This week ECOS shared with state media associations version 1.0 of a report titled A Framework of Sample Metrics for Evaluating the Efficiency and Effectiveness of Environmental Permitting Systems. This report was developed at the direction of the E-Enterprise Leadership Council to “provide useful information for project teams that are seeking to improve the processes employed by the US EPA for programs in which US EPA is the lead permitting agency.” Recommendations for use of the document include (1) a recognition that the metrics identified are merely intended as examples as part of a larger framework; (2) potential metrics can be organized into broad categories such as timeliness, quality, quantity, process complexity, cost, outputs, and system impacts; (3) problem identification should be a first step to in determining the value of a specific metric and how the metric fits in the overall process; (4) only a handful of metrics should be applied at any one time to and there can be significant costs associated with long term data collection; (5) not all metric are absolutely necessary or help you answer the most important questions; (6) sample metrics are only intended to focus on measures of effectiveness of the permitting system and not any other components within the program; (7) that permitting systems have sever specific purposes; (8) and that well-functioning permitting systems will deliver benefits such as improved environmental outcomes, enhanced economic and societal conditions, and increased public confidence; (9) this framework is intended to help but not replace a standard set of measures for statistical analysis of individual process steps (see sample use cases); (10) nor is the framework intended to serve as a set of “standard public reporting measures.”
E-Enterprise_Framework of Sample Permitting Metrics_Version 1.0_FINAL
