The Environmental Permitting Process Improvement Team has developed a framework of sample metrics for analyzing, evaluating, and improving the operational efficiency and effectiveness of permitting systems.
The framework document includes recommended guidelines for its use and provides a sample set of metrics, criteria to aid in the development and selection of metrics for specific permitting program improvement initiatives, and sample scenarios in which various metrics may be applied.
CHALLENGE
Traditionally, environmental agencies have lacked simple, measurable, and actionable metrics needed to improve permitting processes. To help solve this issue, a workgroup of U.S. EPA, state, and tribal personnel have developed a framework of possible metrics to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of permitting systems.
BENEFITS
- Streamline permitting operations
- Increase permitting timeliness
- Decrease permitting costs
- Improve environmental results
ACCOMPLISHMENTS
In Spring 2018, the team released Version 1.0 of A Framework of Sample Metrics for Evaluating the Efficiency and Effectiveness of Environmental Permitting Systems. The document notes that only a handful of metrics should be applied at any given time to a particular system or process and should be selected based on the specific problems that need to be solved. Under a continuous process improvement approach, different metrics may be more helpful at different times.
RESOURCES
The team drew upon a November 2017 Overview Summary Document prepared for the EELC, the Lean Government Metrics Guide (EPA, 2009), and its members’ respective experiences and insights.