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Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Toxics Release Inventory: A Government Accountability Office (GAO) Evaluation of its Uses for Environmental Information and Recent Reporting Changes
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| Presenter(s):
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| Terry Horner,
United States Government Accountability Office,
hornert@gao.gov
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| Karen Febey,
United States Government Accountability Office,
febeyk@gao.gov
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| Mark Braza,
United States Government Accountability Office,
brazam@gao.gov
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| Abstract:
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) evaluated stakeholder uses of and policy changes to EPA's Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) program, an environmental community right-to-know program. Central to GAO's evaluation was the impact of changes to TRI that will now allow companies to release four times as many toxic chemicals before they must report those releases to the public. GAO's evaluation incorporated a mixed-methods approach—involving a nation-wide survey, quantitative analyses with the TRI database, and interviews—to address central evaluation questions. Preliminary findings indicate that the TRI is used for diverse purpose at the local, state, and federal levels and that EPA's changes will significantly decrease the amount of chemical release information available to the public. This presentation will also detail how GAO's evaluations can influence executive agencies and Congressional legislation.
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Process- and Model-based Approaches to the Strategic Design and Evaluation of Performance Measurement Systems
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| Presenter(s):
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| William Michaud,
SRA International Inc,
bill_michaud@sra.com
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| Abstract:
Program performance measures can help an organization achieve its goals. When properly designed and applied, performance measures provide incentives that help align actions with organizational goals and provide actionable information to support budget and resource decisions. Most performance measures have evolved from the ground up – from the perspective of what individual programs are doing, rather than what the organization wants to achieve. Re-evaluating performance measures from a strategic perspective can help ensure that the measures provide the right incentives and useful information. This paper will explore two approaches to the strategic evaluation of performance measures. The first uses a process-oriented approach adopted by OECD for safety performance indicators. The second applies a contextual model, the DPSIR model, to organize and strategically evaluate environmental performance measures. Both approaches emphasize the view that individual performance measures work best when viewed as elements of a comprehensive system of measures.
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