*EPF305 08/11/2004
EPA Web Site Showcases International Environmental Best Practices
(Focus shifts from exporting expertise and dollars to importing innovation) (1140)

By Cheryl Pellerin
Washington File Staff Writer

Washington -- A new Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Web site showcases environmental policies and best practices from countries around the world ���� including Australia, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, Australia and Brazil ���� to share innovative solutions to complex problems that affect the world's air quality, water and land use.

The Web site (http://www.epa.gov/innovation/international), a project of the EPA National Center for Environmental Innovation (NCEI), is a portal to information about innovative environmental policies and programs mainly from the European Union and the 30-member Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

"Sharing best practices among like-minded organizations and governments," says EPA's Brian Swett, an environmental protection specialist and the NCEI lead on international innovation, "is an important paradigm shift in traditional international environmental activity ���� from exporting environmental expertise and dollars to importing good ideas from around the globe."

The Web site offers links to resources in environmental learning, international innovations on key environmental issues, international experiences with crosscutting approaches to environmental issues, examples of U.S.-international partnerships and exchanges and international program evaluation. An online global library links to environmental journals, databases and guidelines, programs and case studies.

In a Washington File interview, Swett said the EPA Web site has initially focused on EU and OECD countries because of similarities with the United States ���� socioeconomic profiles; environmental, economic, and social pressures to develop sustainable policies; and, in many of the countries, more environmentally efficient use of resources.

Also, in response to complex environmental challenges, many EU and OECD countries have implemented policies that a growing number of U.S. states and cities are using as models to deal with urban sprawl, pollution, contaminated land and water-quality problems.

Environmental officials and policymakers in California, Florida, Illinois, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Virginia and other states and cities have used international models to plan new initiatives and seek new approaches to environmental challenges, Swett said.

For example, he said, the Northern Virginia Regional Commission and Germany's Verband Region Stuttgart initiated in 2001 the first international region-to-region partnership. Portland, Oregon, adapted climate protection strategies from Stockholm, Sweden, and Copenhagen, Denmark. German and Swiss car-sharing programs inspired similar efforts in Seattle, Chicago, Denver, New York, Washington, Portland and Boston. And the idea for "green" rooftops in Chicago came from Hamburg, Germany.

Some of the most urgent environmental challenges in the United States involve air quality, water management, and urban sprawl. The following international policy innovations are among those detailed at the EPA Web site.

Air Quality

In many EU and OECD countries, creative state and local governments have pioneered policies and projects that are economically practical and environmentally sound. For example, smart-growth policy tools common in many OECD countries have preserved open space, supported urban forests, and created greenbelts ���� areas of parks, farmland, or uncultivated land ���� around many cities, especially in Europe.

Greenspace, which is any vegetated land or water in or next to an urban area, makes an important contribution to air quality. Greenspace planning in Stuttgart, Germany, and Stockholm, Sweden, is linked in networks of "green" air corridors. The corridors are designed to reduce air pollutants and mitigate the effects of urban heat islands, which are domes of high temperatures caused by pollutant emissions and heat fluxes from buildings and pavement.

In 2001, to mediate heat-island effects, the Tokyo metropolitan government enacted a law requiring all new or rebuilt public and private buildings on plots of 1,000 square meters or more to use plantings on at least 20 percent of their roof space. Europe is addressing air pollution by devoting more resources to public transportation. In France and England, 40 percent to 60 percent of transportation spending goes to passenger railroads and mass-transit systems.

Water

International efforts also help conserve and purify water and manage wastewater. In the 1950s, 20 years earlier than the United States, Germany began to research the treatment and cost efficiencies of constructed wetlands to help purify a growing amount of wastewater. A shallow pond is built near the wastewater and stocked with plants and animals found in natural wetlands. When wastewater is routed through the constructed wetland, microbes and plant uptake of nutrients clean the water. This work allowed Germany to show that constructed wetlands were a viable alternative to conventional water treatment processes.

Australia is a global leader in total asset-based management of water infrastructure, and has developed several ambitious, state-level water-demand management policies and programs. In 2000, the state of New South Wales cancelled plans for a major dam and instead set legally binding requirements and operating licenses for Sydney Water to reduce water demand by 35 percent from 1991 levels by 2011.

Urban Sprawl

In many European countries, policy tools address the development of urban sprawl. In the Netherlands, with 15 million inhabitants and Europe's highest population density, a national spatial-planning policy called the ABC Policy helps integrate land-use and transportation planning. The letters ABC refer to levels of population and traffic densities, A being the highest, C the lowest.

According to the European Partners for the Environment Web page, the idea behind the ABC Policy is to reduce avoidable car use by putting "the right business in the right place" and making sure residents have access to economic activity centers that are near highways and public transportation. The policy has inspired transportation and housing planning in cities like Groningen, where 50 percent of inner-city travel is by bicycle.

Europe has also hosted international design competitions that promote the creation of environmentally oriented buildings and redeveloped open spaces and landscapes.

Although many examples and case studies on the EPA Web site feature EU and OECD countries, Swett said, "we can certainly learn a great deal from innovations in developing countries." The Web site is constantly expanding, he added, and in the future will feature innovations from South Africa, Mexico and other countries.

The EPA NCEI Web site is much more focused on policies that promote and implement innovative practices like constructed wetlands than on the technologies themselves. The portal is meant to give local, state and federal officials who are interested in international solutions a place to find policy details and contact information for global leaders in specific environmental areas.

The site is also a resource for government bodies, businesses and nongovernmental organizations, with information about group and individual exchanges ���� not just country to country ���� and short- and long-term projects.

"This is a growing resource," Swett said. Anyone who has ideas or information about innovative policies or programs can contact the EPA National Center for Environmental Innovation through the Web site.

Additional information is available at http://www.epa.gov/innovation/international

(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)

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