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Voluntary Initiatives Tools - Background

The ultimate purpose of any voluntary air pollution initiative is to achieve an environmentally beneficial goal. Some initiatives focus on immediate, direct emission reductions (quantitative) whereas others use changes to administrative and/or institutional processes (qualitative) to achieve benefits to the environment. Several tools were designed to help the coordinators of voluntary air pollution initiatives evaluate the feasibility of implementing a new voluntary initiative as well as evaluate the effectiveness of a current initiative. Using these tools, along with your emissions estimates, can help capture a broad view of the impact of your program.

Not all questions in each tool may be applicable to every initiative. However, it is worthwhile to assess the appropriateness of each tool since one may uncover unintended consequences that another tool did not. For assistance with measuring emissions reductions and other strictly quantitative measurements, go to EPA's Voluntary Emission Reduction Policies and Programs Web page or Technology Transfer Network Clearinghouse for Inventories and Emission Factors (TTN CHIEF).

Feasibility and Outcomes Matrix

The matrix is a visual tool with a set of questions related to each stage of implementation that help determine if one has explored all of the factors involved in the voluntary initiative (the who, what, when, why, how questions). The questions focus on the qualitative outcomes that lead to the less tangible benefits of voluntary initiatives such as increased awareness and knowledge of environmental impacts that cause corporate and societal shifts in behavior. It may be beneficial to go through this matrix both before and after a program is implemented to determine if the actual results are what were anticipated. The matrix helps one to:

  • Summarize the feasibility, program needs, and intended or actual outcomes of an initiative.
  • Provide management with relevant information to determine if an initiative should proceed.
  • Think about issues such as desired environmental outcomes and other results, resource needs, schedule, public participation, and how outcomes are measured.
  • Evaluate whether another type of initiative could achieve similar results.
  • Consider how to achieve the environmental goal (through a specific action, public education, policy change, behavioral changes, partnership...).
  • Measure the outcomes that were achieved in a voluntary initiative.

To test out the matrix you may want to try the following:

If you are ready to use the matrix, download the following files into the same directory on your hard drive. The two files are linked so that you have more details about what the short questions in the matrix are intended to address:

Streamlined Life Cycle Assessment

The Streamlined Life Cycle Assessment (SLCA) is a tool to evaluate the environmental impacts of a proposed or existing initiative's entire life cycle. The SLCA is based on a life-cycle principle for all pollutant media (air, waste, water, etc.) and should be used in conjunction with an estimate of the amounts of material conserved or wastes avoided. It consists of a series of questions that receive a score of one (1) if the answer is environmentally beneficial or has no impact and zero (0) if there is a negative environmental impact or it is just not applicable to the initiative's implementation. A completed assessment will allow one to see the environmental benefit of a program from a life-cycle view. One might also identify areas where there are unintended shifts of pollution from one media to another. Making a couple changes to increase the score may result in a great benefit to the environment.

Although the SLCA tool may not be applicable to every initiative, it is important to consider the life-cycle principle at all times since one often has only a single environmental goal in mind.

Voluntary Initiatives Inventory || Voluntary Initiatives || Air Management

Last Revised: Friday November 16 2007