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Notes on the Results
Results Navigator
Important Note: EPA began requiring facility-wide data in 2004, so the cumulative results reported here include data that are not facility-wide. For example, prior to 2004 a facility may have committed to reducing its VOC emissions from a particular production line by 50 percent, and reported data from only the particular production line rather than the entire facility.
- Baselines and Years
- Bar and Line Graphs
- Cumulative Results
- Number of Members Reporting
- Members Included in the Analysis
Baselines and Years
- The graphs for each indicator show the aggregate baseline for all members who set goals for that indicator, along with their combined results for the first, second, and third years of
their membership term in Performance Track.
- Once members are accepted to Performance Track, they are in the program for a three-year membership term, so "Year 1," "Year 2," and "Year 3" do not correspond to specific calendar years but rather to each member's first, second, and third year in their membership term.
Bar and Line Graphs
- The bar graphs show members' aggregate baseline
and aggregate results for the first, second, and third years of
their membership in Performance Track.
- The line graphs show "business as usual" results, based on members' reporting of normalized results. Most members base their normalizing on the change in level of activity at the facility; however, some members have incorporated additional contextual factors as well. An assumption was made that absent the Performance Track goal, the environmental impact would have continued to occur at a constant rate per unit of production or activity.
Cumulative Results
- The cumulative approach used here compares each year of results data to the baseline year, and aggregates the result. For example, if a facility has a baseline of 200 tons of emissions, and Year 1 emissions are 180 tons, Year 2 emissions are 160 tons, and Year 3 emissions are 140 tons, the cumulative reduction is 120 tons. The graph below illustrates how reductions from the baseline are summed to obtain a cumulative result.
Download high-resolution JPEG file of this graph
- Given that members report total acreage for land and habitat goals, as opposed to annual quantities reported for other indicators, the formula to calculate cumulative improvements for land and habitat goals is simply to subtract the baseline value from the Year 3 value.
- Similarly, facilities' goals may relate to one "component" of an environmental indicator rather than to the indicator as a whole. For example, a facility may commit to reducing one particular waste stream or one particular toxic air emission rather than to reducing its total solid waste or all releases of toxic chemicals. The parameters of each facility's goals may be determined by viewing its application and/or annual performance reports in the Performance Track member listings.
Number of Members Reporting
- Performance Track members choose from a wide range of indicators in the Environmental
Performance Table (PDF) (3 pp, 298K) when setting their four performance goals. Thus, some indicators are chosen by many members, while other indicators are chosen by only a few.
- The number of members reporting on a given indicator does not necessarily equate to the number of goals set for that indicator, because 1) members may make more than one goal to the same indicator and 2) some members have had more than one three-year term in the program. Over a six-year period, for example, one facility may choose to set a goal for a given indicator during its first three-year term, and another goal for the same indicator during its second term.
- Some members' results are not included in the analysis because their Annual Performance Reports were not completed by a cut-off date or because some data reported are not suitable for aggregation.
Members Included in the Analysis
Results are shown only for Performance Track members that have completed at least one three-year term in the program.