[Federal Register Volume 69, Number 205 (Monday, October 25, 2004)]
[Notices]
[Page 62268]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 04-23839]


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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

[FRL-7829-8]


Guide To Analyzing Environmental Innovations

AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

ACTION: Notice on guide to analyze environmental innovations.

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SUMMARY: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's National Center for 
Environmental Innovation (NCEI) promotes the use of innovative 
approaches to environmental problem-solving efforts that deliver 
improved environmental results. As part of this process, the Evaluation 
Support Division (ESD) within NCEI promotes and conducts rigorous 
evaluations to determine whether innovations deliver environmental 
results that surpass the traditional way of doing business and to 
identify lessons that can be applied more broadly. To guide its efforts 
and ensure consistency, NCEI developed a set of evaluation modules that 
outline core questions to be answered as part of any evaluation, either 
within EPA or outside the Agency. Because the field of environmental 
evaluation is fairly young, and EPA did not have one comprehensive 
method for evaluating innovation projects, ESD produced a ``Companion 
User's Guide'' and corresponding questions in a modular format called, 
``Modular Approach to Analyzing Environmental Innovation,'' to help 
innovation practitioners analyze environmental innovations. The 
analysis modules include a series of questions that encourage critical 
thinking and assessment of successes, obstacles and lessons learned . 
The modules can be applied in a variety of scenarios, including 
developing an innovative project, informing future evaluation efforts, 
assessing environmental outcomes, and evaluating the potential 
transferability of an innovation. The following six modules are 
currently being tested on innovative projects: Background Information 
on the Innovation gathers information on project goals, purpose, focus, 
stakeholders, tools used, and legal/regulatory/programmatic issues; 
Environmental Outcomes evaluates measurement approach and project 
results and both qualitative and quantitative data; Costs and Cost-
Effectiveness examines costs to the regulators, costs to other 
stakeholders, unintended costs, benefits of the project, resulting 
economic activity, cost analysis for future projects, and relative cost 
advantage; Compliance Assistance looks at reporting requirements, 
accountability, enforceability, and effectiveness compared to the 
traditional regulatory approaches; Transferability looks at the issue 
of whether the innovation could easily be transferred to other contexts 
and projects; and Public Involvement analyzes the degree to which the 
public was involved in the innovation, and the associated successes and 
lessons learned. The module questions were developed to be flexible 
enough to fit a variety of innovative experiments that are conducted 
both inside and outside EPA. The modules and user's guide are available 
for review at http://www.epa.gov/evaluate. If you do not have Internet 
access, please contact Suganthi Simon at 202-566-2199 or by mail, to 
receive hardcopies of the documents.

DATES: We must receive your comments on or before November 30, 2004.

ADDRESSES: Address all comments about the innovation analysis modules 
to Suganthi Simon, U.S. EPA, 1200 Pennsylvania Avenue, MC 1807T, 
Washington, DC 20460. If you prefer to send your comments by email, use 
the following address: [email protected].

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Suganthi Simon at (202) 566-2199.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Invitation To Comment

    We invite you to submit comments regarding the draft guide to 
analyzing environmental innovations and module questions. Comments on 
whether or not you think this tool could be widely applied and is 
flexible enough to meet performance measurement and analytical needs of 
a variety of environmental innovations are welcome. Please note that 
this notice does not solicit applications nor mandates the use of the 
guide or module questions in innovative projects and programs.

    Dated: October 18, 2004.
Elizabeth A. Shaw,
Director, Office of Environmental Policy Innovation.
[FR Doc. 04-23839 Filed 10-22-04; 8:45 am]
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