The Spread of a Performance Culture

I've said EPA is trying to achieve and maintain a 'performance culture.' That phrase can mean different things to different people but to me it means people who work here are constantly asking the questions, "How is what I am doing helping protect human health and the environment and is there a way I can do it better?"

I know we're getting there when I start getting emails like the one I recently received from someone in the Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response. I've changed the language a little to protect the innocent.

"You may be interested in an approach we're taking to improve Fed Facility CERCLIS data. [This is data necessary to characterize and cleanup contaminated waste sites.] We got to thinking about setting a goal for federal facility CERCLIS data quality. Last month we sent out a memo to Regions stating the goal (zero data quality problems by September) and attached the Region 4-inspired draft Best Practice as an example of how one Region turned things around."

Thank you for that. And I hope to find out soon how we did on improving our CERCLIS data.