"An assessment report will help you focus subsequent pollution prevention efforts and will be useful as a record of what aspects of your business you examined for pollution prevention opportunities."
The task force should write a report that summarizes the results of the pollution prevention assessment at the company level. Table 7 lists the report contents. The report will provide a schedule for implementing prevention projects and will be the basis for evaluating and maintaining the pollution prevention program. It may also be needed to secure internal funding for projects that require capital investment, if the members of the pollution prevention assessment task force do not have the authority to commit funds.
You may be tempted to omit this step if your company has an owner-manager and only a few employees. A summary assessment report may not be needed to resolve pollution prevention project conflicts among different areas, and your funding approvals probably are not a formal procedure requiring cost justifications. However, an assessment report will help you focus subsequent pollution prevention efforts and will be useful as a record of what aspects of your business you examined for pollution prevention opportunities.
For each process that is assessed, the report should include:
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For each project proposal, the report should include:
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In a company that has several assessment teams, the task force will need to evaluate the results and resolve any conflicts that might exist among the teams about the approach and the resources required for the projects they propose.
As input to this integration effort, each assessment team should prepare a summary report, presenting the results of their investigations and listing the options they screened. Each report should describe in some detail the options that the team has determined are feasible and propose a schedule for implementing them. The options recommended for immediate implementation should then be described in detail as proposed projects.
These proposals should evaluate each project under different scenarios. For example, the profitability of projects could be estimated under both optimistic and pessimistic assumptions. Where appropriate, sensitivity analyses indicating the effect of key variables on profitability should be included. Each proposed project should outline a plan for adjusting and fine-tuning the initial projects as knowledge and experience increases. The proposals should include a schedule for addressing those areas and wastes with lower priorities than the ones selected for the initial effort.
The task force will use the assessment teams' reports and project proposals to prepare the summary assessment report and implementation plan. The report should include a qualitative evaluation of the indirect and intangible costs and benefits to your company and employees of a pollution prevention plan. It will provide the basis for obtaining funding of pollution prevention projects. Pollution prevention projects should not be sold on their technical merits alone; a clear description of both tangible and intangible benefits can help a proposed project obtain funding.
Before the report is issued in final form, managers and other experienced people in the production units that will be affected by the proposed projects should be asked to review the report. Their review will help to ensure that the projects proposed are well-defined and feasible from their perspectives. While they probably were involved in the site reviews and other early efforts of the task force, they may spot inaccuracies or misunderstandings on the part of the assessment teams that were not apparent before. In addition to ensuring the quality of the assessment report and implementation plan, this review will help ensure the support of the people who will be responsible for the success of the project.
The final assessment report should be included as a part of the original pollution prevention program plan (see "Augmenting the Plan" in Chapter 10). As stated above, the report will provide a schedule for implementing prevention projects and will be the basis for evaluating and maintaining the pollution prevention program.