Proposed Standard for Classifying Environmental Assistance Resources

submitted by:  Paul Chalmer, NCMS, (734) 995-4911

Purpose and scope

The purpose of this standard is to help users who are seeking environmental assistance resources to locate items appropriate to the users' needs.  By providing a comprehensive framework for classifying environmental assistance resources, it will also help funding agencies formulate strategies and evaluate programs designed to enhance the environmental assistance opportunities available to individuals and businesses.

"Users" includes both those directly needing the resources, and technical assistance providers locating resources on their behalf.

"Resources" includes:

• information resources such as guidance documents, regulations, interpretations, and technical information, in both electronic and hard copy format
• commercial service providers such as vendors, consultants, laboratories, and engineering services
• non-commercial assistance providers, such as pollution prevention and compliance assistance organizations
• communications resources such as list serves, bulletin boards, and interest groups

The standard specifies a classification scheme for types of environmental assistance.  It is intended to provide a basis for:

• user interfaces for databases and directories of environmental assistance resources
• document type definitions for XML standards relating to environmental assistance
• evaluation of overall strategies for, and outcomes of, environmental assistance initiatives and programs, by funding agencies
• identification of gaps in coverage of environmental assistance programs available to small business sectors

Classification system

Environmental assistance resources are classified according to two independent criteria, with a set of categories is assigned to each criterion.  Every environmental assistance resource is assigned to one category of each of the two criteria.  By listing the categories for one criterion in a row, and the categories of the other criterion in a column, the sets of all possible assignments can be represented in a matrix.

The two criteria and their associated categories are as follows:

• Toward which business function is the assistance directed?
  • Operations
  • Administrative and regulatory ("administration")
  • Executive and financial ("executive")
• To what extent is the assistance constrained by past or ongoing business activities?
  • Not constrained ("before")
  • Constrained by ongoing activities ("during")
  • Constrained by past activities ("after")

The matrix of possible combinations appears as follows.  Each cell of the matrix contains the designated name for the resource type.

Designated names are also assigned to certain combinations of these elementary types, in accordance with typical usage.  Names recognized by this classification system are:

• "Pollution prevention", referring to the source reduction or the waste minimization categories
• "Business assistance", referring to the new capacity, modernization, or crisis assistance categories

The following guidelines may be used to assign resources to categories according to the business function criterion:

• The Operations category includes assistance directed toward manufacturing processes, including materials, equipment, and operating procedures.
• The Administration category includes assistance directed toward dealing with regulatory agencies, recordkeeping and reporting.
• The Executive category includes assistance directed toward business planning, strategic decision making, and financing.

The following guidelines may be used to assign resources to categories according to the business activity constraint criterion:

• The "before" category includes assistance directed toward design of new products or processes, where choices of materials, equipment and operating procedures are not limited by existing practices.
• The "during" category includes assistance directed toward increasing efficiency of minimizing waste of ongoing operations, for which a significant number of the currently used materials, equipment, or procedures cannot be significantly modified.
• The "after" category includes assistance directed toward the consequences of past operations.

Rationale

There are many conceivable schemes for classifying types of environmental assistance.  The scheme proposed in this standard has the following properties:

• It is based on information about the user's situation, and requires no specialized knowledge or assumptions about technical or regulatory environmental issues.
• It attempts to provide mutually exclusive (unambiguous) and exhaustive (comprehensive) categories.
• It embodies a preference hierarchy consistent with generally accepted environmental principles.

The first property (scheme based on user's situation) is intended to make the classification system particularly suitable for user interfaces.

The second property (mutually exclusive and exhaustive categories) is intended to avoid ambiguity in assigning resources to categories.  It should be considered an ideal to be approached rather than a goal actually achieved by this system, since completely eliminating ambiguity is probably unattainable.  But the scheme is based on some underlying principles which are rooted in common practice:

• The categories of the business function criterion are based on the distinction between intentions and actions.  The Executive category covers assistance directed toward business owners and executives for creating the plans and providing the means to establish the intended business activities.  The Operations category covers assistance directed toward the engineers, designers, and operators who carry out those intentions.  The Administrative category covers those who mediate between the two, and who are responsible for ensuring that the translation of intentions into action are carried out in conformance with external requirements.
• The categories of the business activity constraint criterion are based on the distinction between past, present, and future.

The third property (preference hierarchy) is intended to embody the "ounce of prevention" philosophy.  It is preferable to choose assistance as far "up" the matrix as possible, consistent with the economic and regulatory constraints on the user's activities.