![[logo] US EPA](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20090508065913im_/http://www.epa.gov/epafiles/images/logo_epaseal.gif){kind=logo}
Performance Track—Common Questions
"Those of us who work daily to improve the environment see that programs like Performance Track complement our regulatory efforts. As an environmental professional of 30-plus years, I welcome innovations like Performance Track that augment the traditional approach. I believe Performance Track and state performance-based programs will help us achieve a cleaner environment than would result from compliance with existing regulations alone."
—David Paylor, Director, Virginia Department of Environmental Quality under Governor Tim Kaine
The Performance Track program was established by former EPA Administrator Carol Browner in 2000 during the Clinton/Gore Administration to recognize and encourage businesses and other organizations to reduce their environmental impact beyond the levels required by law. Each of the three succeeding EPA administrators has strongly endorsed the program. Over 20 states have similar programs sharing EPA's objective.
To ensure understanding of the program, the Performance Track program provides the following questions and answers:
- What is the goal of the Performance Track program?
- Who is eligible to join Performance Track?
- How does EPA evaluate an applicant's compliance history?
- Do all members comply with existing environmental regulations?
- Does Performance Track review Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) releases?
- Have facilities ever been removed from the Performance Track program?
- What is the difference between companies and facilities in the Performance Track program?
- Are Performance Track members inspected fewer times than non-members?
- Why does Performance Track recruit members?
- Does Performance Track market its program?
- Has the Performance Track program been modified since its inception?
- Does Performance Track serve as a model for improving environmental performance?
- How does Performance Track benefit the environment?
- What are people saying about Performance Track?
What is the goal of the Performance Track program?
Even with the existence of regulations to control the environmental impact of facilities, there will always be room for facilities to improve their environmental performance. Performance Track was designed to supplement EPA's existing regulatory activities by encouraging facilities with strong environmental records to work toward environmental goals that go above and beyond the legal requirements. This approach is based on the principle that environmental regulation—which establishes society's minimal levels of required performance—is not enough to fully achieve our environmental goals.
Performance Track is unique among federal environmental programs in that it works with members to improve all aspects of environmental performance. This includes regulated areas, such as air emissions and water discharges, and unregulated areas, such as water and energy use, and land and habitat protection. Rather than just focusing on specific pollutants or issues, Performance Track encourages facilities to continuously improve environmental performance across the board and, in the case of manufacturers, to consider impacts not just from their operations, but throughout the product lifecycle.
Members select goals from a list that is consistent with the Global Reporting Initiative 
and are encouraged to set "stretch" goals, rather than goals they will be able to meet comfortably. Under the Performance Track model, the measure of success is the environmental improvements that are realized.
Who is eligible to join Performance Track?
Membership is open to any U.S. facility meeting Performance Track's membership criteria. Facilities that choose to apply are both large and small, public and private, and are from a variety of sectors of the economy.
Individual facilities apply for membership in Performance Track. To be eligible for membership, applicants must have implemented an independently assessed environmental management system, have a record of sustained compliance with environmental laws and regulations, commit to achieving measurable environmental results that go beyond compliance, and provide information to the local community on their environmental activities. The criteria for membership can be found at: http://www.epa.gov/performancetrack/program/index.htm.
How does EPA evaluate an applicant's compliance history?
Before being admitted to the program, a facility's environmental compliance history is thoroughly evaluated by EPA, the state in which it is located, and the U.S. Department of Justice. Only applicants with a sustained record of environmental compliance are accepted into the program. Members' compliance records are reviewed regularly to ensure that they continue to meet the program’s compliance criteria. In addition, a full compliance history evaluation is performed every three years, since members are required to reapply to the program after a three-year period. More detailed information on the compliance criteria can be found at: http://epa.gov/performancetrack/program/sustain.htm#criteria
Do all members comply with existing environmental regulations?
The program focuses on a facility's overall compliance record and whether EPA and state enforcement officials agree the facility is a strong environmental performer. Many member facilities are very large, technically complex operations that, with even the very best environmental management systems and management attention, may encounter compliance issues.
Performance Track routinely monitors members' compliance. If there is a violation, EPA consults with the Department of Justice and state authorities to ensure a prompt return to compliance and to determine whether the problem warrants removal from the program. During the routine compliance monitoring, if an error in a member's compliance record is encountered during the analysis of the public environmental compliance databases, Performance Track uses the opportunity to request a correction to the database.
Does Performance Track review Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) releases?
Performance Track evaluates TRI releases of applicants and renewing members. Interpreting TRI data is complex. In reviewing TRI releases of applicants and members, EPA has found that changes in releases over time are commonly due to production increases or decreases, changes in facility or industry methods of estimation, and changes in reporting requirements. A pattern of increased releases without explanation would cause EPA to review a member's eligibility for program membership.
Have facilities ever been removed from the Performance Track program?
Since the program was launched in 2000, 82 Performance Track members have been asked to withdraw their membership or denied renewal because they did not maintain their qualifications for program membership.
What is the difference between companies and facilities in the Performance Track program?
Performance Track is designed as a facility-based program. Individual facilities of companies or organizations apply to the Performance Track program. A facility is often defined as including all land, buildings, equipment, and structures located on a single site or on continuous or adjacent sites and owned or controlled by the same person or entity.
Are Performance Track members inspected fewer times than non-members?
EPA's policy designates program members as a "low priority for routine federal inspection." This policy was created in consultation with EPA's enforcement office and is viewed by EPA as a rational way to use inspection resources more effectively. It does not mean that members are never inspected by EPA or state environmental agencies.
The intent of the policy is to shift some resources from Performance Track members—who have strong compliance records, use environmental management systems, and commit to public performance goals—to other facilities that may pose a higher environmental risk. The policy does not exempt a facility from compliance inspections or alter any other legal obligation. This policy applies only to EPA's compliance inspections. States may choose to voluntarily adopt this policy in setting their own inspection priorities.
Why does Performance Track recruit members?
Performance Track's recruitment strategy has always promoted steady growth as a way to maximize the program's environmental results. To that end, targeted recruitment has focused on using common outreach tools such as mailings, telephone calls, and conference exhibits. These outreach tools serve to educate facilities about the purpose of the program, explain membership criteria, and encourage qualified facilities interested in improving their environmental performance to consider membership. It is not uncommon for current members to refer other interested facilities directly to Performance Track. EPA follows up with facilities that express an interest in joining the program, providing them with information on the application process. Any facility that applies goes through a rigorous application review.
Since the program was launched in 2000, more than 1,000 facilities have applied to the program, and 221 applicants have not been accepted because they did not meet the program entry criteria.
Does Performance Track market its program?
Performance Track, like most partnership programs at EPA, including Energy Star and WasteWise, markets its program through various means including participating in conferences, mailing brochures to potential members, and through placement of public service announcements. The goal is to improve environmental results by increasing the number of members that are contributing to those results. Many of the public goals achieved by members address important environmental issues that are not covered by current regulations, such as greenhouse gas emissions, water use, and energy use.
Has the Performance Track program been modified since its inception?
Over time, EPA's Performance Track program has dedicated resources to ensuring the program is well managed, sought input from interested stakeholders (including critics) on how to improve the program, and acted to address suggestions.
Based on stakeholder feedback and its own internal reviews, the Agency has made a number of improvements to the program over the years, such as strengthening the membership criteria to include independent assessment of Environmental Management Systems; more comprehensive review of environmental records, including Toxics Release Inventory data; and more frequent compliance screening of members. EPA also created Challenge Goals that encourage members to address national priorities, such as greenhouse gas emissions, priority chemicals, and habitat loss.
EPA operates a transparent program and is always open to new information relevant to the performance of our members. EPA established an advisory committee for Performance Track through the National Advisory Committee on Environmental Performance and Technology (NACEPT).
The Agency continues to welcome and actively seeks suggestions for how to improve the program. EPA believes that leadership programs like Performance Track, in tandem with strong environmental regulations and enforcement, show great promise in responding to the complex challenges of environmental protection—today and in the future.
Does Performance Track serve as a model for improving environmental performance?
EPA's Performance Track program is now a recognized model for improving environmental performance. In 2000, and again in 2006, the Environmental Council of the States (ECOS) passed a resolution in support of Performance Track and other innovative approaches, noting "a climate that encourages regulatory innovation is critical as we face the next generation of environmental problems." Performance Track has been replicated in more than 20 states. In 2006, Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government named Performance Track as one of 13 federal programs in the Top 50 Innovations in American Government Awards.
This partnership program builds on other collaborative models at the federal level, such as the Occupational Health and Safety Administration's Voluntary Protection Program which was started in 1982 to promote workplace safety.
How does Performance Track benefit the environment?
Since the program's inception in June 2000, Performance Track members have achieved significant environmental results. Collectively members have reduced their use of water by 3.7 billion gallons, reduced their greenhouse gas emissions by 309,780 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent; reduced non-transportation energy use by 4.3 million MMBtu; reduced non-hazardous waste by 1.2 million tons; reduced hazardous waste by 52,266 tons; increased their use of reused or recycled materials by 559,991 tons; reduced discharges to water by 33,286 tons; and conserved or restored 16,809 acres of land and habitat.
Today, Performance Track has grown to 547 members in 49 states and Puerto Rico. Member facilities and their employees have set more than 4,000 goals to benefit the environment by exceeding existing regulatory requirements and by improving performance in areas where EPA and states do not currently regulate.
What are people saying about Performance Track?
- U.S. EPA Office of Inspector General, Report No. 2007-P-00013, Chapter 5, p. 23:
"Our analysis shows that most members demonstrate "top performance," beyond the average for their peers, for two environmental indicators: compliance and toxic releases."
- Coglianese and Nash, Beyond Compliance: Business Decision Making and the U.S. EPA’s Performance Track Program, Summary of Findings, p. 6:
"EPA's screening process appears effectively to separate top performers from among all facilities that apply for Performance Track membership."
- Coglianese, Nash and Borck, Evaluating the Social Effects of Performance-Based Environmental Programs, p. 4:
"Agencies have put a great deal of work into developing environmental performance metrics for [performance-based environmental programs], collecting environmental performance data from member facilities, and compiling data into summary reports about these programs' direct contributions to environmental protection."
- David Paylor, director of the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality under Governor Tim Kaine:
"Those of us who work daily to improve the environment see that programs like Performance Track complement our regulatory efforts. As an environmental professional of 30-plus years, I welcome innovations like Performance Track that augment the traditional approach. I believe Performance Track and state performance-based programs will help us achieve a cleaner environment than would result from compliance with existing regulations alone."