On The Right Track

I’ve been listening to holiday music this week. It reminded me that philosopher Mitchell Silver noted a problem with the popular song “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town.” The song says, Santa “knows if you are sleeping, he knows if you’re awake, he knows if you’ve been bad or good, so be good for goodness’ sake.” The last phrase, asserts Silver, is not logically consistent with the song’s premise. To be consistent the last part should say something like, “so be good if you want lots of presents.” If you were just “good for goodness’ sake,” then pleasing the omniscient Santa would be irrelevant.

The fact is people do good things both because they feel compelled to and because they think it is the right thing to do. Translating that for how EPA should behave means: tough enforcement and facilitating environmental stewardship go hand-in-hand.

At the same time EPA has been setting records regarding enforcement we are also tapping into the natural desire many companies have to protect Mother Nature.

A good example of this is the National Environmental Performance Track program. The program encourages businesses to be good environmental stewards by recognizing facilities that go beyond minimum legal requirements.

And Performance Track members are getting results. Since the start of the program in 2000 the nearly 500 participating facilities have, in aggregate, reduced:

• water use by more than 5.2 billion gallons;
• greenhouse gas emissions by 310,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent;
• hazardous waste by 52,000 tons;
• non-hazardous garbage by 1.2 million tons; and
• emissions of sulfur oxides by 43,000 tons.

And Performance Track members improve their bottom line as well. For instance:

• PPG Industries in Meadville, Pennsylvania saves more than $500,000 annually by reusing 100,000 tons of waste glass per year;
• Honeywell Engines, Systems, and Accessories in Tempe, Arizona saves nearly $150,000 per year because it now generates six ounces of oil per unit tested compared to 30 gallons before; and
• Baxter Healthcare Corporation saved more than $9 million between 2001 and 2003 by reducing its energy use per unit of production.

If you know of a company that has a facility that is interested in partnering with EPA to go beyond compliance, give our bell a jingle at 1-888-339-7875. That would make us all very jolly.