Stakeholders In Processes Research Articles

Using the CCR to Talk to Your Public

This article describes how the District of Columbia Water and Sewer Authority (WASA), a newly formed authority that inherited poor public perception about both the quality of water supplied and the management of the distribution system, used the Consumer Confidence Report (CCR) to re‐introduce itself and improve its image. The CCR was recognized as a vehicle to communicate improvements in water quality and services. Equally important, the stakeholder process used to develop the CCR served as a model for WASA's other public involvement activities and provided several spin‐off benefits.

Missouri River restoration efforts should include adaptive management, report urges

A new report on the Missouri River calls for major restoration measures and indicates that the river has continued to decline, from an ecological standpoint, to the point at which irreparable damage may be done to the river.The 9 January report, by the U.S. National Research Council's (NRC) Committee on Missouri River Ecosystem Science, calls for a policy of adaptive management of the river and for the creation of a broad‐based stakeholder process.

INDUSTRIAL SYMBIOSIS: Literature and Taxonomy

▪ Abstract Industrial symbiosis, as part of the emerging field of industrial ecology, demands resolute attention to the flow of materials and energy through local and regional economies. Industrial symbiosis engages traditionally separate industries in a collective approach to competitive advantage involving physical exchange of materials, energy, water, and/or by-products. The keys to industrial symbiosis are collaboration and the synergistic possibilities offered by geographic proximity. This paper reviews the small industrial symbiosis literature and some antecedents, as well as early efforts to develop eco-industrial parks as concrete realizations of the industrial symbiosis concept. Review of the projects is organized around a taxonomy of five different material exchange types. Input-output matching, stakeholder processes, and materials budgeting appear to be useful tools in advancing eco-industrial park development. Evolutionary approaches to industrial symbosis are found to be important in creating the level of cooperation needed for multi-party exchanges.

Risk assessment of regional systems

This paper introduces the field of integrated regional risk assessment and safety management for energy and other complex industrial systems. The international initiative includes compilation of methods and guidelines, development of various models and Decision Support Systems (DSS) to assist implementation of various tasks of risk assessment at the regional level. The merit of Geographic Information Systems technology and the use of specialized DSS and stakeholder processes are highlighted.

Life Cycle Assessments for Waste, Part III: The Case of Paint Packaging Separation and General Conclusions

This is the final paper of a series of three on the use of LCA in a strategic EIA made for the second Dutch National Hazardous Waste Management Plan (NHWMP). A comparison of two options for paint packaging waste separation is given: cryogenic versus shredder-flush separation. The high liquid nitrogen use in the cryogenic process, and particularly the energy needed to produce it, tends to make the cryogenic process environmentally less favourable. As for the other technology comparisons in the EIA, no particular problems arose. The EIA passed its peer review successfully and survived a very extensive public review procedure, in spite of the fact that it supported decisions involving very high financial stakes. Several lessons can be learned from this experience. First, LCA is a suitable tool in strategic EIAs on waste. Second, time-consuming, interactive public participation in LCA is no precondition for public acceptance — a process ofstakeholder deliberation that ensures that the practitioner knows the relevant perspective is enough. Third, high decision stakes do not automatically demand very extensive LCA work. Our experience shows that LCAs just above screening level can provide robust support to decisions involving dozens of million Euros. More extensive work would not have lead to more specified preferences. Rather, in our view, being well aware of the key discussion points in advance which are seen as relevant for the comparison by stakeholders, and having good insight in the related inherent limits of LCA, is the key to optimal decision support with LCA.

Sustainable Forest Management and Stakeholder Processes

Since the United Nations' Our Common Future (1987), discussions of sus tainable development in Canada, at both national and provincial levels, have assumed that stakeholder decision-making is essential to achieving sustainable development. The reports of numerous roundtable discussions that convened in the name of sustainable development provide ample evidence of the prevalence of this assumption. In recording the creation of processes followed by stakeholder groups and the commitments contained in their negotiated agreements, reports proclaim, without exception, the necessity of stakeholder processes.1 Whether in the broad context of sustainable development or the narrower context of a particular resource sector, these reports demonstrate confidence that stakeholder processes are an indispensable means to achieving sustainable development. Our Common Future expresses this necessity as follows:

U.S. EPA reregistration eligibility decision (RED) for the rodenticide cluster: overview of the regulatory process, response of registrants and stakeholders, and implications for agricultural and urban rodent control

Author(s): Silberhorn, Eric M.; Hobson, James F.; Miller, Gerald H.; Condos, Nicholas J. | Abstract: After several years of reviewing study data and conducting risk assessments, in September of 1998 the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) issued for comment a Reregistration Eligibility Decision (RED) document for pesticide products in the Rodenticide Cluster. The RED document covered 243 rodenticide products containing the following active ingredients: brodifacoum, bromadiolone, bromethalin, chlorophacinone, diphacinone and its sodium salt, and pival and its sodium salt. The U.S. EPA’s human health risk assessment in the RED document concluded that it was concerned about the risk to children due to accidental exposures to these chemicals through use in and around residences. With regard to ecological effects, the Agency concluded that there is a high risk of secondary poisoning, especially to mammals, from the use of these rodenticides outdoors in rural and suburban areas. In order to address the potential risks to children, the U.S. EPA initially required several mitigation measures designed to minimize exposure (e.g., addition of dye and bittering agent to formulations, labeling changes). The Agency also initiated implementation of a Rodenticide Stakeholder Process through which these and other risk mitigation measures would be discussed and required as needed. To help mitigate potential risks to non-target wildlife, the Agency initially determined that all uses of field-bait rodenticides containing more than 0.005% of chlorophacinone or diphacinone were ineligible for reregistration. The U.S. EPA also decided that all rodenticide products labeled for field use (except those limited to manual underground baiting) should be reclassified as Restricted Use pesticides. This paper reviews the regulatory process for the Rodenticide Cluster RED and discusses the response of the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) and other registrants to the requirements proposed in the RED document including formation of the Rodenticide Registrants Task Force (RRTF). It also outlines how an on-going dialogue with the Agency, both through the Rodenticide Stakeholder Process and in separate discussions, has diminished the RED requirements from those originally proposed. In addition, the paper discusses the implications and potential impacts of the current RED reregistration requirements for those applicators involved in agricultural and urban rodent control.

PROFILE: Integrated Environmental Management: The Foundations for Successful Practice.

/ Integrated environmental management (IEM) is a holistic and goal-oriented approach to environmental management that addresses interconnections through a strategic approach. Although no models of IEM have emerged, practitioners throughout the world are forging ahead with the concept. The literature indicates that stakeholder collaboration and public involvement are central to operationalizingthis model, because this interaction produces a more integrated approach and generates support for implementation. However, it is not clear what steps and conditions are necessary for successful translation of IEM into operation. The author draws on twenty-three case studies from the United States and Australia, a survey of 285 Australian stakeholders and the literature to produce a framework for IEM. The framework identifies 20 elements that-if attained-will increase the likelihood of successful operationalization of IEM. These elements address structuring of an integrated approach, operation of stakeholder processes, and outputs and outcomes. The elements do not constitute a formula for success, but a generic set of attributes that constitute a foundation for effective practice.KEY WORDS: Integrated environmental management; Stakeholder collaboration; Ecosystem managementhttp://link.springer-ny.com/link/service/journals/00267/bibs/24n2p151.html

Assessing sustainability in a spatial and social context: some conceptual and empirical challenges

This paper addresses two related conceptual and practical challenges in assessing sustainability. The first involves the social context, specifically the criteria and procedures to be used. The second involves the spatial context, specifically the problem of assessing sustainability when there are multiple and overlapping "communities" with multiple economic and ecological scales. With respect to the first issue, we build on previous contributions in discussing how multicriteria assessment strategies and stakeholder processes might be used. We also illustrate the use of various non-monetary measures of ecological capacity and performance to supplement economic information. The second issue remains less well understood, though our analysis highlights how economic and ecological capacity and performance measures can be applied at various scales.

Questions to Ask: Components of the Civic Index

The Civic Index provides a method and a process for identifying community strengths and weaknesses and then structuring collaborative solutions to problems. It offers communities a means of undertaking a self-evaluation of their civic infrastructures. Creating civic infrastructure is not an end in itself. Rather, it is a community's first step toward building its capacity to deal with critical issues. Citizens can use the Civic Index to analyze their community's civic infrastructure by asking a series of questions about the community. During the initial steps of a stakeholder process, citizens can assess their community's components and later come to agreement on the desired condition of the twelve components of the new Civic Index.

Identifying Opportunities for Vertical Integration of Biochemistry and Clinical Medicine.

Objectives: Retention of basic science knowledge, as judged by National Board of Medical Examiners' (NBME) data, suffers due to lack of apparent relevance and isolation of instruction from clinical application, especially in biochemistry. However, the literature reveals no systematic process for identifying key biochemical concepts and associated clinical conditions. This study systematically identified difficult biochemical concepts and their common clinical conditions as a critical step towards enhancing relevance and retention of biochemistry.Methods: A multi-step/ multiple stakeholder process was used to: (1) identify important biochemistry concepts; (2) determine students' perceptions of concept difficulty; (3) assess biochemistry faculty, student, and clinical teaching scholars' perceived relevance of identified concepts; and (4) identify associated common clinical conditions for relevant and difficult concepts. Surveys and a modified Delphi process were used to gather data, subsequently analyzed using SPSS for Windows.Results: Sixteen key biochemical concepts were identified. Second year medical students rated 14/16 concepts as extremely difficult while fourth year students rated nine concepts as moderately to extremely difficult. On average, each teaching scholar generated common clinical conditions for 6.2 of the 16 concepts, yielding a set of seven critical concepts and associated clinical conditions.Conclusions: Key stakeholders in the instructional process struggle to identify biochemistry concepts that are critical, difficult to learn and associated with common clinical conditions. However, through a systematic process beginning with identification of concepts and associated clinical conditions, relevance of basic science instruction can be enhanced.