Colleges & Universities in New England

Evaluation of EPA New England's Colleges and University Initiative

(conducted by Industrial Economics Inc.)

The EPA’s Office of Planning, Analysis, and Accountability (OPAA) is responsible for coordinating Agency strategic planning activities, including implementing the Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA). Among other things, OPAA is responsible for conducting analyses to measure the Agency’s progress at meeting it's goals, objectives and subobjectives and to guide strategic planning decisions. High quality program evaluations require the ability to perform comparative risk and economic assessments, including evaluation of benefits and costs using comparable methodologies. A crucial component in assessing the benefit of meeting goals, objectives, and subobjectives is having measurable results.

Under this contract, IEc provides technical assistance, conducts research, and performs analysis as needed to support the evaluation of programs across the Agency. IEc evaluated the College and University Initiative, especially the targeted use of EPA’s Self-Audit Policy, by assessing EPA New England’s stated goals for the project. The objectives of the evaluation were to determine whether Colleges and Universities are implementing preferred environmental practices as a result of EPA’s College and University Initiative, to examine the factors that motivated Colleges and Universities to participate in the Audit program, and to consider the applicability of the College and University Initiative approach to other EPA regions and to other sectors of the regulated community.

Disclaimer
This evaluation is provided for the convenience of the viewer. The US EPA does not exercise any editorial control over the information contained in this evaluation, nor is the US EPA responsible for the content of this evaluation.

Prepared by Industrial Economics, Inc.
for
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Office of Environmental Policy Innovation
Office of Policy, Economics, and Innovation
and
EPA New England

Evaluation of EPA New England's Colleges and University Initiative (PDF) (73 pp, 310K, about PDF)