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Member Renewal Process

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Who should renew?

If you joined Performance Track in 2006 or renewed your membership in 2006 you will need to renew your membership in 2009. All members in this group have established goals through 2008 and need to develop new goals to carry them through 2011. If you are still uncertain about renewing your membership this year, review the listing of members up for renewal.

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Is there anything new I should know about?

Selecting Goals: Performance Track Recommends Two Goals to be Set to Core Indicators
During consultation with program stakeholders, EPA received feedback that the program would benefit from providing additional structure and transparency to the goal selection process.  As a result, Performance Track has designated some key environmental indicators as core indicators of national importance, and strongly recommends that at least two of the goals that you set come from this list. The purpose of creating the core indicators is to maximize the environmental improvements of Performance Track facilities.

The core indicators are listed as follows:

In addition, in an attempt to provide EPA and the public with additional background information on why members have chosen their goals, you will be asked to indicate which of the following considerations applied to your selection of each goal:

We believe that these changes will contribute to the continuous improvement of the program.
If you have any questions or concerns regarding these changes, please contact Dan Fiorino (fiorino.dan@epa.gov).

Challenge Goals
When renewing your application, consider using one or more Challenge Goals, which are now available in all 10 EPA Regions. So far, 199 Performance Track facilities have set Challenge Goals, which count as two regular goals and help EPA achieve priority goals. This year, in addition to offering national challenge goals in water use reduction, energy use reduction, priority chemical use reduction, and land and habitat conservation, Performance Track has added a new challenge goal that addresses discharges to impaired waterbodies.

Alternate Goals
Also available now are Alternate Goals. 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. However, please note that a facility's set of goals may contain only one alternate goal per membership term. For more information, please visit the Alternate Goals page.

Examples of Members' Goals
If you're looking for inspiration to help you come up with new goals, or if you simply want to see the kinds of performance goals your peers are making, you may download a detailed, searchable list of members' goals in Excel or PDF format.

For more details on specific goals, please use the search by goals feature in the online directory of Performance Track members.

EMS Independent Assessment Requirement
All applicants and renewing facilities must have had an assessment of their EMS in accordance with the Performance Track Independent Assessment Criteria. Under these criteria, all new applicants to the Performance Track program must have had their EMS independently assessed within the past two years prior to the date of application. Thereafter, all members of Performance Track must have an independent assessment of their EMS every three years.

The Performance Track Independent Assessment Criteria do not mandate formal third-party certification. Rather, facilities can select from a number of options for an independent assessment, including an assessment by an accredited ISO 14001 registrar, a third-party auditor, or a corporate auditor, so long as the auditor(s) meets the qualifications for independence and experience set out in the policy. Additionally, facilities may use any comprehensive EMS audit protocol they choose, so long as it covers all of the Performance Track EMS elements.

If you have questions about the EMS Independent Assessment Criteria, please contact David Guest (guest.david@epa.gov).

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Why renew?

The Performance Track program is committed to producing environmental results and delivering real benefits to its members. Over the program's eight-year history, Performance Track has tried to continually improve member benefits in order to grow membership and promote environmental performance. The following is a list of some of the top reasons to continue your membership in the program.

Environmental Improvement - Performance Track members have significantly improved environmental quality across the country. With more than 500 members in 49 states and Puerto Rico, Performance Track members are leading the way to a cleaner, healthier environment.

Recognition - Performance Track recognizes member facilities locally and nationally through letters to elected officials, trade journal articles, press releases, case studies, P-Track News, member listings on this website, and Performance Track Awards.

Networking - Performance Track provides networking opportunities through annual member events, regional roundtables, teleseminars, EPA meetings, joint workshops with Performance Track partners, and meetings of the Performance Track Participants' Association Exit EPA Disclaimer .

Regulatory and Administrative Benefits - EPA works with states and other stakeholders to provide specific regulatory and administrative benefits, such as reduced self-reporting and low-priority status for routine federal inspections, that are designed to reduce a facility's transaction costs without causing harm to the environment.

A Single Point of Contact - EPA provides a single regional point of contact to Performance Track members for questions or concerns about their membership or for assistance with other EPA-related activities.

Services - EPA encourages Performance Track facilities to take advantage of services such as the Green Suppliers Network Review, which helps manufacturers and suppliers save money and improve environmental performance, or the Performance Track Mentoring Program, which matches Performance Track members or potential members with leading facilities currently in the program.

Green Investing - Leading financial advisory firms use Performance Track data in their research methods. This practice can benefit publicly traded environmental leaders, making them more attractive to investors and increasing brand recognition.

Benefits in Action (PDF) (4pp, 948K) - Download a two-page visual summary of Performance Track benefits.

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How do I renew?

You may complete your renewal application using P-Track Online, Performance Track's online application and reporting system. The completed application is due April 1, 2009.

You can combine your membership renewal with your 2008 Annual Performance Report, which is also due April 1, 2009. You may submit your facility's renewal form when you submit your Annual Performance Report. EPA will review your renewal form together with your prior performance and compliance record as a Performance Track member. To qualify for membership renewal, a facility must meet all of the criteria required for entrance into the program. In addition, the facility should be able to demonstrate good-faith improvement toward meeting its environmental performance goals. In general, EPA expects that facilities make progress toward at least 3 of their 4 goals, recognizing that there may be extenuating circumstances that will be dealt with on a case by case basis. If a facility commits to a challenge goal, the facility should show progress on the challenge goal and one other goal, since challenge goals count as two goals. Small facilities will be evaluated on a case by case basis, but should show progress on at least 1 goal. In addition, in order for a facility to renew its membership, the facility must have been a cooperative member of the program and met all program obligations.

Have you checked your online compliance history lately?

Because EPA manages a series of systems that include data flowing from staff in both EPA and state/tribal/local offices, it is not uncommon to find errors in your facility's compliance history. These data streams flow into the national database in many ways. For example, some states maintain their own databases, and then "translate" or upload their data sets into EPA's systems. Other states directly enter information into EPA systems, while some states provide information to EPA that EPA then loads into the systems. Given this fairly complex set of transactions, there are occasional problems with the migration of data into the databases. Additionally, it is not uncommon for the ECHO violation "switch" not to be reset to "in compliance" once a problem has been corrected by a facility.

Applicants and members interested in monitoring their EPA compliance history should visit the Enforcement and Compliance History Online (ECHO) website at www.epa.gov/echo/compliance_report.html, type in their facility name in the "Facility Name" box and hit the "search" button. After ECHO returns with the "Search Results," you can click your facility's hyperlinked name to obtain your "Detailed Facility Report." If you see an error while scrolling through this Report, you should notify the Agency about the error by clicking the "Error Report" button near the upper-right corner of your Report.

Once you have clicked an arrow, you will notice that your Report now has small green arrows on each table entry towards the right of your screen. Clicking on an arrow starts the error reporting process for data contained in that table's particular line. You will be asked for some contact information. We suggest you use e-mail as your contact method, so you can maintain a paper trail. After hitting the "Next" button, type your message into the dialog box of the "Detailed Facility Report Comment Form." We suggest that you carefully craft your comments, with special attention to specifics (Names, Dates, Permit IDs, Performance Track IDs, who did what and when, etc.), remembering your comments must travel a database food chain to the correct person to effect your changes. Be sure to keep a copy of your comments for your records. Then hit the "Submit Comment" button. You will eventually receive an email with an error report tracking number. We suggest that you also forward this email to the Performance Track help desk (ptrack@indecon.com), so we can follow the progress of your error report as well.

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Where can I find the renewal form?

The renewal application is available on P-Track Online starting February 2. It consists of only your new set of performance goals, an updated environmental requirements checklist, and a signature page. If you've used the system previously, simply log in as a returning user using the user name and password that you had previously. If you've forgotten your user name or password, or if your password has expired, send an e-mail to ptrack@indecon.com. After logging on, click on the "create" link under the Renewal Membership Application section to create a renewal form.

If you've never registered for P-Track Online, hit the "New User" button. (Even if one of your colleagues has used the system, please submit a registration under your own name.)

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When is this due?

The renewal application is due on April 1, 2009. Please note that although you may complete and save your renewal application prior to completing your annual performance report (APR), the APR must be submitted prior to submitting your renewal application.

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How do I get more information, and whom do I call for help?

Contact the Performance Track Information Center at 1-800-339-7875 or ptrack@indecon.com or your regional coordinator.

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