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Pollution Prevention (P2)

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Grant Programs for Pollution Prevention

Pollution Prevention Grant Program

Pollution Prevention (P2) Grants provide technical assistance to businesses in order to help them develop and adopt source reduction practices (also known as “pollution prevention” or “P2”). P2 means reducing or eliminating pollutants from entering any waste stream or otherwise released into the environment prior to recycling, treatment, or disposal. In keeping with the Pollution Prevention Act of 1990, EPA is encouraging P2 because implementing these approaches can result in reductions in toxic pollutants, the use of water, energy and other raw materials, while also lowering business costs. P2 grants are awarded to States, colleges and universities (recognized as instrumentalities of the state), and federally-recognized tribes and intertribal consortia.

EPA is awarding approximately $9.3 million in total federal pollution prevention grant funding over a two-year funding cycle. EPA anticipates that it will award these individual grant projects ranging in the amounts of $25,000 to $498,000 once all legal and administrative requirements are satisfied.

FY 2020 and FY 2021 P2 Grant Program Request for Applications (RFA). CLOSED

Quick facts for P2 Grants

  • Eligibility: State governments, colleges and universities (recognized as instrumentalities of the state), federally-recognized tribes and intertribal consortia.
  • Match requirement: 50 percent match; for tribal governments that place P2 grant activities into a performance partnership grant (PPG) agreement, the match for the tribe gets reduced to 5 percent. Please refer to the RFA for complete information.
  • Review of applications: Along with other requirements that are noted in the RFA, applications must address one of the following statutory/regulatory criteria to merit further review.
    • Provide technical assistance and/or training to businesses/facilities about source reduction techniques to help them adopt and implement source reduction approaches, and to increase the development, adoption, and market penetration of greener products and sustainable manufacturing practices.
    • Identify, develop, document and share P2 best management practices and innovations so this information may inform future technical assistance, and these P2 approaches and outcomes may be replicated by others.
  • Range of awards: Individual grant awards may potentially be in the range of $40,000-$500,000 for the two-year funding period (between $20,000 - $250,000 incrementally funded per year). However, some EPA regions may have lower award caps. Please refer to RFA for complete information.
  • Average number of grants issued: 40

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Source Reduction Assistance Grant Program (SRA)

Source Reduction Assistance (SRA) grants fund innovative source reduction approaches (also known as “pollution prevention” or “P2”). P2 means reducing or eliminating pollutants from entering any waste stream or otherwise released into the environment prior to recycling, treatment, or disposal. In keeping with the statutory authorities under this program, SRA grant projects must use one or more of the following technical assistance methods to carry out source reduction/P2 activities: a) research, b) investigation, c) experiments, d) education, e) training, f) studies and/or g) demonstration of innovative techniques.

FY 2020 and FY 2021 SRA Grant Program Request for Applications (RFA). CLOSED

Quick facts for SRA grants

  • Eligibility: The 50 states, the District of Columbia, the United States Virgin Islands, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, any territory or possession of the United States, local governments, city or township governments, independent school district governments, state controlled institutions of higher education, nonprofit organizations (other than institutions of higher education), private institutions of higher education, community-based grassroots organizations, and federally-recognized tribes and intertribal consortia.
  • Match requirement: 5 percent match.
  • Review of Applications: Along with other requirements that are noted in the RFA, applications must carry out source reduction/P2 approaches by using one or more of these technical assistance methods:
    • a) research, b) investigation, c) experiments, d) education, e) training, f) studies, and/or g) demonstration of innovative techniques
  • Range of awards: Total individual grant awards may potentially be in the range of $20,000 - $200,000 issued over a two-year funding period. However, some EPA regions may have lower award caps. Please refer to the RFA for more information.
  • Average number of grants issued over a 2-year funding cycle: 20

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Grant Reporting

For the convenience of grantees, EPA is providing formatted Excel spreadsheets that grantees may use for the required grant reporting described the FY 18-19 Request for Proposals (RFP) and the FY20-21 Request for Applications (RFA). 508-compliant PDF versions of the spreadsheets are also available, but do not have the functionality of the Excel versions.

Grants with FY18-19 Funding

The Excel version of an example reporting matrix (XLSX)(152 K) for FY 18-19 funding covers reporting for all grant project types. Grantees with FY18-19 funding may also use the files provided below for grantees with FY20-21 funding.

Grants with FY20-21 Funding

EPA is providing three reporting templates in Excel. The appropriate spreadsheet file to use will depend on the project type:

  • Template 1 (XLSX)(263 K) may be used for reporting on grant projects where P2 technical assistance is provided directly to a specific business facility.
  • Template 2 (XLSX)(415 K) is for reporting on grant projects that involve green certification or leadership programs.
  • Template 3 (XLSX)(210 K) is for reporting on grant projects where technical assistance is designed for multiple businesses rather than provided directly to a specific business (e.g., P2 training courses, outreach material, roundtables).

Using the Excel files for grant reporting will allow you to track and report all required outcome elements, automatically tabulate many of your required outputs, and update and resubmit the file for sequential annual reporting. Using these workbooks will also allow EPA to easily import this information into a database for aggregating P2 grant performance information across the country. In the future, EPA will make the database available to all P2 grantees to search the P2 actions being recommended and implemented by others.

To maintain EPA’s ability to easily aggregate the reporting data that grantees submit in these Excel spreadsheet files, we ask that these spreadsheets not be modified other than adding the requested information.

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Guidance on applying for P2 grants, SRA grants, and measuring results

P2 grants program guidance

P2 grant webinars

SRA grants program guidance

SRA grant webinar

Measurement of pollution prevention outcomes and outputs

EPA Grant Guidance

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Annual Reports of Grant Results

These P2 grant programs produce annual environmental and costs saving results in the following metrics:

  • reductions in hazardous releases and hazardous inputs (pounds);
  • reductions in metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent: MTCO2e;
  • reduced water consumption (gallons) and
  • cost savings associated with reducing hazardous pounds, MTCO2e, and water consumption.

Read more about how to measure pollution prevention.

P2 Grants

Source Reduction Grants

Past RFPs

Pollution Prevention Grant Program

Source Reduction Assistance Grant Program

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