TECHNOLOGY INNOVATION FOR
ENVIRONMENTAL AND ECONOMIC PROGRESS:
AN EPA ROADMAP
April, 2012
EPA-190-S-12-003
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TECHNOLOGY INNOVATION FOR
ENVIRONMENTAL AND ECONOMIC PROGRESS:
AN EPA ROADMAP
INTRODUCTION: A NEW AND EVOLVING NEED
Technology development is essential to America's global competitiveness. President Obama has
said that the United States will win the future by out educating, out innovating, and out
building our competitors.1 Cost-effective, innovative technologies can advance environmental
protection and safeguard people's health while furthering economic growth. They have also
been shown to help businesses reduce costs, expand product markets, and increase
profitability. The EPA's Administrator, Lisa P. Jackson, has said that smart environmental
protection creates jobs. It creates a market for clean technology and then drives innovation
and invention - new products for that market.2 President Obama has directed federal agencies
to use their capabilities to develop creative ways of supporting technology development in the
United States. To this end, the EPA has developed this Roadmap to help guide its efforts with
both internal and external stakeholders to implement specific strategies to meet the new
challenges and opportunities posed by Presidential executive order,3 Presidential
Memorandum,4 Presidential Strategy,5 Presidential Initiative,6 and recent legislation.7
EPA VISION FOR TECHNOLOGY INNOVATION
The EPA will promote innovation that eliminates or significantly reduces the use of toxic
substances and exposure to pollutants in the environment and that also promotes growth of the
American economy. Building upon the EPA's history of scientific and technological expertise, the
Agency will seek out prospective technological advances that have the greatest potential to
achieve multiple environmental goals. Consistent with its statutory and regulatory authorities,
the EPA will partner with a diverse set of new and existing stakeholders to speed the design,
development and deployment of the next generation of environmental technologies, creating a
cleaner environment and a stronger economy for our nation and the world.
1 President Barack Obama's State of the Union Address, January 25, 2011, http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-
office/2011/01/25/remarks-president-state-union-address
2 Administrator Lisa P.Jackson, Remarks at the National Press Club, As Prepared,
http://yosemite.epa.gov/opa/admpress.nsf/12a744ff56dbff8585257590004750b6/70ba33a218b8f22f852576e0006b2a53IOp
enDocument
3 EO 13563, "Improving Regulation and Regulatory Review", www.regulations.gov/exchange/topic/eo-13563
4 "Government Reform for Competitiveness and Innovation", www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2011/03/ll/presidential-
memorandum-government-reform-competitiveness-and-innovation
5 "Strategy for American Innovation", www.whitehouse.gov/administration/eop/nec/StrategyforAmericanlnnovation/
6 Startup America, www.whitehouse.gov/issues/startup-america
7 America Competes Act, www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/01/06/america-competes-act-keeps-americas-leadership-target
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To help achieve this vision, the Roadmap has been designed to advance the EPA's efforts to
look at a broad range of approaches to solving the country's most pressing current
environmental problems and preventing future ones. As part of this groundbreaking effort, the
EPA is examining the most promising opportunities to advance this vision within its legal
framework. A critical component of the EPA's vision is the role of private capital markets
because of the growing interest in environmental technology as a platform to help companies
reduce costs, expand product markets, and increase profitability and jobs. Public-private
collaboration will help connect regulators, businesses and investors to take a focused approach
to facilitating environmental technology innovation that reduces pollution along the entire
continuum of development, commercialization and deployment in the United States and
abroad.
STRATEGY
Consistent with its authorities, the EPA will undertake policy, regulatory, financial, and
voluntary actions, grounded in science, that will promote innovation along the entire
continuum of technology development and deployment.8 Working with new and existing
partners and stakeholders, the EPA will seek tangible, outcome-oriented opportunities to
catalyze and support technology innovation across the range of the Agency's work.
Specifically, the EPA will advocate more cost- effective, innovative solutions that eliminate, or
significantly reduce, adverse impacts to natural resources in a manner that promotes healthy,
productive communities. This approach will address the full range of opportunities to solve
current and emerging environmental and public health problems, including those listed below:
Specific technological solutions to solve a straightforward environmental problem - the
application of proven scientific knowledge and existing technology to address a singular
environmental need.
New technology to help solve significant problems - multi-disciplinary solutions that deliver
better results to solve a complex problem.
Major technology development initiatives - targeting significant environmental problems
which have significant economic and social impacts.
Technology for a future state - novel solutions that replace (rather than incrementally
improve) current approaches and strategies.
Except as otherwise permitted by EPA's export authorities, EPA may not promote or endorse any specific products, goods or
services.
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OBJECTIVES
This roadmap will help drive actions to reduce
risks to public health and the environment while
spurring economic growth through sustainable
innovation. Initial Agency efforts will focus on
four broad actions, including:
1. Designing EPA policies, regulations,
standards, permits, and procedures to
leverage technology innovation.
• Information systems will be developed to
ensure that the EPA staff keep abreast of
emerging technologies and routinely
consider their potential impacts and
applications.
• The Agency will support business
research and benchmarking of emerging
technologies.
• The EPA will consider policies,
regulations, standards and permits
currently under development and
identify opportunities to spur the design
and deployment of innovative technology
solutions to concrete environmental
problems.
2. Catalyzing technology design, development,
finance, commercialization and adoption
through partnerships with stakeholders.
• The EPA will partner with interested
individuals, organizations, institutions,
and businesses across the broad
spectrum of society, including technology
designers, users, regulators, developers,
and consumers, to spur innovation that
benefits society today and over the long-
term.
Innovation in Practice
Technology Clusters
The EPA is promoting the use of technology
clusters to advance collaboration and
leadership for sustainable environmental
technology innovation. In 2011, the EPA
worked with partners to launch the Water
Technology Innovation Cluster in Cincinnati.
The cluster serves as a regional catalyst for
innovation with the goal of promoting
science, technology, policy and job creation
to solve environmental challenges.
Technology Market Summit
The EPA is co-sponsoring with American
University a Technology Market Summit in
2012. The Summit will bring together 150
representatives of government, industry,
investment and academia with the goal of
stimulating innovation and expanding the
technology market to protect the
environment and human health, build
markets and create jobs, develop
partnerships, and identify concrete actions
that the public and private sectors will take
to increase investment in and broaden
business opportunities for innovative
environmentally beneficial technologies.
Small Business Innovation Research
Program
EPA helps small businesses commercialize
innovative technologies to solve high
priority environmental and human health
problems. One business supported by EPA's
SBIR Program developed a sustainable
biocomposite material which can replace
petroleum based products. The company
has grown from five to 40 employees and is
currently scaling the business, including the
opening of a new manufacturing facility for
innovative environmental technology.
Another grant recipient used
nanotechnology to develop a biomimetic
coating which replaces toxic cutting fluids.
Since it was funded, this company has
grown to 20 employees.
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3. Stimulating cross-Agency consideration,
development, commercialization, and
adoption of breakthrough technologies.
• The EPA will use its existing technology
transfer mechanisms to catalyze and
harness innovation to solve discrete
environmental problems.
• The EPA will strengthen its efforts to
establish research, development, and
demonstration partnerships with other
federal agencies and public and private
institutions.
4. Developing a new relationship with the
investment community. The EPA will take a
number of steps to build relationships and
improve communication.
• The EPA will facilitate public-private
innovation partnerships that bring new
technologies into the marketplace.
SUMMARY
EPA's Road map, Technology Innovation for
Environmental and Economic Progress, reflects
the Agency's commitment to innovative, cost-
effective, sustainable approaches to the
protection of the air, water and land upon which
society depends for its health and economic well-
being, in the short term and for the future. By
working with interested stakeholders and within
its authorities, the EPA will seek to harness
American ingenuity to develop the next
generation of innovative products and
technologies that eliminate waste, reduce the
public's exposure to toxic chemicals, and help
build thriving businesses and healthy
communities.
Innovation in Practice, continued
Significant New Alternatives Policy (SNAP)
Program
EPA's SNAP Program evaluates substitutes
for ozone-depleting substances (ODS) and
ensures a smooth transition from ODS to a
variety of next-generation alternatives
across major industrial, commercial, and
military sectors. A globally-recognized
program, SNAP has listed over 400
alternatives with lower overall risks to
human health and the environment.
Once substitutes are listed as acceptable
under SNAP, they can be used according to
listed use conditions, thereby expanding the
suite of safer alternatives and alternative
technologies to be added to the
marketplace.
Driving Innovative Technology
Recently, EPA announced an "innovative"
settlement with the Marathon Petroleum
Corporation to reduce air pollution when its
refineries burn off waste gases. Marathon
agreed to install state-of-the-art controls on
its flares, and to cap the amount of gas it
flares. Working with EPA, Marathon helped
advance new approaches that reduce air
pollution and improve efficiency at its
refineries and provide the U.S. with new
knowledge to bring similar improvements in
air quality to other communities across the
nation. Marathon indicates that the
equipment it already has installed is saving
it approximately $5 million per year through
reduced steam usage and product recovery.
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