Selected Examples of United States Efforts To Promote Sustainable Consumption and Production:
Production Processes and Industrial Development

National Partnership for Environmental Priorities (NPEP). The NPEP Program encourages companies to make innovative changes in their manufacturing and production processes to reduce the use of priority chemicals. Charter members have identified priority chemicals they want to reduce and signed on to the program.

The GreenScapes Alliance is designed to help preserve natural resources and prevent waste and pollution by encouraging companies, government agencies, and other entities to make more holistic decisions regarding waste generation and disposal and the use of the land, water, pesticides, and energy. By focusing on the "4 Rs"?reduce, reuse, recycle, and rebuy?this program can help improve both an organization's bottom-line and the environment. GreenScapes will promote practices and products that still meet users needs but have better environmental profiles than current methods.

Environmentally Preferable Purchasing. "Environmentally Preferable" refers to products or services that have a lesser or reduced effect on human health and the environment when compared with competing products or services that serve the same purpose. The EPP Program works to leverage the U.S. government?s purchasing power to minimize environmental burdens by encouraging and assisting federal agencies in the purchasing of environmentally preferable products and services.

The Green Suppliers Network (GSN). A collaborative venture between industry, the EPA and the 360vu, a leading provider of assistance to US manufacturers through its national network of Manufacturing Extension Partnerships (MEP), works with all levels of the manufacturing supply chain to achieve environmental and economic benefits.

Clean Marinas is a voluntary, incentive-based program promoted by EPA and others to encourage marina operators and boaters to protect coastal water quality by engaging in environmentally sound operating and maintenance procedures. Offers information, guidance, and technical assistance to marina operators, local governments and boaters on best management practices.

The Green Chemistry Program promotes the research, development, and implementation of innovative chemical technologies that prevent pollution in both a scientifically sound and cost-effective manner. One of Green Chemistry?s program areas is the Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge, which recognizes outstanding accomplishments in green chemistry through an annual awards program. The combined achievements of the Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge award winners from 1996 to 2003 include: eliminating 320 million pounds of hazardous materials (including hazardous feedstocks, hazardous solvents, and hazardous waste), saving 390 million gallons of water, and reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 120 million pounds.

The Pesticide Environmental Stewardship Program is a voluntary program that forms partnerships with pesticide users to reduce the health and environmental risks associated with pesticide use and implement pollution prevention strategies. EPA started the program in 1994. All PESP members make a commitment to reduce pesticide risk and develop activities to achieve risk reduction.

Sustainable Futures is a pilot project launched in 2002 to encourage companies to apply pollution prevention principles during the development of new chemicals and to develop inherently low hazard new chemicals.

Best Practices works with industry to identify plant-wide opportunities for energy savings and process efficiency. Through the implementation of new technologies and systems improvements, companies across the United States are achieving immediate savings results. Most companies have saved a minimum of $1 million annually from just one plant-wide assessment, with an average payback of less than 18 months.

Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) Standards establish minimum efficiency levels for vehicles sold in the United States. In April 2003. the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) announced new fuel economy standards for light trucks Model Years ?05 through ?07. The standards will save approximately 2.5 billion gallons of gasoline over the life of these fleets. The new standards would gradually increase the standard from the current 20.7 mpg up to 22.2 mpg for MY 2007, and will cover minivans, pickup trucks, SUVs, and other light trucks. Further work is under way on future changes to the CAFE program.

Forest Products is one of nine energy- and waste-intensive industries that is collaborating with the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Industrial Technologies (OIT) in a research and development program called "Industries of the Future." Each year, OIT provides approximately $3 million to new projects and about $8 million to on-going projects in OIT?s forest products portfolio. To date, OIT?s Forest Products Team has awarded a total of $78 million in OIT funding to over 100 projects, while the industry has provided over $33 million in project funding in addition to specialized expertise, materials, and facilities. Eight technologies funded through OIT have completed development and are currently in the demonstration phase.

FreedomBUS funds the development of fuel cell transit buses in order to achieve commercialization of fuel cell technology for full size buses. DOT funds research in advanced technology buses that utilize low polluting fuels and provides assistance to local transit systems seeking to acquire fuel cell buses. Fuel cell buses are an ideal first step in the push for a hydrogen economy due to their fixed routes, limited infrastructure requirements, and unique operating characteristics.

The Industries of the Future Program at the Department of Energy aims to realize national energy and environmental goals by providing cost-shared funding to selected R&D projects in nine energy- and waste- intensive industry sectors. The projects focus on potentially high-payoff technologies that are too risky or costly to attract adequate private funding. The targeted industries include agriculture, aluminum, chemicals, forest products, glass, metal casting, mining, petroleum, and steel.

The Pollution Prevention Resource Exchange (P2Rx) is a consortium of eight regional pollution prevention information centers, funded in part through grants from EPA. The centers lay the groundwork for a seamless national network of easy-to-access, high quality pollution prevention information that promotes waste reduction throughout the country. The centers provide pollution prevention information, networking opportunities and other services to States, local governments and technical assistance providers in their region. The centers represent a broad constituency, including state and local pollution prevention programs, manufacturing extension partnerships, cooperative extension and nonprofit organizations. Since 1993 in the Pacific Northwest region alone, such efforts have saved more than 1 billion gallons of water, eliminated 840 tons of carbon dioxide emissions, reduced solid waste by about 242 million pounds, saved about 636 million KWh of electricity, avoided 15.3 million vehicle miles of travel, and reduced operating costs by more than $243 million.

SmartWay Transport is a partnership with various freight industry sectors that establishes incentives for fuel efficiency improvements and greenhouse gas emissions reductions. The partnership, which is currently in preliminary stages, has eliminated 83,000 tons of carbon dioxide and 1,300 tons of nitrogen oxide each year through anti-idling initiatives. Once it is in full operation, the program will eliminate between nine and 18 million metric tons of carbon-equivalent and up to 200,000 tons of nitrogen oxide emissions per year by 2012, which is the equivalent of saving 150 million barrels of oil a year.

Design for the Environment has worked with more than 15 industrial sectors to empower industry to incorporate environmental considerations, along with performance and cost considerations, into the design and redesign of their products, processes, and technical and management systems since 1992. This program has had a significant impact on the drycleaning industry, for example, leading to greater use of environmentally preferable cleaning technologies and a 68% reduction in the use of perchloroethylene, or "perc," a chemical solvent.

The Environmental Technology Verification (ETV) Program at EPA develops testing protocols and verifies the performance of innovative technologies that have the potential to improve protection of human health and the environment. Since 1995 ETV has verified 208 private sector environmental technologies and developed 73 testing protocols in such areas as drinking water systems for small communities, air pollution control technologies that reduce smog causing nitrogen oxide and lower greenhouse gases, new technologies that lower emissions and costs for metal finishing shops and industrial coatings operations, and innovative monitoring technologies of all types. An additional 108 technologies are in testing or evaluation and 127 applications are pending.

The Green Engineering Program is the design, commercialization, and use of processes and products that are technically sound and economically viable while minimizing generation of pollution prevention at the source and environmental impact to human health and the environment. The Green Engineering Program aims to incorporate green engineering (GE) approaches in academic and industrial communities and to promote and foster development of commercialization of GE approaches and technologies.

The National Environmental Performance Track recognizes and encourages top environmental performers -- those who go beyond compliance with regulatory requirements -- to attain levels of environmental performance and management that benefit people, communities, and the environment. In 2001, Performance Track?s business participants reduced their energy use by 6 percent, reduced water use by 5 percent, reduced their solid waste generation and use of hazardous materials by 11 percent, and increased their use of recycled or reused materials by 81 percent.

The Roundtable on Sustainable Forests aims to strengthen decision-making in the U.S. on sustainable forest management. Representatives of federal and state agencies, national organizations, and individuals committed to sustainable forest management participate in the Roundtable to share information and perspectives. The Roundtable is currently implementing and promoting the utilization of a set of criteria and indicators for sustainable forest management.

Environmental Stewardship at DOT seeks to ensure that transportation improvements are environmentally responsible and delivered to communities in a timely manner. Transportation agencies strive to mitigate adverse environmental impacts of transportation projects. Projects reflect environmental stewardship when they are designed, operated and maintained to fit into natural physical surroundings, preserve the scenic, historic, or environmental resources of an area, and maintain safety and mobility for residents. This program aims to improve the environmental quality of transportation decisionmaking by promoting integrated approaches to multimodal planning, the environmental process and project development at a systems level.

The Cooperative Water Program is a partnership between the USGS and 1,400 non-Federal agencies. The program jointly funds water-resources projects in every State, Puerto Rico, and several U.S. Trust territories. Most work in the program is directed toward potential and emerging long-term problems, such as water supply, waste disposal, ground-water quality, effects of agricultural chemicals, floods, droughts, and environmental protection. The program currently funds approximately 750 projects targeted at specific water-resources issues, such as the effects of urbanization, agricultural practices, and energy development on water quality. Data collected by the program are incorporated into the National Water Information System (NWIS). NWIS contains hydrologic information collected by the USGS during the past 120 years, and includes streamflow data from 21,000 sites, water levels from over 1,000,000 wells, and chemical data from rivers, streams, lakes, springs, and ground water at 338,000 sites.

Hospitals for a Healthy Environment is a partnership between the American Hospital Association and U.S. EPA that provides health care professionals the tools and information necessary to reduce mercury waste, reduce the overall volume of waste, and identify pollution prevention opportunities. As of July 2003, the Hospitals for a Healthy Environment program had 459 partners representing 1,661 facilities: 494 hospitals, 963 clinics, 39 nursing homes and 165 other types of facilities. In addition, 53 local governments, suppliers of goods and services, associations and vendors have enlisted as program champions.

The Resource Conservation Challenge (RCC) is an effort to find innovative ways to conserve our valuable resources through waste reduction and energy recovery activities that will improve public health and the environment. The RCC challenges all Americans - makers of goods, sellers of goods, and buyers of goods to: prevent pollution and promote recycling and reuse; reduce priority chemicals at all life cycle stages; and conserve energy and materials. This umbrella program encompasses a variety of EPA sustainability activities, such as WasteWise, the National Waste Minimization Partnership Program, and the Coal Combustion Products Partnership Program. Overall, this program is aimed at boosting the national recycling rate from 30 percent to at least 35 percent by 2005, and at curbing by 50 percent the generation of 30 harmful chemicals normally found in hazardous waste.

The Sector Strategies Program seeks industry-wide environmental gains through innovative actions taken with a number of manufacturing and service sectors. Launched in June 2003, the program works with select trade associations, EPA programs and regions, states, and other groups to find sensible solutions to sector-specific problems. The program focuses on three priority areas: promoting environmental management systems, overcoming regulatory or other barriers to performance improvement, and measuring and reporting industry-wide environmental and economic progress.

Compliance Assistance Centers assist businesses, local governments, and federal facilities to understand federal environmental requirements and save money through pollution prevention techniques. Sponsored by EPA, the Centers consist of partnerships with industry, academic institutions, environmental groups, and other agencies. Through websites, telephone assistance lines, fax-back systems, and e-mail discussion groups, each Center provides comprehensive, easy-to-understand compliance information targeted to specific industry sectors. In 2001, the Centers had more than 501,000 visitors and some 1.5 million requests for web pages and compliance assistance documents. Currently, the Centers are visited over 1,467 times a day by businesses, farms, government, the public, and other assistance providers. A 2001 survey of regulated entities indicated that about ? of them had taken action as a result of Center use, ranging from contacting a regulatory agency, changing a process or practice, to conducting a self audit.

Conservation Technology Assistance Program (CTA). The CTA program provides assistance to farmers and other landowners to voluntarily conserve, maintain, and improve natural resources. The objectives of the CTA include the solution of agricultural waste, soil erosion, water quality, water conservation, and air quality problems. The CTA serves as the foundation and local delivery mechanism for other conservation programs as well.

Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE). The (SARE) program advances farming systems that are profitable, environmentally sound and good for communities through a nationwide research and education grants program. SARE administers a competitive grants program and distributes information on sustainable agriculture to farmers, agricultural educators, and consumers.

The National Organic Program. The Organic program of the US department of agriculture provides certification for farmers choosing to produce crops without the use of most conventional pesticides, fertilizers with synthetic ingredients, bioengineered crops, or ionionizing radiation in processing. Consumers buying products labeled as "USDA Organic" are assured that the products were produced with organic methods.