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Instructions for Making Alternate Goals
Note: This option is available to RENEWING members only.
Background
Performance Track recognizes that facilities may identify opportunities to contribute significantly to the environment through activities that may not fit within Performance Track's current performance goal parameters. Therefore, the program encourages members to propose alternate performance goals that fall outside the boundaries of the indicators in the Environmental Performance Table or are not directly related to the facility's operations.
Please note that a facility's set of goals may contain only one alternate goal per membership term. All alternate goals submitted to the Performance Track program will be reviewed by a team of EPA staff.
Criteria
All alternate goals must:
- address an important environmental problem either
related to the facility's own environmental impacts
or to a national, regional, or local issue;
- include a plan for demonstrating progress by the
end of the participation period; and
- not otherwise fit into the existing Environmental Performance Table.
When evaluating proposed alternate goals, Performance Track will consider:
- the extent to which the facility has already
addressed its major on-site environmental impacts,
and whether the facility will contribute greater
environmental improvements through the proposed
goal than it would accomplish on-site;
- whether the proposal addresses regional, state,
or local priority issues; and
- whether the facility has the support of community groups, environmental NGOs, and/or a state agency.
Examples
Performance Track welcomes alternate goal proposals from any area. More than two dozen alternate goal proposals have been approved to date.
The following alternate goal categories represent the creativity of Performance Track members that renewed their membership in 2007. To view a facility's renewal application containing an alternate goal, click on the facility's name.
Schools Chemical Cleanout Campaign
EPEAT (Green Electronics)
LEED Certification for Buildings
Watershed Protection
Removing Toxics from Products
Sustainable Forestry
Other examples of alternate goals include:
- Reductions in the volume or impact of stormwater
flow.
- Projects conducted under the auspices of EPA's
CARE (Community Action for a Renewed Environment)
program.
- Site assessments of brownfields in the facility's local community.
Detailed examples of three alternate goals (Schools Chemical Cleanout Campaign, LEED certification and a school bus project) are also available.
Watershed Protection
- Support collection and reporting of ambient water quality data. A facility would need to work with its state or local watershed association to develop a monitoring plan (i.e., identify parameters, monitoring locations, and frequency of monitoring). The state water quality agency or local watershed association would need to have agreed to work with the Performance Track applicant.
- Support development of a watershed plan. A facility would need to work with its state and/or local watershed association throughout this process, including prior to submittal of its renewal application to Performance Track. Examples of indicators include:
- support collection and reporting of ambient water quality data;
- conduct assessment of pollution sources;
- implement pollutant controls and reduction efforts;
- engage stakeholders; and
- contribute resources (e.g., expertise, time, equipment, funds).
- Support development of total maximum daily loads (TMDLs). A facility would need to work with its state throughout this process. A statement of interest from the state water quality agency in collaborating with the Performance Track applicant to develop the TMDL (or portions of the TMDL) would be necessary prior to submittal of its renewal application to Performance Track. Examples of indicators include:
- support collection and reporting of ambient water quality data;
- conduct assessment of sources of pollution;
- support development of TMDL targets for narrative, non-numeric standards (e.g., modeling efforts);
- engage stakeholders;
- develop implementation plans for pollutant controls and reductions; and
- contribute resources (e.g., expertise, time, equipment, funds).
- Support implementation of TMDLs. A facility would need to work with its state and/or local watershed association throughout this process, including prior to submittal of its renewal application to Performance Track. Examples of indicators include:
- support collection and reporting of ambient water quality data;
- engage and inform stakeholders of TMDL implementation responsibilities;
- engage pollutant controls and reductions; and
- contribute resources (e.g., expertise, time, equipment, funds).
Supporting information can be found on EPA's Surf Your Watershed website and and EPA's TMDL website.
Stormwater Reductions
Examples of reductions in the volume or impact of stormwater flow include decreasing impermeable pavement, installing "green" roofs, increasing bioretention, increasing on-lot treatment, using stormwater as a resource (e.g., cooling water, irrigation water), and minimizing exposure of industrial chemicals or activities to the elements.
Supporting information can be found at:
- EPA's National Menu of Stormwater Best Practices website (including fact sheets, such as "Low Impact Development (LID) and Other Green Design Strategies");
- EPA's National Management Measures to Control Nonpoint Source Pollution from Urban Areas website;
- The Low Impact Development Center
; and - the Center for Watershed Protection.