmental and human health, constitutes a vital long-term global 

sustainability issues. EPA’s role in addressing climate change is prescribed by the 

interagency U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP).21 Complementing this 

interagency program, the Sustainability Research Strategy will promote more sustainable 

management of nonrewable resource operations and enhance a shift to greater use of 

renewable resources. 

A new vision of how to sustainability manage nonrenewable resources is needed. The 

1997 National Academy of Engineering report, The Industrial Implication for 

Environmental Design and Management, suggests that the path to sustainability 

“involves the creative design of products, processes, systems and organizations, and the 

21 EPA’s research role in the USGCRP is to assess the potential consequences of climate change for air and 

water quality, ecosystems, and human health. This program seeks to improve the scientific basis for 

evaluating the risks and opportunities presented by global change in the context of other stressors. A suite 

of EPA voluntary programs such as Climate Leaders develop industry strategies aimed at reducing the 

overall emissions of greenhouse gases. 

31
ORD Sustainability Research Strategy – Internal Draft: June 13, 2007 

implementation of smart management strategies that effectively harness technologies and 

ideas to avoid environmental problems before they arise.” In Grand Challenges in 

Environmental Sciences (2001), the National Academy of Sciences recommended 

“develop[ing] a quantitative understanding of the global budget of materials widely used 

by humanity and how the life cycles of these materials ... may be modified.”22 

These concerns prompted the Office of Solid Waste proposal to shift its emphasis from 

managing waste to managing materials, and the Office of Pesticides and Toxics’ efforts 

to reduce toxic chemical use through green chemistry and other new technologies. 

Looking ahead, regulatory actions may further enhance a movement toward sustainable 

resource management. Several directives of the European Union that target reductions of 

hazardous materials and toxics and promote recycling may serve to promote additional 

research in use of alternative material, green chemistry, and life cycle analysis.23 

Consequently this Strategy will initially focus on core research methodologies, models, 

technology, and technological processes that can help to assess the impacts of energy and 

material use on the environment and to identify low-impact and other sustainable 

approaches to renewable resource management. 

Priority Research Topics 

Core functions: 

• How can life cycle assessment be made more efficient, reliable, and comprehensive 

so that it will more effectively inform design decisions that le ad to reducing or 

eliminating the use of non-renewable resources? 

• What innovative technologies or processes can be developed to improve the 

efficiency of non-renewable resource consumption (e.g., closed-loop recycling or 

energy efficiency in manufacturing and consumer products)? 

• For different sectors, what re-engineering processes can be designed to manage 

production and supply chains, reducing or eliminating the use of fossil fuels and other 

non-renewable resources? 

• How can material flow analysis and related methods provide better insight into 

opportunities for reducing or eliminating the use of non-renewable resources? 

• What tools can be used to operationalize the concept of industrial ecology, enabling 

systems-based understanding of energy and material flows? 

22 EPA Science Advisory Board, Commentary on Industrial Ecology, 2002. Also SAB Review of Science 

and Research Budgets for FY 2006, March 30, 2006. 

 The Directives are Restriction of Hazardous Substances Directive (RoHS), Waste Electical and 

Electronic Directive (WEEE), and Directive on Registration, Evaluation and Authorization of Chemicals 

(REACH) 

32

23
ORD Sustainability Research Strategy – Internal Draft: June 13, 2007 

Material Balance: 

• What are the patterns and driving forces of societal use of non-renewable resources? 

• How can global scenarios of future industrial development and associated 

environmental implications be developed? 

• In what materials, products, places, and time-scales can we expect significant change 

in material and energy use or their impacts? 

Energy: 

• What opportunities exist to replace non-renewable with renewable feedstocks and 

materials in an environmentally beneficial manner? 

• How can we ensure that societal shifts in material use—such as from petroleum to 

renewable feedstocks for energy and materials—do not lead to unforeseen and 

unsustainable consequences? 

• What tools are needed to develop, test, and measure the life cycle of a full suite of 

energy conversion technologies (using renewable and non-renewable energy 

sources)? 

3. Long-Term Chemical and Biological Impacts (Using Non-Toxic Materials 

Sustainably and Protecting Human Health) 

The intergenerational dimension of sustainability means that society must be particularly 

mindful of the long-term threat posed by chemical and biological impacts on the 

environment. Protecting environmental and human health from chemical toxicity has 

long been central to EPA’s mission. The inability of the environment to assimilate certain 

chemical compounds over time has serious implications for sustainability. A chemical 

pollutant released to the environment at a rate greater than the environment’s ability to 

recycle, absorb, or render it harmless is considered to be persistent. Other chemical 

compounds have a tendency to concentrate in the tissues of living organisms in the 

process of bioaccumulation. Chemicals that are either persistent or bioaccumulative 

increase the potential for adverse effects on human health and/or the environment 

because they can result in high levels of exposure. Chemicals that are both persistent and 

bioaccumulative result in the highest levels of exposure and thus present the greatest 

challenge to sustainability. Achieving sustainable outcomes will rely on prudent material 

use and shifting to environmentally preferable materials in order to protect human health 

by assessing and eliminating the long-term impacts of harmful chemical and biological 

materials. 

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ORD Sustainability Research Strategy – Internal Draft: June 13, 2007 

Research on long-term chemical and biological impacts (complementing research on 

resource conservation) addresses two major areas: assessing chemical and biological 

impacts and substituting benign chemicals for toxic chemicals through green chemistry, 

nanotechnology, genomics, and other new technologies. Achieving sustainable outcomes 

will be aided by the enhanced ability offered by these technologies to detect and measure 

chemicals in humans and animals and to provide new ways of designing and 

manipulating new materials. 

ORD’s work in computation toxicology—using the latest advances in mathematical and 

computer modeling and genomics to prioritize, screen, and evaluate chemicals and 

predict potential toxicities—offers great potential for developing more sustainable 

products.24 ORD and other EPA researchers are also assessing the application of 

nanotechnology for developing more efficient and sustainable products. In a recent white 

paper on nanotechnology, assessing the risks and benefits associated with 

nanotechnology, EPA scientists recommended that the Agency “engage resources and 

expertise to support approaches that promote pollution prevention, sustainable resource 

use, and good product stewardship in the production and use of nanomaterials.”25 

Important new research efforts in ORD and in EPA Program and Regional Offices are 

evaluating the green production of nanomaterials, including a life cycle assessment of 

nanomaterial production, and are developing decision support tools for bench chemists to 

evaluate the environmental dimensions of new chemicals and production processes. 

Key sustainability research goals thus include further developing new technologies that 

reduce or replace the use of toxic chemicals and measuring the potential environmental 

effect of these new technologies. The research topics listed below build on ORD’s 

development of research aimed at creating new catalysts to significantly improve the 

environmental effects of chemical manufacturing, innovative reactors and intensification 

techniques, and novel oxidation technologies that will allow the pulp and paper industry 

to meet new emission regulations. 

Priority Research Topics 

• Develop and apply innovative chemical transformations utilizing green and 

sustainable chemistry and engineering. 

• Improve the yield, safety, and specificity of chemical processes by identifying 

appropriate solvents, controlling thermal conditions and purity, and recovering 

process catalysts or byproducts. 

• Formulate products that reduce waste and that are environmentally benign. 

• Develop life cycle tools to compare the total environmental impacts of products 

generated from different processing routes and conditions. 

24 See ORD, “A Framework for Computational Toxicology.” EPA 600/R-03/065 November 2003. 

25 See www.epa.gov/osa/nanotech.htm 

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ORD Sustainability Research Strategy – Internal Draft: June 13, 2007 

• Develop improved or accelerated methods for understanding the toxicology, kinetics, 

fate, and persistence of chemical substances. 

• Develop and implement models for the efficient application of life cycle analysis 

methods to new products and technologies including nanomaterials, green chemistry, 

and engineering. 

• Develop and implement systems-level methodologies and technologies for applying 

material flow analysis to complex industrial networks. 

• Develop improved methods for systems analysis of material flows that reflect the 

differences in health and environmental impacts of different substances. 

4. Human-Built Systems and Land Use 

In the past, little or no concern was given to how human-built systems might seriously 

impair or destroy the natural infrastructure and “ecosystem services” provided by the 

infrastructure, such as the ability to absorb and break down pollutants, cleanse air and 

water, and prevent flood and storm damage. However, the growth of urban populations 

over the last century has provided evidence that human-built systems can cause 

significant harm to ecosystems and to their ability to provide these critical services. 

Building on undeveloped land destroys and fragments habitat, displacing or eliminating 

wildlife communities. 

The construction of impervious surfaces such as roads and rooftops leads to the 

degradation of water quality by increasing runoff volume, stream sedimentation and 

water acidity, altering regular stream flow and watershed hydrology, and reducing 

groundwater recharge. A one-acre parking lot produces a runoff volume almost 16 times 

as great as would an undeveloped meadow of the same size. Achieving urban 

sustainability is clearly a challenge being addressed by many programs of EPA and other 

federal agencies. In this Strategy, research on urban sustainability and land use focuses 

on three key areas: building design and efficiency, urban land revitalization, and 

sustainable management of urban systems. 

Within urban communities, green building design is a crucial factor for sustainability 

since account for 65% of electricity consumption, 36% of total energy use, and 30% of 

greenhouse gas emissions. According to recent studies, in 2030 about half of the 

buildings in which Americans live, work, and shop will have been built after 2000. In 

2030, there will be 106.8 billion square feet of new development, about 46 percent more 

built space than existed in 2000—a remarkable amount of construction to occur within 30 

years. About 97.3 billion square feet of existing space will be replaced. New and 

replacement-related development will amount to 204.1 billion square feet, equal to 

almost 90 percent of the built space that existed in 2000. All of this amounts to about $30 

trillion in total new development (including infrastructure) that will occur between 2000 

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ORD Sustainability Research Strategy – Internal Draft: June 13, 2007 

and 2030.26 Research in indoor environmental management underway in ORD’s National 

Risk Management Research Laboratory (NRMRL) is already well positioned to help 

shape the design of future indoor engineering systems. 

Research related to Built Environment and Land Use, while primarily directed toward 

sustainable land management, also serves to integrate nearly all of the sustainability goals 

discussed in Chapter 2. The operation of numerous and diverse human-built systems 

(e.g., buildings, cities, water distribution, energy, agriculture, and transportation) is 

fundamentally dependent on the health of the natural systems that provide critical 

ecosystem services. 

While broad in content, this theme focuses on land renewal and restoration, decision 

support tools for urban land development, and life cycle assessments for land use and 

building design. Research under this theme complements research described previously 

under Natural Resource Protection. Key elements of the implementing Science and 

Technology for Sustainability (STS) MYP will focus on environmental impact modeling, 

including development of new impact models to characterize land use and smog 

formation, and on collaborative partnerships with many government and non-government 

partners to directly apply innovative systems-based approaches to urban and tribal 

planning. 

Direct ORD-supported research can address these immediate research questions: 

• What tools can decision-makers use to assess the potential impacts of land use, 

landscaping, and building design decisions on community well-being and 

environmental quality? 

• What levels and types of human activities can be conducted within a given spatial 

area (such as a watershed or ecosystem) without critically and adversely altering 

biogeochemical cycles and ecosystem functioning? 

• What sustainability criteria should be developed to guide urban land development and 

future revitalization efforts? 

• What core set of principles can best be used to guide the design, construction, and 

management of human systems (such as land use, buildings, and transportation 

systems) in a manner that protects natural systems (such as habitats) and their 

properties (such as biodiversity) and functions? 

26 Arthur C. Nelson, 2004, “Toward a New Metropolis: The Opportunity to Rebuild America.” 

Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Metropolitan Policy Program Survey Series. See 

www.brookings.edu/metro/pubs/20041213_rebuildamerica.htm; and Arthur C. Nelson, 2006, “America 

Circa 2030: The Boom to Come,” Architect Magazine (October 15, 2006): 

www.architectmagazine.com/industry-news.asp?sectionID=1006&articleID=385542 

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ORD Sustainability Research Strategy – Internal Draft: June 13, 2007 

• How do systems of land use, transportation, trade, and commerce contribute to the 

spread of invasive species and exotic pathogens? What actions can EPA take to 

manage this process? 

• What applications of new and emerging technologies can promote efficiencies in 

building design and restoration of contaminated sites? 

• What are the tradeoffs between resilience of the built environment (e.g., capacity to 

survive natural disasters) and ecological resilience? 

The growing enthusiasm for sustainability at state and local levels presents both new 

challenges and opportunities for ORD research, which has the technical, monitoring, and 

analytic capability to help decision-makers at all levels of government choose courses of 

action that will lead to achieving sustainable outcomes.27 For example, since 1990, ORD 

has been working with the German Federal Ministry for Education and Research on 

models of land restoration and development. Work under this bilateral agreement is now 

moving toward development of sustainability criteria for revitalization activities, and has 

resulted in the Sustainable Management Approaches and Revitalization Tools (SMARTe) 

program. SMARTe, which is now in beta testing, is an open-source, Web-based decision 

support system for developing and evaluating future reuse scenarios for potentially 

contaminated land.28 SMARTe includes guidance and analysis tools for all aspects of the 

revitalization process including planning and environmental, economic, and social 

concerns. 

The emphasis in this Strategy on developing decision support tools and helping decisionmakers make wise decisions challenges our scientists and engineers to work directly with 

key customers and stakeholders who can most benefit from ORD research capabilities. In 

many ways, ORD’s ability to identify research to inform stewardship solutions is 

intimately tied to partnering and collaborating with state, local, and tribal decisionmakers. An example is the Sustainable Environment for Quality of Life (SEQL) program, 

in which ORD is a key player, developing scientific models such as Regional 

Vulnerability Assessment (ReVA) to support sustainable land development. ORD’s 

research supports quantification of potential and actual impacts, including cross-sectoral 

and cross-jurisdictional analyses and analyses of “what-if” scenarios. 

SEQL and similar projects are successful because of the available suite of decision 

support tools and the direct participation by ORD scientists in community meetings and 

policy planning. This direct involvement is essential for applying ORD research to direct 

use. The BOSC review of the Ecological Research Program noted the successful use of 

ORD decision support tools, emphasizing that further applications “will require 

See Regional Summaries of State and Tribal Issues and Priorities for the 2006-2011 Strategic Plan 

Revision. www.epa.gov/ocfopage/plan/regions/index.htm 

28 See www.smarte.org/smarte/home/index.xml 

37

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ORD Sustainability Research Strategy – Internal Draft: June 13, 2007 

commitment of resources to technology transfer through both in-person and online 

training.”29 

5. Economics and Human Behavior 

The sustainable management of natural and man-made systems is in part a question of 

choice and behavior. For this reason, economics and the behavioral sciences are key 

elements in EPA’s overall approach to implementing the goals of Everyday Choices and 

achieving sustainable outcomes. The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is 

requiring more and better economic analyses as essential components of the policy 

process used in EPA Program and Regional Offices and in other federal regulatory 

agencies. 

External reviews by the SAB and the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) have shaped 

much of EPA’s economic and behavioral research. For example, many recommendations 

from the National Academy of Sciences report commissioned by EPA and the National 

Science Foundation, Decision-Making for the Environment: Social and Behavioral 

Science Research Priorities, have been incorporated into ORD’s Environmental 

Economics Research Strategy (EERS), published in 2005. Economists are beginning to 

address the question of environmental sustainability and human carrying capacity as 

central factors in economic development.30 Economists and conservationists are also 

exploring ways to value ecosystem services and develop economic incentives for 

sustainable behavior. This is an important area for research since “markets” for 

ecosystem services do not generally exist. For example, owners of ecologically valuable 

land can generate more revenue from traditional land development than by providing 

ecological services. ORD-funded extramural research is also underway to understand 

why individuals, firms, and institutions behave as they do; what motivates them to 

change their behavior; and how government regulations, public information, corporate 

reporting, and public pressures interact to generate public policy. 

The Sustainability Research Strategy (SRS) and the EERS research strategies are 

complementary in approach and significantly contribute to EPA’s focus on stewardship 

and sustainability. The SRS presents a framework that highlights research areas of 

importance to support a forward-looking, integrated, and preventive approach to 

environmental protection. It guides the integration of relevant research across ORD and 

other offices, as well as connections outside of EPA. On the other hand, the EERS 

presents a focused analysis of Agency research priorities in Economics and Decision 

Sciences. EERS research priorities dovetail nicely with the SRS framework (see Chapter 

6) and collectively can be used to address a number of important questions: 

29 BOSC Review of Ecological Research Program. August 2005, pg. 18. 

30 For rapporteur’s summary and presenters’ précis papers of the EPA-sponsored forum, “Sustainability, 

Well-Being, and Environment Protection: What's an Agency to Do?” see 

www.epa.gov/sustainability/econforum 

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ORD Sustainability Research Strategy – Internal Draft: June 13, 2007 

• What factors increase or reduce motivation for sustainable behavior among 

individuals, firms, and organizations? How can we better integrate economic and 

ecological models to inform environmentally sustainable decisions? What is the 

relationship between environmental sustainability indicators and measures of 

economic value? 

• What are non-market ecosystem services, what is their value, and what ongoing 

factors are affecting their supply? To what extent can human-produced capital 

substitute for natural capital? 

• How can economic instruments (e.g., trading schemes, auctions, and taxes) be 

devised which effectively incorporate society's concerns for sustainability in resource 

allocation decisions? 

• What should be the role of intergenerational discounting in benefit-cost analysis? 

• How can ecological resilience and the potential for major unforeseen events be 

incorporated in the selection and assessment of policy interventions? 

6. Information and Decision-Making 

The goal of developing sustainability metrics builds on the research already conducted in 

support of the EPA’s Draft Report on the Environment (RoE). ORD researchers have 

played a significant role in identifying appropriate indicators and providing quality 

control in their development. Currently the RoE provides snapshots of the existing 

environmental state. Metrics are defined in relation to clearly stated questions such as, 

“What are the conditions and current trends of surface waters?” and “What are the trends 

in the ecological processes that sustain the nation’s ecological systems?” As EPA moves 

toward identifying a set of clearly articulated questions related to sustainable outcomes— 

such as “How sustainable are the nation’s water supplies?”—then research can focus on 

identifying appropriate indicators and ensuring their quality. 

The establishment of an information infrastructure is a necessary step on the path toward 

sustainability. This includes the development of sustainability metrics and environmental 

monitoring. Our strategy is therefore closely applied with the Global Earth Observation 

Systems of Systems (GEOSS) program. The GEOSS vision is of a future in which 

decisions and actions are informed by coordinated, comprehensive, and sustained earth 

observations and information. GEOSS will “take the pulse of the planet” by compiling a 

system of all relevant databases (or systems), thus revolutionizing our understanding of 

how earth works. Over time, GEOSS will contribute greatly to sustainability by providing 

important scientific information for sound policy and decision-making. EPA is 

contributing to GEOSS through its leadership in both the international Group on Earth 

Observations (GEO) and the U.S. Group on Earth Observations (US GEO) and has 

launched the FY2006 Advanced Monitoring Initiative (AMI). 

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ORD Sustainability Research Strategy – Internal Draft: June 13, 2007 

One of the primary keys to promoting sustainability is defining and communicating a 

clear understanding of proposed outcomes. In Everyday Choices, EPA senior managers 

identified sustainable outcomes in six resource areas relevant to EPA’s mission (Table 

4.1). The sustainability goals in energy, water, air, land, ecosystems, and materials 

provide an important starting point for discussion of appropriate sustainability goals and 

how they should be measured. A clear next step is to define these goals and metrics in 

sharper detail. 

This strategy aims to establish a new set of scientifically based sustainability indicators 

that are readily comprehensible at multiple scales, relevant to decision-makers, and easily 

accessible to the public. 

ORD-supported research will address these research questions: 

• What are appropriate sustainability goals for energy, water, air, land, materials, and 

ecosystems? 

• What are the most appropriate trends, indicators, and metrics to measure society’s 

progress towards reaching sustainable outcomes? 

• What data are needed to construct sustainability indicators and metrics and how can 

the data be effectively and efficiently collected? 

These questions will be addressed in two ways. First, we will review metrics currently in 

use to determine where gaps exist. A number of fairly simple sustainability indicators 

currently exist, and while these measures may inform the public on the general notion of 

sustainability, they often lack scientific vigor. If sustainability is to play a significant role 

in future environmental policy debates, the process of establishing benchmark values and 

measuring progress must be vastly improved. The second track, in collaboration with 

EPA partners and customers, will involve research to identify new indicators and metrics 

and apply them to problems in specific geographic regions, ecosystems, and watersheds. 

This work is expected to result in a new set of well-defined metrics, protocols, and 

software tools that can be used by decision-makers. This direction of research will be a 

major element of ORD’s new Science and Technology for Sustainability Multi-Year 

Plan. 

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ORD Sustainability Research Strategy – Internal Draft: June 13, 2007 

CHAPTER 5. 

RESEARCH OBJECTIVES

Our Research Strategy has five objectives: 

• Systems Understanding. Understand the interconnections, resilience, and 

vulnerabilities over time of natural systems, industrial systems, the built 

environment, and human society. 

• Decision Support Tools. Design and develop scientific tools and models to assist 

decision-makers. 

• Technologies. Identify and develop inherently benign and less resource-intensive 

materials, energy sources, processes, products, and systems, particularly for 

emerging technologies. 

• Collaborative Decision-Making. Develop an understanding of motivations for 

decision-making and develop approaches to collaborative problem solving. 

• Metrics and Indicators. Develop metrics and indicators to measure and track 

progress toward sustainability goals, to send early warning of potential problems 

to decision-makers, and to highlight opportunities for improvement. 

How these research objectives relate to customers and collaborators, as well as outcomes 

is shown in the logic diagram of Figure 5.1. The research objectives (with dark shading 

in the figure) are interrelated as follows. A systems understanding informs the 

development of research in decision-support tools, technologies, and collaborative 

decision-making, which in turn informs policies and programs implemented by customers 

and collaborators, including business and industry, communities, government, and 

individuals. There are two broad categories of metrics and indicators, illustrated by two 

individual boxes in the figure. First, customers and collaborators can use metrics and 

indicators to inform their plans and decisions and measure their progress to their own 

sustainability goals. Second, at a larger scale, metrics and indicators can be used to assess 

and measure overall (regional, national, or international) progress in resource areas and 

environmental and human health (with lighter shading in Figure 5.1). These larger-scale 

metrics and indicators also feed back to enable adaptive understanding and research 

needs in systems, decisions, technologies, and collaborative decision-making. 

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ORD Sustainability Research Strategy – Internal Draft: June 13, 2007 

Figure 5.1. Logic Diagram Illustrating Research Approaches 

Systems 

Understanding 

Resilience 

Vulnerabilities 

Interconnectedness 

Scale 

Trends & 

Transformations 

Links between Natural 

& Built Environment 

Uncertainty 

Decision 

Support Tools 

Technologies 

Collaborative 

Decision-Making 

Customers & 

Collaborators 

Business & Industry 

Communities 

Government 

Individuals 

Metrics and Indicators 

Long-term 

Outcomes 

Protection of 

Environmental 

& Human Health 

Resource 

Sustainability 

Outcomes 

Water 

Land 

Air 

Energy 

Materials 

Ecosystems 

Metrics & 

Indicators 

The research objectives are also related in Table 5.1 to the six research themes (defined in 

Chapter 4). For example, life cycle assessment (LCA) can inform understanding of a 

product’s consumption of renewable and non-renewable resources and associated 

emissions over the product’s life cycle. Material flow analysis (MFA) and integrated 

systems analysis (ISA) can be used to explore the possible implications of economy-wide 

patterns of consumption of renewable or non-renewable resources. ISA can also be used 

as a communication tool to enable collaborative decision-making in the context of 

human-built Systems. There are many relevant metrics and indicators in the theme areas, 

ranging from indicators of ecosystem resilience to sustainability indicators used by 

industry. The following sections further describe the various research objectives. 

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ORD Sustainability Research Strategy – Internal Draft: June 13, 2007 

Table 5.1. Research Topics Addressing Sustainability Themes and Objectives 

System 

Understanding 

DecisionSupport 

Tools 

Technologies Collaborative 

DecisionMaking 

Metrics and 

Indicators 

Renewable 

Natural 

Resource 

Systems 

Ecosystem 

resilience; 

Limits on 

resource 

extraction rates 

LCA; 

MFA; 

ISAs 

Green 

engineering 

 Ecosystem 

resilience; 

Resource 

extraction 

rates 

NonRenewable 

Natural 

Resource 

Systems 

LCA; 

MFA; 

ISAs 

Green 

engineering 

Material 

intensity 

Long-term 

chemical 

and 

biological 

impacts 

 Chemistry 

design 

tools; 

Transport 

models 

Green 

chemistry 

 Environmental 

accumulation 

of chemicals 

HumanBuilt 

Systems 

Understanding 

interactions 

between 

human-built 

systems and 

natural cycles 

Design 

principles 

Green 

buildings; 

Emerging 

technologies 

ISA, 

Risk 

assessment 

models 

Industrial 

sustainability 

indicators 

Economics 

and Human 

Behavior 

Agentbased 

models 

 Incentives and 

trading 

schemes 

Information 

and 

DecisionMaking 

Limits; 

Measures of 

resilience 

LCA Understanding 

value of 

information 

Systems Understanding 

An underlying understanding of complex environmental-societal systems and the 

attributes and conditions that make them sustainable is the foundation of sustainability 

research. Going beyond a traditional, single-media, pollution-control and complianceenforcement approach, this Strategy recognizes that no environmental problems have a 

single cause. Application of systems research has the potential to break down 

longstanding single-media approaches to environmental management, an issue of concern 

to EPA since its inception.31 Describing, representing, and/or designing sustainable 

31 When President Nixon proposed the creation of EPA in 1970, he recognized the interconnectedness of 

the environment and the inherent cross-media nature of environmental protection. His plan to establish 

EPA noted that, for pollution control purposes, “the environment must be perceived as a single, interrelated 

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ORD Sustainability Research Strategy – Internal Draft: June 13, 2007 

systems encompasses several important aspects: 

• Addressing scale in time and space 

• Capturing the dynamics of the system and of society’s points of leverage or control 

over those dynamics 

• Representing an appropriate level of complexity 

• Managing variability and uncertainty 

• Capturing the various perspectives and desired sustainability outcomes in important 

domains (e.g., ecological, economic, technological, legal, and organizational) 

• Understanding the vulnerability or resilience of the system relative to both foreseen 

and unforeseen stressors and change. 

A systems view can also strategically inform both research and implementation. It can 

identify barriers, point out gaps or redundancy in activity, and inform prioritization of 

existing or potential research and implementation in technology, decision-support tools, 

and collaborative decision-making. 

Technologies 

Technology and technological systems are central for achieving sustainable use of 

renewable and non-renewable natural resources, as well as for developing alternative 

materials, chemicals, processes, and products that minimize or eliminate long-term 

chemical and biological impacts. 

The underlying scientific research, development of designs and applications, technology 

demonstration, and technology verification form a 10-year continuum as illustrated in Figure 5.2. 

system” (Reorganization Plan No. 3 of 1970, July 9, 1970, available at 

www.epa.gov/history/org/origins/reorg.htm). EPA has struggled since then with how best to deal with the 

environment as an integrated system. At the Agency’s 15th anniversary in 1985, Administrator Russell 

Train expressed his concern with its “compartmentalized nature” and resulting ineffectiveness in dealing 

with pollutants, which “tend to move readily among air, water, and land.” Similarly, Administrator Lee 

Thomas stressed the need for cross-media reviews so that “we don’t just transfer pollutants from one 

medium to another.” (See “Views from the Former Administrators,” EPA Journal, November 1985, 

available at www.epa.gov/history/topics/epa/15e.htm.) Administrator William Reilly encouraged crossmedia approaches in the early 1990s by looking holistically at place-based issues, breaking down media 

barriers for risk assessment, providing cross-media training for staff, and conducting joint pilot studies with 

industry. Although EPA is today still organized along media lines, it recognizes the need to adequately 

address the cross-media nature of environmental problems. Sustainability concepts will help EPA break 

down barriers to its single-media-based Program Offices and look more holistically and systematically at 

integrated environmental challenges. 

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ORD Sustainability Research Strategy – Internal Draft: June 13, 2007 

Various advisory bodies have argued that commercialization and deployment of sustainable 

technologies requires that the entire continuum be supported over time. For example, EPA’s 

National Advisory Committee for Environmental Policy and Technology Policy (NACEPT) has 

strongly endorsed EPA’s current technology and verification program and recommended that 

EPA “should devote more attention and resources to those Agency programs that incorporate and 

encourage sustainability as one of the goals or criteria for technology development or 

implementation assistance.”

32 The NACEPT committee has been further charged by the EPA 

Administrator to look at the issue of sustainability in more detail (in 2006-2007) and to make 

additional recommendations. 

Figure 5.2. Technology Continuum 

Research 

(3 years) 

Proof of 

Concept 

(1 year) 

Development 

(2 years) 

Verification 

(1-2 years) 

Commercialization/ 

Deployment 

(2-3 years) 

Several areas of technology research are particularly important. The fields of green 

chemistry and green engineering address the design of molecules, products, processes, 

and systems that (1) use safer chemicals and materials; (2) use materials, water, and 

energy efficiently; and/or (3) reduce the generation of waste at the source. Green 

engineering and green chemistry are generally applied on a product-by-product or a 

process-by-process basis. While some of this technology research is supported by 

industry, EPA has an important role in supporting research that underpins general 

methodologies or addresses specific environmental problems or emerging issues of 

concern. 

More traditional technologies can also support progress towards sustainability. 

Technologies that provide safe drinking water and treat waste and storm water are prime 

examples. Aging water and wastewater infrastructure, together with a growing 

population, require the development of new technologies to provide cost-effective 

32National Advisory Committee for Environmental Policy and Technology Policy (NACEPT), 

Subcommittee on Environmental Technology, EPA Technology Programs and Intra-Agency Coordination, 

EPA 100-R-06-004, May 2006. 

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ORD Sustainability Research Strategy – Internal Draft: June 13, 2007 

conveyance and treatment of drinking, waste, and storm water. In addition, the tightening 

of water supplies in parts of the United States and elsewhere in the world will require 

water conservation and reuse technologies to provide abundant, clean water for human 

consumption and the environment. To achieve this, both current and new technologies 

should be examined using a systems approach to assess their multi-media impacts over 

the long term to insure that they are compatible with environmental sustainability. 

Technology and technological systems can also be looked at more broadly in time and 

space. An economy-wide understanding of material flow systems, for example, can 

illuminate, and hence prioritize, opportunities for efficient pollution prevention and 

material use. This could be particularly important for materials that are potentially 

deleterious to the environment and/or used in high volumes. 

Understanding the economic, informational, cultural, security-related, and other factors 

that can influence the development and adoption of new designs and technologies can 

inform research and development. In some cases these factors also relate to industrial 

organizational approaches, such as Total Quality Management, the adoption of 

environmental management systems, or supply-chain management. 

Future scenarios can assist in envisioning potential implications of technological systems 

that are emerging or undergoing transformation. Such systems are affected by emerging 

technologies (such as nanotechnology), potential industrial transformations (such as 

distributed manufacturing), and changing consumption patterns. Understanding of 

changes like these can inform research that enables the technological systems to support 

sustainability. 

Decision-Making Tools 

Many types of tools and analytical models can inform decisions that contribute to 

environmental sustainability. While the primary stimulus for model development is to 

improve scientific understanding within the scientific community, tools developed from 

these models can enhance sustainability in at least two ways: (1) by providing credible, 

relevant, and timely research results that inform EPA policy decisions, and (2) by 

assisting individuals, businesses, communities, and government to better understand the 

potential implications of their decisions,33 thus enhancing the likelihood that decisions 

they make will be more environmentally sustainable.. 

33 As an example, EPA has adopted the MARKAL (for MARKet ALlocation) model to assess current and 

future energy technology options. This comprehensive energy/economic model simulates a national, 

regional, or state-level energy system by representing the interactions between resource supply, conversion 

processes (e.g., refineries and power plants), end-use technologies (e.g., classes of light-duty personal 

vehicles or heat pumps), and demand for energy services (e.g., projected vehicle miles traveled or space 

heating). ORD is using its MARKAL model to help the Air Quality Assessment segment of EPA’s Global 

Change Research Program develop and analyze scenarios of technological change in the transportation and 

electric power sectors. The research aims to understand how technological evolution could impact future air 

emissions and to develop and provide an in-house energy/technology assessment capacity. 

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ORD Sustainability Research Strategy – Internal Draft: June 13, 2007 

Although assessing the impacts of future scenarios on environmental outcomes is a key 

element of model development,34 no systematic analysis evaluates the potential of 

existing EPA models and tools for sustainability analysis. EPA models that offer 

potential for assessing sustainable outcomes include BASINS (Better Assessment 

Science Integrating Point & Nonpoint Sources) 3.1, Air_Control_NET, WASP (Water 

Quality Analysis Simulation Program), Smart Growth INDEX 2.0, and SGWATER 

(Smart Growth Water).35 

Environmental models may be descriptive (describing knowledge about specific 

phenomena) or prescriptive (informing a design or identifying a course of action). They 

necessarily rely on data and information related to a wide variety of human activities: 

• transportation, industry, agriculture, construction; protection and consumption of 

resources (water, energy, materials, ecosystems, land, and air); 

• economics and characteristics of human behavior; and 

• natural phenomena such as weather patterns; and environmental conditions. 

Important areas for research include the collection and synthesis of required data and 

information and the incorporation into generalized models. ORD will also assist other 

collaborators and stakeholders in using models. The following paragraphs explore several 

types of analytical models that can lead to tools that are especially relevant to sustainable 

decision-making. 

Scenario models advance the understanding of environmental conditions over time 

through integrated systems analysis. These models allow users to dynamically explore the 

connection among choices over which society has some direct control (such as practices 

in transportation, energy, agriculture, and industry), broad societal trends (such as 

population and economic growth), and potential future environmental conditions.36 These 

34 Two widely cited examples that link models and future planning are the 2002 “Willamette Alternates 

Future Analysis” available from ORD/NHEERL Western Ecology Research Laboratory 

(www.epa.gov/wed/pages/researchprojects.htm) and the Sustainable Environment for Quality of Life 

Program (SEQL) program. ORD is a key player in SEQL, developing scientific models such as ReVA to 

support sustainable land development. ORD’s research supports quantification of potential and actual 

impacts, including cross-sectoral, cross-jurisdictional, and “what-if” analyses. SEQL and similar projects 

are successful because of the available suite of decision-support tools and the direct participation by ORD 

scientists in community meetings and policy planning. 

 Some EPA models are not easily accessible online. BASINS, Air_Control_NET and WASP are 

described in EPA’s Council for Regulatory Environmental Modeling (CREM) Models Knowledge Base at 

http://cfpub.epa.gov/crem/knowledge_base/knowbase.cfm#overview; INDEX is described at 

www.epa.gov/waterscience/basins and www.epa.gov/livablecommunities/pdf/1_Introduction_551.pdf.; 

SGWATER is a stormwater evaluation methodology embedded in INDEX. 

36 Community Scale Air Quality Modeling (CMAQ) and Stream Water Quality Model (QUAL2K), both 

developed at ORD’s National Exposure Research Laboratory (NERL), are good examples of the scenario 

modeling efforts that may assist in evaluating the impact of development patterns and industrial practices 

on air and water quality. 

47

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ORD Sustainability Research Strategy – Internal Draft: June 13, 2007 

types of tools and models can help users to understand critical thresholds and explore 

system response to abrupt change. They can also help diverse groups to communicate 

about the future that they may desire and to develop means and strategies to achieve this 

future. 

Geographic-based analytical models such as landscape simulators and urban growth 

simulators enhance understanding of environmental stressors and conditions in space. 

These models are particularly useful for understanding the implications of land-use 

decisions, such as transportation planning, location of buildings, and agricultural 

practices. Geographic-based analytical models can be integrated with economic models 

in powerful tools to inform sustainable development. 

Material flow-based models such as life cycle assessment and material flow analysis can 

link the use and processing of materials to potential implications for human health, 

environmental condition, and resource sustainability. They can inform improvements in 

the use of materials and design of products and also highlight opportunities for focused 

policy initiatives. In this regard, new methods that connect environmental impact 

analyses to material flow analysis would be especially useful.37 Material flow-based tools 

can also be tied to life cycle cost analysis or economic input-output analysis so that 

environmental issues and costs can be seen in one view.38 

Agent-based models offer insight into the implications of how the actions of individuals 

add up to organizational or multi-organizational behavior. As overall organizational 

behavior may contribute to or detract from resource sustainability, the models can 

illuminate policy opportunities to further motivate stewardship behaviors by individuals, 

communities, industry, and government. 

The several varieties of models can be used in combination to develop powerful tools. All 

of the models can also be used in the context of uncertainty, such as through Monte Carlo 

simulations. 

Collaborative Decision-Making 

Developing effective, innovative polices that promote sustainability depends on having 

an understanding of the motivation for decision-making by businesses, communities, 

government, and individuals. Such innovative policy approaches include combinations of 

 NRMRL has been developing a very practical life cycle assessment tool that can aid scientists in 

developing more sustainable chemicals. The GREENSCOPE (Gauging Reaction Effectiveness for the 

Environmental Sustainability of Chemistries) indicator model was created to evaluate and compare the 

sustainability of chemical processes. If this model is applied on a large scale, as in the chemical industry, it 

can achieve sustainable outcomes. 

38 OSWER has recommended that ORD examine proposed new methodologies for assessing environmental 

impacts and provide guidance on appropriate support tools for policy-makers. Although material flow 

analysis is a valuable tool, its primary focus is on volumes and weights of materials. A clearer measure of 

environmental impact of 3R (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle) programs is needed. 

48

37
ORD Sustainability Research Strategy – Internal Draft: June 13, 2007 

incentives, market mechanisms, information and education, regulation, and collaborative 

approaches. 

In an industrial context, effective and innovative policies depend on an understanding of 

the circumstances that encourage or discourage green product design and green supply 

chain management, and also on an understanding of industrial supply-chain leverage 

points that underlie potential improvements in sustainability outcomes. 

Effective and innovative policies targeting individuals and households depend on an 

understanding of the factors (such as cost, information, convenience, peer pressure, and 

regulations) that encourage green consumption. Effective policies supporting sustainable 

decision-making for communities and local governments depend on an understanding of 

drivers and hurdles relating to the layout of buildings and to the design and 

implementation of transportation and energy systems. Policies and approaches can be 

improved through better understanding how social groups may make innovative and 

effective decisions. 

Because moving towards sustainability often requires negotiation and cooperation among 

stakeholders, collaborative approaches are particularly important. The related concepts of 

collaborative problem solving, cooperative conservation, and stewardship encourage 

stakeholders to come together to address common environmental issues.39 

Scientists and scientific research can enhance and strengthen these collaborative 

approaches in two ways: (1) social science research can add to an understanding of the 

conditions under which collaborative approaches are effective; and (2) scientists and 

engineers can participate with policy- and other decision-makers in collaborative 

processes. These processes can also influence scientific direction by helping scientists to 

refine the scientific questions they ask and to more effectively communicate their 

research results. 

EPA supports programs designed to encourage environmental stewardship through 

collaboration at the community and regional levels. ORD’s Collaborative Science and 

Technology Network for Sustainability (CNS) (described in Chapter 6) is one of several 

programs that focus on collaboration and sustainability-related issues. 

Metrics and Indicators 

Metrics and indicators enable EPA, other government agencies, businesses, communities, 

and individuals to understand the nature and degree of progress being made towards 

 All three concepts rely on strong scientific input to help decision-making achieve measurable and 

sustainable outcomes. Former EPA Administrator Michael Leavitt and current Administrator Steve 

Johnson have made collaborating problem solving an important element of EPA’s governance agenda. 

Similarly, the concept of collaborative conservation as outlined in the Executive Order of August 26, 2004 

requires EPA and four other agencies to actively engage all stakeholders when implementing conservation 

and environmental projects. Finally, EPA is promoting environmental stewardship—defined as shared 

values and responsibilities among stakeholders for environmental protection. 

49

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ORD Sustainability Research Strategy – Internal Draft: June 13, 2007 

environmental sustainability. Metrics and indicators enable us to measure and track 

progress toward societal sustainability goals, send early warning of potential problems to 

decision-makers, and highlight opportunities for improvement at local, regional, and 

global scales. Effective metrics and indicators require collecting, synthesizing, and 

communicating appropriate data and information—which requires understanding both 

what to measure and how to measure it. 

Understanding what to measure draws on an understanding of the flows, stressors, and 

changes over which decision-makers have control. These flows, stressors, and changes 

can also be linked to resilience, vulnerability, warning signals, and limits to resource 

sustainability. Understanding how to measure can require research in sensors and sensor 

systems, statistical approaches to guide data collection and preliminary analysis, and data 

mining and other information technology approaches. 

Metrics and indicators are applicable at different scales. At the smallest scale are 

indicators with a feedback rate that can enable real-time adjustment of consumption, such 

as of electricity, gasoline, or water for a household or industrial facility. At the largest 

scale, indicators describe the condition of the national or global environment. A system 

of connected indicators that collectively describe the condition of the overall system at a 

local, regional, or global scale can inform effective decisions and strategies for moving 

towards sustainability. 

To begin to develop this multi-scaled system of connected indicators, this Research 

Strategy tentatively adopts the six proposed resource sustainability outcomes identified 

and defined by senior EPA managers in Everyday Choices: Opportunities for 

Environmental Stewardship listed in Chapter 2 of this document: 

• Air: Sustain clean and healthy air. 

• Ecosystems: Protect and restore ecosystems functions, goods and services. 

• Energy: Generate clean energy and use it efficiently. 

• Land: Support ecologically sensitive land management and development. 

• Materials: Use materials carefully and shift to environmentally preferable materials. 

• Water: Sustain water resources of quality and availability for desired use.40 

These outcomes are a starting point for discussing and refining a set of sustainability 

outcomes and organizing sustainability indicators. ORD is leading a cross-Agency 

process that aims to refine and sharpen these desired outcomes at multiple scales and to 

40 www.epa.gov/innovation. The outcomes are described more fully in Appendix D of the Technical Report 

for Everyday Choices at www.epa.gov/innovation/pdf/techrpt.pdf 

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ORD Sustainability Research Strategy – Internal Draft: June 13, 2007 

assess whether currently available data and indicators are scientifically valid, useful, and 

sufficient. 

The indicators will build on and connect to the Draft Report on the Environment, which 

employed indicators that are fundamental measures of environmental conditions. The 

indicators being developed seek to go beyond the Draft RoE indicators in four ways: 

• An expansion from media and ecosystems to include resources such as 

materials and energy contributes to an increased understanding of the 

interactions between society and the environment. 

• An increased focus on causal connections and correlations among indicators 

will enable better understanding of systems and will highlight opportunities 

for improvement. 

• A significant focus will be given to indicators that can inform decisionmaking, particularly at local and regional scales. 

• The developed indicators may expand beyond the environment to social and 

economic dimensions. 

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ORD Sustainability Research Strategy – Internal Draft: June 13, 2007 

CHAPTER 6. 

ROADMAP FOR IMPLEMENTATION

This Research Strategy will be implemented in several steps: 

• Demonstrate the value of sustainability research by identifying key priority 

national issues where application of sustainability approaches can be most 

effective in promoting sound and sustainable economic growth. 

• Transition the current Pollution Prevention and New Technologies (P2NT) 

research program into the Science and Technology for Sustainability (STS) 

Research Program. 

• Coordinate and integrate research across ORD that builds a critical 

knowledge base for sustainability, such as by identifying synergies, gaps to 

be filled, and high-priority emerging areas among existing research 

strategies. 

• Initiate and strengthen collaborations and partnerships—with EPA Program 

and Regional Offices, other federal agencies, state and local governments, 

communities, industry, nonprofit organizations, universities, and international 

partners—that address critical sustainability issues and stimulate broader 

progress towards sustainability in both research and implementation. 

ORD Organization and Multi-Year Plans 

While the sustainability research focus is new for EPA, it complements ORD’s traditional 

focus on risk assessment and risk management. ORD organizes its research into a number 

of media and cross-media Multi-Year Plans (MYP) as shown in Table 6.1. MYPs identify 

long-term goals (LTG), annual performance goals (APGs), and associated annual 

performance measures (APMs) for a 5-year period. MYPs are intended to be living 

documents and are updated as needed to reflect the current state of the science, resource 

availability, and Agency priorities. In ORD MYP are administered by National Program 

Directors (NPDS) who serve as ORD scientific leads for each subject area. 

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ORD Sustainability Research Strategy – Internal Draft: June 13, 2007 

Table 6.1. ORD Multi-Year Research Plans Organized by EPA Strategic Goals 

EPA Strategic Goals ORD Multi-Year Research Plans 

Goal 1: Air Clean Air 

Goal 2: Water Drinking Water 

Water Quality 

Goal 3: Land Land Preservation and Restoration 

Goal 4: Communities & Ecosystems Ecological Research 

Human Health 

Human Health Risk Assessment 

Global Change 

Mercury 

Endocrine Disruptors 

Safe Pesticides/Safe Products 

Goal 5: Compliance and Environmental 

Stewardship 

Science and Technology for Sustainability 

Economics and Decision Science 

This Research Strategy is designed to guide all ORD research programs and MYPs 

toward achieving measurable sustainable outcomes. Building on the vision of 

environmental stewardship, this Strategy will engage in research activities that will study 

the sustainability of systems (e.g., ecological, technological, and human-built) from a life 

cycle perspective. The results of this effort can be adopted by EPA stakeholders and 

partners: (1) Individuals (via consumer choices), (2) Communities (via ecosystem 

protection and infrastructure planning and management), (3) Government (via facility 

planning and management, technology demonstrations, policies and regulations), and (4) 

Companies (via product design, supply chain management, facility design, and 

management). ORD leadership on sustainability complements and supports shifts by EPA 

Program Offices toward material management and urban revitalization (OSWER), green 

chemistry (OPPTS), sustainable water infrastructure (OW), low-impact urban 

development (OPEI), and ecosystem and watershed management (OW). 

Setting Priorities: Addressing National Issues 

Addressing research prioritization within a broad subject area such as sustainability is 

challenging. Because this Strategy lays out a new research approach for ORD, 

prioritization is especially difficult. In order to give ORD research planners in the various 

MYPs more flexibility and autonomy in selecting priority research areas, this Strategy, 

rather than directly identifying the priority areas, identifies guiding factors for selecting 

research priorities. The individual MYPs and their National Program Directors (NPDs) 

will more specifically identify their priority sustainability research areas.

41 

41 In reviewing this Strategy, the SAB panel made several recommendations on focus and priority: 

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ORD Sustainability Research Strategy – Internal Draft: June 13, 2007 

Five factors can guide selection of topics and design of programs under the MYPs: 

• High impact. The MYPs must pursue research with high scientific impact that 

addresses important national issues relevant to achieving sustainable 

outcomes. The development of knowledge in the theme areas discussed in 

Chapters 3 and 4 must enable the long-term sustainability outcomes of the 

resource systems discussed in Chapter 2 at a sufficiently large scale. Investing 

early to avoid or prevent problems is preferred. 

• True to EPA’s intramural and extramural research capabilities. ORD 

intramural research capabilities serve a dual purpose of directly meeting 

Program and Regional Office research needs and building capability for 

solving longer-term problems. Intramural programs can also serve as focal 

points for scientific and technical assistance centers to assist a variety of 

government and non-government stakeholders. ORD extramural research 

programs, such as the Science To Achieve Results (STAR) research grant 

program, can be used to explore new topical areas or research approaches and 

also to catalyze change in the broader national research communities. All of 

these capabilities can and should be drawn upon in an effective MYP. 

• True to EPA’s role. ORD should focus sustainability research in areas that are 

central to EPA’s mission, while collaborating with other agencies and 

organizations in areas where missions intersect. For example, EPA has a 

central research role of informing the long-term protection of water quality in 

watersheds, and it can collaborate with the Department of Energy to advance 

understanding of the environmental implications of emerging energy 

technologies. An effective MYP will address both types of research. 

• Leveraging results. Research that ultimately influences design, decisionmaking, or policies leading to resource sustainability on a sufficiently large 

Recognizing that the Agency is poised to assume a global leadership role in sustainability 

research, the Committee strongly recommends that, in light of ORD’s limited budget, the 

following parallel activities be conducted immediately: (i) conduct core research on sustainability 

focusing on the development of defensible sustainability metrics, and (ii) implement a small 

number of Agency-sponsored technology demonstration projects that provide ORD with the 

opportunity to achieve significant visibility within the sustainability research arena. It is important 

that these demonstration projects move away from waste/end-of-pipe approaches to take a 

broader, system-based perspective. Examples of such projects might include an assessment of (i) 

biofuels policies and options, which are topical and encompass a broad range of issues and 

potential impacts on emissions of greenhouse gases, agriculture, dependence on imports of fossil 

fuels, etc., and may imply a variety of economic incentives; (ii) a study of the hypoxic 

environment in the Gulf of Mexico or the Chesapeake Bay, and (iii) wastewater practices and 

infrastructure needs in regions and cities with accelerated population growth. 

 The final SAB report will be posted at www.epa.gov/sab/panels/eec_adv_srs_myp.htm 

54
ORD Sustainability Research Strategy – Internal Draft: June 13, 2007 

scale is preferred. Leverage can occur through partnering in initial research or 

through transfer and diffusion of knowledge, methodologies, and approaches. 

• In a systems context. Research should be within a systems context. This is true 

for research leading to systems understanding but also for research leading, 

for example, to a decision-making tool that considers multimedia interactions 

within a geographic area or to a technology that enables reduction of life cycle 

energy use for a class of products (see Figure 5.1). 

Balancing Research Needs 

In general, research needs far exceed available resources. Declining federal budgets for 

research and development require ORD to address conflicting needs and priorities and to 

establish a balance across research portfolios. Each MYP should consider each of the 

following criteria in its research portfolio: 

• As frequently emphasized by EPA’s SAB, there should be a balance between 

known and emerging issues and problems. For example, because it is well 

known that energy and the environment will continue to be interconnected and 

linked to sustainability, it is important that ORD continue to support research 

at the nexus of energy and the environment. Nanotechnology, with its 

environmental implications and applications, is an example of an issue that 

EPA and ORD correctly identified as an emerging issue several years ago. 

• A balance among short- and long-term projects is also necessary. Investing in 

shorter-term projects permits more immediate demonstration of results, while 

wisely selected longer-term projects can represent valuable investments for 

the future. 

• A balance is required between projects that are central to EPA’s domain (such 

as watershed protection) and those that reside at the boundaries, such as the 

interplay between agriculture and the health of aquatic ecosystems. In the case 

of issues near the boundaries of EPA’s responsibilities, collaboration with 

other government agencies or private-sector organizations is particularly 

important. 

• A balance is needed between research that supports decision-making within 

EPA Program and Regional Offices and research that supports decisionmaking in other local, state, or federal government organizations and in 

industry. 

• And finally, there should be a balance between projects that directly solve 

problems and those that aim to stimulate others by catalyzing or leading them. 

An example of the latter is investing in new branches of academic disciplines, 

such as investing in green chemistry through an extramural research program. 

55
Figure 6.1. Long-Term Goals of Science and Technology for Sustainability MYP 

Conducting 

qualitative 

assessments 

of current 

trends and 

futures 

scenarios 

LTG 1: Decision-makers 

adopt ORD-identified and 

developed metrics to 

quantitatively assess 

environmental systems for 

sustainability 

LTG 2: Decision-makers 

adopt ORD-developed 

decision support tools and 

methodologies to promote 

environmental stewardship 

and sustainable environmental 

management practices 

LTG 3: Decision-makers 

adopt innovative technologies 

developed or verified by ORD 

to solve environmental 

problems, contributing to 

sustainable outcomes 

Provide 

support to 

regional and 

national 

sustainability 

policies and 

initiatives 

ORD Sustainability Research Strategy – Internal Draft: June 13, 2007 

The Sustainability Research Roadmap: 

1. Transition from Pollution Prevention to Sustainability 

The first element in ORD’s roadmap towards sustainability is the transition of the 

existing Pollution Prevention and New Technology (P2NT) MYP to a new Science and 

Technology for Sustainability (STS) MYP. The restructured program gives greater 

emphasis to key elements of sustainability research, including green chemistry and green 

engineering, systems studies, life cycle assessment, and technology verification. 

The long-term goals of the new STS MYP are outcome-oriented, providing technical 

support to broader regional and national sustainability policies and initiatives (Figure 6.1) 

To accomplish these goals, regular and continuous assessment of environmental trends is 

needed, as well as thoughtful consideration of likely alternative future scenarios. 

Together, these will inform the development of sustainability metrics (LTG 1) that will 

not only provide baseline information on the sustainability of systems, but will also allow 

56 
ORD Sustainability Research Strategy – Internal Draft: June 13, 2007 

the measurement and tracking of progress in achieving sustainable outcomes. Information 

gathered during the assessment of conditions and the development of metrics will provide 

researchers with information critical for developing and implementing decision support 

tools (LTG 2) and innovative technologies (LTG 3) that will promote sustainable 

outcomes. 

Supporting the central theme of helping decision-makers make better and more 

sustainable decisions, the STS includes two grant programs aimed at stimulating 

technology development and putting existing sustainability ideas into practice. 

The People, Prosperity, and Planet (P3) student sustainability design competition 

inspires and educates the next generation to research, design, and develop solutions to 

sustainability challenges in areas such as agriculture, materials and chemicals, energy, 

information technology, water, and the built environment. P3 students and their faculty 

advisors quantify the benefits of their projects in the environmental, economic, and social 

dimensions and advisors integrate the projects into their educational syllabi. Through the 

P3 program, students learn to work in a multidisciplinary environment and to make 

collaborative, interdisciplinary decisions. By integrating sustainability concepts into 

higher education, P3 is helping to create a future workforce with an awareness of the 

impact of its work on the environment, economy, and society. 

The Collaborative Science and Technology Network for Sustainability (CNS) program 

supports consortia of government and non-government organizations on high-impact 

regional projects that explore and provide learning opportunities for new approaches to 

environmental protection that are systems-oriented, forward-looking, and preventive. The 

CNS program is described in more detail below 

2. Coordinating and Integrating Priority Research across ORD and EPA 

The next element of the Sustainability Research Roadmap is coordinating and connecting 

existing ORD research programs. The resulting more integrated research portfolio will 

inform policy and decision-making and will illuminate further research priorities across 

ORD and the rest of EPA. The first step in this process is identifying the synergies and 

potential coordination among the other research strategies and MYPs (shown in Table 

4.2) that will enhance EPA’s research contribution to sustainability. A model of synergies 

between the Sustainability Research Strategy (SRS) and the Environmental Economics 

Research Strategy (EERS) is shown in Figure 6.2. 

The EERS presents a focused analysis of Agency research priorities in economics and 

decision sciences, which are supported through the Economics and Decision Sciences 

(EDS) extramural research program. As shown, the identified EERS research priorities 

dovetail nicely with the SRS integrated framework as outlined in Chapter 4. 

The general intersection of behavioral science research and sustainability gives rise to the 

last two of the six SRS themes described in Chapter 4—Economics and Human Behavior 

and Information and Decision-Making—which include five high-priority EDS research 

topics presented in the EERS consultation process: Health Benefits Valuation, Ecological 

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ORD Sustainability Research Strategy – Internal Draft: June 13, 2007 

Benefits Valuation, Market Mechanisms and Incentives, Environmental Behavior and 

Decision-Making, and Benefits of Information Disclosure. 

These five EERS topics will in turn provide critical input into the SRS research 

objectives described in Chapter 5. The penultimate goal of this research coordination is to 

provide the behavioral science research necessary for developing environmental policies 

that support sustainability outcomes and are cost-efficient over the long term. 

Figure 6.2. Integration of EERS and SRS 

The behavioral science and sustainability programs cooperated to organize a December 

2005 workshop that examined economic aspects of sustainability, and plan to cooperate 

in developing future CNS, Market Mechanisms, and Environmental Behavior 

solicitations. In addition, the programs will coordinate with each other in synthesizing 

and communicating research results to support regional decision-making as part of this 

collaborative element of the roadmap. Finally, the EDS program will contribute 

knowledge and insight on organizational behavior in the private sector that will inform 

EPA interaction with businesses on sustainability, part of this roadmap element. 

These examples illustrate collaboration that can be applied to other research strategies as 

well. The coordination and integration across research strategies will enable ORD and the 

rest of the Agency to identify knowledge gaps and to more effectively identify emerging 

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ORD Sustainability Research Strategy – Internal Draft: June 13, 2007 

priorities. This process will be ongoing, proceeding from the prioritization factors 

discussed earlier in this chapter. 

3. Initiating and Strengthening Collaborations and Partnerships 

The third element in ORD’s roadmap towards sustainability involves teamwork with a 

wide range of collaborators and partners: EPA Program and Regional Offices, States, and 

Local Governments; other federal agencies; universities; the business communities; and 

international agencies and organizations. After some general considerations, this section 

will explore each of these areas for ORD collaboration. 

ORD is in a unique position to lead in sustainability research and its connection to policy 

and decision-making. As a science-based organization within a regulatory agency, ORD 

can (1) provide integrated multimedia scientific information reflecting considerations 

beyond single media for more sustainable policies, (2) provide strong input into Agency 

indicators of environmental sustainability, and (3) collaborate with universities, nonprofit 

organizations, businesses, and research organizations in other countries, to better 

understand sustainability and to identify knowledge gaps and emerging priorities. 

A draft report to assist meeting deliberations for the SAB review of this Research 

Strategy called for EPA leadership in sustainability: 

There is a need for, and EPA should provide, leadership both internal to 

the Agency and external among the federal agency family and other 

organizations. ... EPA has an opportunity to coordinate and lead in the 

definition of environmental sustainability and in the use of related research 

products that will influence how other federal agencies and organizations 

move forward with their sustainability programs.

42 

In implementing this Research Strategy, ORD will make external collaboration and 

partnering with stakeholders and customers a key element of its management approaches. 

As a science-based organization, ORD faces the critical challenge of finding effective 

ways to deliver its research products to decision-makers and to work with them to 

translate research into practical outcomes. ORD initiated its Collaborative Science and 

Technology Network for Sustainability (CNS) program (described below) on the premise 

that sustainable outcomes would best be achieved by collaborative problem solving in 

which scientists and decision-makers together assess and understand implications of 

policy choices. In achieving sustainability, ORD scientists must strive to be both good 

scientists and good communicators. 

3.a. Collaboration with EPA Program and Regional Offices, States, and Local 

Governments 

42 www.epa.gov/sab/pdf/sustainability_for_chartered_board_jan_18_07.pdf 

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ORD Sustainability Research Strategy – Internal Draft: June 13, 2007 

Program Offices: ORD research has traditionally served to address specific issues raised 

by EPA Program Offices. ORD NPDs are responsible for coordinating with Program 

Offices to identify critical research gaps. EPA Program Offices have identified a number 

of sustainability-related research questions that are now being reflected in existing MYPs 

and in the new Science and Technology for Sustainability MYP. Many of these Program 

Office activities reflect applications of sustainability research supported by ORD and 

defined in this Strategy, including a focus on systems or multimedia approaches, 

sustainable design, system resilience, and collaborative and community-based problem 

solving. 

The challenge ahead is to coordinate research that may involve several Program Offices 

and NPDs. One example illustrates how the common goal of sustainability is reflected in 

Program Offices and MYPs around the research theme of human-built systems and land 

use. Table 6.2 identifies a number of key Agency programs related to the common goal 

of a sustainable built environment. 

Table 6.2. EPA Programs Related to the Built Environment 

Media, EPA Programs, and 

Program Offices1 

Program Objectives 

Land: Smart Growth (OPEI) Help design low-impact and green communities through 

sharing best practices and promoting 10 development 

principles. 

Land: SMARTe (ORD) With Web-based decision support tool, help developers 

evaluate future reuse options for a site or area. 

Land: Brownfield Revitalization 

(OSWER) 

Revitalize contaminated sites to be economically 

productive. 

Land: Environmentally 

Responsible Redevelopment and 

Reuse (ER3 (OECA) 

Use enforcement and incentives to promote sustainable 

development of contaminated sites. 

Water: Sustainable Water 

Infrastructure (OW) 

Better manage utilities, full-cost pricing, efficient water use, 

and watershed approaches. 

Water; WaterSense (OW) Help conserve water for future generations by providing 

information on products and programs that save water 

without sacrificing performance. 

Water: National Pollution 

Discharge Elimination System 

(OW) 

Control water pollution by green infrastructure and 

regulating point sources that discharge pollutants into 

waters of the United States. 

Energy Use: Energy Star (OAR) Evaluate and test energy efficiency of products in more 

than 50 categories; provide information on green building 

design and energy efficiency. 

Air: Air Toxics Strategy (OAR) Identify and monitor urban air toxics from stationary, 

mobile, and indoor sources. 

Air: Community-Based Air 

Quality Programs (OAR) 

Support air toxics projects in about 30 communities across 

the nation, helping inform and empower citizens to make 

local decisions concerning the health of their communities. 

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ORD Sustainability Research Strategy – Internal Draft: June 13, 2007 

Indoor Air: Indoor Environment 

Management Research (ORD) 

Develop better understanding of the relationship among 

indoor air quality (IAQ) and emissions sources, heating, 

ventilating, and air-conditioning (HVAC) systems, and aircleaning devices. 

Climate: Climate Impact 

Assessment Research (ORD) 

Integrate remote and ground-based data and dozens of 

models to assess potential impacts of climate change. 

1

 OPEI: Office of Policy, Economics, and Innovation; ORD: Office of Research and Development; OSWER: 

Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response; OECA: Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assistance; 

OW: Office of Water; OAR: Office of Air and Radiation. 

Achieving sustainability in the built environment is clearly a national challenge that is 

being addressed by many programs of EPA that cut across program offices and strategic 

goals. These programs include building design and energy efficiency, urban land 

revitalization, smart growth, management of urban systems and water infrastructure, and 

improving air quality. ORD’s challenge is to help define the underlying research needed 

to support these programs and work to provide the integration across Program Offices 

and MYPs. 

ORD has also begun working with Program and Regional Offices to identify indicators 

that define and measure trends related to the sustainability outcomes identified in Chapter 

2. The emergence of the focus on sustainability outcomes reflects the evolution of 

thought in EPA on how best to address mission responsibilities. This new effort is linked 

to EPA’s Report on the Environment and its Draft Strategic Plan 2007-2012. 

Regional Offices: Committed to working closely with EPA Regional Offices, ORD has 

created the positions of Regional Science Liaisons in each region. Many Regional Offices 

have identified sustainability-related issues as major priorities. The existing Regional 

Applied Research Effort (RARE) program provides the regions with near-term research 

on priority, region-specific science needs and improves collaboration among regions and 

ORD laboratories and centers. Each year ORD provides funding for each Region to 

develop a research topic, which is then submitted to a specific ORD laboratory or center 

as an extramural research proposal. Once approved, the research is conducted as a joint 

effort, with ORD researchers and regional staff working together to meet region-specific 

needs. 

RARE provides a means to address a number of sustainability issues. Past RARE 

research topics have touched upon all aspects of environmental sciences, from human 

health concerns to ecological effects of various pollutants. The RARE program also 

supports Regional Science Topic Workshops which aim to improve cross-Agency 

understanding of science issues and to develop a network of EPA scientists working on 

selected topics. These programs provide sound foundations for those who will continue to 

exchange information on science topics as the Agency moves forward in planning 

education, research, and risk management programs. 

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ORD Sustainability Research Strategy – Internal Draft: June 13, 2007 

Several national issues relevant to all EPA regions offer special potential for ORD 

cooperation with Regional Offices. Two of the most often cited national issues that affect 

regions in different ways, are energy generation and use and ecosystem management. 

National attention to issues like geochemical life cycles (e.g., nitrates) involves complex 

interactions across regions. ORD’s implementation of the Sustainability Research 

Strategy points to a need for stronger coordination across EPA regions on key national 

issues. 

State and Local Governments: ORD recognizes that many critical decisions on 

sustainability—such as urban growth and development, ecosystem protection, water and 

energy use, and human health—are made at state and local levels. In addressing these 

areas, decision-makers must anticipate potential social and environmental conditions 

(future scenarios) and work to integrate media (air, water, and land) impacts through a 

systems approach. 

To better understand such high-priority regional sustainability issues, ORD and the 

Office of Policy, Economics, and Innovation (OPEI) have initiated outreach to state, 

local, and tribal governments. This interaction will enable ORD to contribute to the 

identification and scientific understanding of the longer-term societal issues that will 

likely affect EPA’s mission responsibilities at regional and national levels. ORD will also 

be able to contribute possible solutions and management options in the form of 

technologies, decision-making tools, and collaborative problem solving. 

The CNS program is a significant part of ORD’s strategy to support the application of 

science to local and regional decision-making in pursuit of sustainability. Table 6.3 

shows the projects and collaborators funded through the first CNS solicitation. 

Table 6.3. Projects and Partners of the 

Collaborative Science and Technology Network for Sustainability

Project Grantee Partners and Collaborators 

Moving Toward Sustainable 

Manufacturing Through Efficient 

Materials and Energy Use 

Northeast Waste 

Management 

Officials' 

Association 

Commonwealth of Massachusetts 

Multi-Objective Decision Model 

for Urban Water Use: Planning 

for a Regional Water Reuse 

Ordinance 

Illinois Institute of 

Technology 

State of Illinois, City of Chicago, Fox 

Metro Water Reclamation District 

Ecological Sustainability in 

Rapidly Urbanizing Watersheds: 

Evaluating Strategies Designed 

to Mitigate Impacts on Stream 

Ecosystems 

University of 

Maryland - College 

Park 

Montgomery County, USGS 

Using Market Forces to 

Implement Sustainable 

City of Portland, 

Energy Office 

Portland State University, University of 

Oregon, Willamette Partnership 

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ORD Sustainability Research Strategy – Internal Draft: June 13, 2007 

Stormwater Management 

Sustainable Sandhills: 

Development a Plan for 

Regional Sustainability 

Sustainable 

Sandhills 

State of North Carolina, Sandhills Area 

Land Trust, Base Closure and 

Realignment Regional Task Force, 

Southeast Regional Partnership for 

Planning and Sustainability, National 

Association of Counties 

Sustainability of Land Use in 

Puerto Rico 

Universidad 

Metropolitana 

Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, US 

Forest Service, Puerto Rico Planning 

Society 

Transforming Office Parks Into 

Transit Villages 

The San Francisco 

Foundation 

Community 

Initiative Funds 

Hacienda Business Parks Owners 

Association, Cambridge Systematics, 

Inc, Oracle 

Industrial Ecology, Pollution 

Prevention and the New 

York/New Jersey Harbor 

New York 

Academy of 

Sciences 

Rutgers University, Manhattan 

College, General Electric, State of New 

Jersey, State of New York, Columbia 

University, Port Authority of New York 

and New Jersey, New York City, 

Natural Resources Defense Council, 

Hudson River Foundation 

Harnessing the Hydrologic 

Disturbance Regime: Sustaining 

Multiple Benefits in Large River 

Floodplains in the Pacific 

Northwest 

Oregon State 

University 

University of Oregon, Willamette 

Partnership, State of Oregon, City of 

Eugene, City of Corvallis, City of 

Albany, USDA, US Fish and Wildlife 

Service, National Marine Fisheries 

Service 

Bringing Global Thinking to 

Local Sustainability Efforts: A 

Collaborative Project for the 

Boston Metropolitan Region 

Tellus Institute (Boston) Metropolitan Area Planning 

Council, The Boston Foundation, 

Commonwealth of Massachusetts 

Integrating Water Supply 

Management and Ecological 

Flow Water Requirements 

The Nature 

Conservancy 

Tellus Institute, Tufts University, State 

of Connecticut 

Cuyahoga Sustainability 

Network 

University of 

Maryland Baltimore 

County 

Cleveland State University, University 

of Iowa, Kent State University, Chagrin 

River Watershed Partners, Euclid 

Creek Watershed Council, West Creek 

Preservation Committee 

Framework for Sustainable 

Watershed Management 

Delaware River 

Basin Commission 

Monroe County, State of Pennsylvania, 

USGS, Brodhead Watershed 

Association 

CNS grantees draw on decision-making tools derived from analytical models and on 

collaborative approaches to practical problem solving that support progress at a regional 

scale towards the sustainability outcomes identified in Chapter 2. 

The CNS-supported Sustainable Sandhills project in North Carolina is a model of such 

integrated decision-making for sustainable outcomes: a non-profit institution (Sustainable 

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ORD Sustainability Research Strategy – Internal Draft: June 13, 2007 

Sandhills) is serving as a convener for the U.S. Army, the state of North Carolina, and 

dozens of local and state communities; and EPA’s Region 4 is collaborating with ORD 

ecologists and state of North Carolina scientists to develop a set of analytical decisionsupport tools derived from geographic information linked to ecological models and future 

scenarios. The goal is an effective regional plan that meets long-term community goals 

and is cost-effective, environmentally sound, and sustainable. 

The Sustainable Sandhills example reflects a general strategy of integrating and 

synthesizing knowledge generated across various research programs inside and outside of 

EPA to more effectively address sustainability-related questions at the regional level. This 

example illustrates how regional projects can serve as integrating mechanisms for ORD 

research strategies. Regional projects like this may assist ORD to identify additional 

important core research questions and to prioritize needs in developing fundamental 

research methods. 

Lessons learned from the CNS program will be shared with regions and communities that 

work with EPA through other programs, such as Community Action for a Renewed 

Environment (CARE), Environmental Justice Collaborative Grants, Targeted Watershed 

Grants, and Brownfields Technical Assistance. 

3.b. Interagency Collaboration 

While EPA is the lead federal agency in environmental compliance and enforcement, its 

overall and environmental research budgets are small relative to the federal government 

as a whole. In energy, transportation, agricultural management, and other areas, EPA 

supports and complements other federal lead agencies. A national goal of sustainable 

development can only be achieved through integrated and coherent polices across federal 

agencies. 

In implementing this Strategy, ORD will build on existing partnerships and seek new 

collaborations with other federal agencies.43 In 2004, ORD partnered with the Office of 

the Federal Environmental Executive (OFEE) to organize a sustainability workshop 

among federal agencies. The workshop, which revealed a wealth of federal activities but 

a paucity of coordination and policy coherence among the activities, led to the creation of 

a Stewardship and Sustainability Council organized by OFEE and EPA. ORD intends to 

continue working with OFEE to coordinate and integrate sustainability efforts with other 

federal agencies and to pursue interagency collaboration that links research and 

application. Areas of mission focus and supported research among federal agencies 

corresponding to the six sustainability outcomes from Chapter 2 are shown in Table 6.4, 

which highlights opportunities for interagency collaboration and coordination. 

43 The Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), which coordinates science and technology in 

federal agencies, has focused on a number of macro research and technology issues including industrial 

innovation, competitiveness, and nanotechnology. Extensive interagency coordination also focuses on 

climate change assessment and research, earth observations and GOESS, and ocean sciences. Water 

availability and quality and ecosystem services are emerging issues under interagency discussion. 

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Table 6.4. Opportunities for Research or Program Collaboration across Agencies, 

by Sustainability Resource Area 

X – some opportunity XX – strong opportunity 

Air Ecosystems Energy Land Materials Water 

DOD X X XX X 

DOE X XX 

DOI XX XX XX XX 

EPA XX XX X XX X XX 

NASA XX 

NOAA XX XX 

NSF X XX X X XX XX 

USDA XX X X 

DOT XX X XX 

ORD Sustainability Research Strategy – Internal Draft: June 13, 2007 

One example of federal interagency cooperation is the emergence of partnerships on 

sustainable land management. USDA and DOI’s U.S. Geological Survey each support 

research related to land management and development. DOD’s Department of the Army 

is increasingly focusing on its stewardship of land on and around military bases. DOI and 

USDA’s Forest Service are partnering in activities related to healthy forests, ecological 

services and management. New partnerships are also emerging around the issue of 

biofuels and energy conversion. DOE and USDA co-chair the Biomass Research and 

Development Board (which also includes DOI, DOT, EPA, OSTP, and OFEE) mandated 

by the Energy Policy Act 2005 and are leading efforts to develop a comprehensive 

Federal Biofuels Work Plan which will define an overall interagency biomass strategy 

incorporating topics such as feedstock, conversion technology, biofuel infrastructure, and 

communication, education and outreach. Sustainability-related objectives are emphasized 

in the Energy Policy Act, which directs the Secretaries of Agriculture and Energy, in 

consultation with the EPA Administrator and heads of other appropriate departments and 

agencies, to direct research and development toward “a diversity of sustainable domestic 

sources of biomass for conversion to biobased fuels and biobased products” and “to 

maximize the environmental, economic, and social benefits of production of biobased 

fuels and biobased products on a large scale through life-cycle economic and 

environmental analysis and other means.” 

3.c. University Collaboration 

University communities are embracing sustainability in facility operations, community 

development, and academic programs. With endowments and local funds, many 

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universities have created new academic centers for sustainability systems sciences, 

resilience, green design, and green chemistry. Many joint programs exist between 

business schools and environmental programs. 

ORD has developed strong ties with the university community through its extramural 

STAR research grants (including CNS) and fellowship programs. ORD’s P3 student 

sustainability design competition and its engineering curriculum benchmarking project 

are catalyzing leadership within academia. Going beyond these grant-related activities, 

ORD aims to foster closer ties among universities, ORD laboratories, and other EPA 

Program and Regional Offices to boost research on current environmental problems, 

potential future problems, and sustainable solutions. Toward this goal, ORD began in 

2006 to conduct visits to major university sustainability research centers to discuss 

coordination and collaboration on emerging research issues. ORD aims to partner with 

many more academic centers to ensure that scientific advances are translated into 

practical management approaches. By interacting with universities and investing in 

research and education, EPA can support the development and refinement of academic 

fields that contribute to sustainability.44 

3.d. Collaboration with the Business Community 

Recognizing that business leadership and decisions taken by industry have a strong 

influence on progress towards sustainability, ORD is pursing a two-fold strategy with 

private industry: (1) EPA engages in a broad conversation with the business community 

to collectively and strategically identify and address sustainability-related problems; (2) 

Drawing on knowledge gained from the EDS research program, EPA will analyze and 

document the business case for sustainability, bringing a better understanding of shortand long-term business motivation to inform EPA programs.45 

3.e. International Collaboration46 

Five years after the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD), many 

developed and developing nations, United Nations agencies, and non-government 

organizations are aggressively pursuing sustainable development objectives. The WSSD 

launched hundreds of Partnerships for Sustainability among governments and nongovernment organizations to address a broad range of sustainability issues. Significant 

44 EPA’s Smart Growth Program has made the greening of universities and their surrounding communities 

a priority issue. 

45 These ORD activities complement EPA’s traditional regulatory and voluntary programs. The Agency has 

more than 65 voluntary programs that encourage business to move beyond complying with environmental 

laws to implement sustainable operations. Programs such as Performance Track operate at the facility level 

while others, such as the Sectors Program, work across whole industrial sectors. EPA’s Climate Leadership 

program aims at voluntary reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. The High Production Volume Challenge 

Program aims to provide the public with information on many high-volume chemicals. These and many 

other programs are part of EPA’s efforts to advance environmental stewardship and sustainable outcomes. 

 Links to many of these international programs and research strategies are available at EPA’s 

Sustainability Web site: www.epa.gov/sustainability/international.htm 

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46
ORD Sustainability Research Strategy – Internal Draft: June 13, 2007 

science and technology cooperation and agreements are underway within the OECD and 

among the G8 nations. The G8 2003 Science and Technology for Sustainable 

Development Action Plan focuses on areas that are central to EPA: coordination of global 

observation systems through the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS); 

cleaner, more efficient, and sustainable energy use; agricultural productivity and 

sustainability; and biodiversity conservation. 

Several European Union (EU) member countries have also developed their own 

sustainability research strategies. The newly launched EU 7th Research Framework 

(2007-2013) supports basic research in several areas related to sustainable development 

including sustainable health care, sustainable production and management of biological 

resources, sustainable production and consumption patterns, sustainable transport and 

energy systems and greenhouse gas reductions, and technology development and 

verification. 

ORD intends to take advantage of the increasing global interest in sustainability to pursue 

international partnerships to support sustainability research and the achievement of the 

Millennium Development Goals. ORD has begun to expand its collaboration with the 

European Commission (EC) in areas that support the research identified in Chapter 4. 

These areas include environmental and sustainability indicators, uncertainty in 

environmental models, development of decision support tools and environmental 

technologies, nanotechnology uses, and sustainable chemistry. In October 2006, EPA 

signed an agreement for research collaboration with China. A February 2007 agreement 

signed by EPA and the EU Director General for Research has launched a cooperative 

research and eco-informatics program that provides a new framework for cooperation 

between the EPA and several EC directorates. 

Implementing the Sustainability Research Strategy for a Sustainable Future 

Advances in science and technology form a foundation that can lead to a wide array of 

opportunities for advancing towards a sustainable future: 

• Science and technology can enable communities, nations, and industries to 

measure, monitor, and characterize pollutants and environmental conditions. 

• Models and data analysis techniques—ranging from chemical design tools 

based on computational toxicology to material flow analysis—can help 

society to better understand environmental conditions, their underlying social 

and economic causes, and their effects on human health. 

• Technological advances—such as those achieved in green chemistry and 

engineering—can enable society to use resources more efficiently and to 

prevent or reduce pollution and the associated risks to human health and the 

environment. 

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ORD Sustainability Research Strategy – Internal Draft: June 13, 2007 

• Futures analysis can assist society to better anticipate and prepare for potential 

social and economic changes—such as the predicted industrial transformation 

growing out of the convergence of nanotechnology, biotechnology, and 

information technology—and resulting environmental changes. 

• Finally, science and technology can help to develop tools for supporting 

decision-making that advances the protection of human health and the natural 

environment now and for future generations. 

In short, this Sustainability Research Strategy serves our society’s environmental needs in 

ways that also support our economy and our society. The potential long-term national 

benefits from pursuing the research identified in the Sustainability Research Strategy are 

clear and compelling: 

• It will enable communities and regions to envision, plan, and manage their 

natural and built environments so that materials and energy are conserved and 

the quality of air and water protected while economic and social needs are 

met. 

• It will enable industry and consumers to benefit from advances in scientific 

understanding and technology so that resources are conserved and the 

environment and public health are protected while economic and social 

objectives are met. 

• It will give EPA and the nation more options to protect human health and the 

environment for future generations, informed by an improved understanding 

of systems in the natural and built environments. 

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