Facility Level Perspectives on the Toxics Release

Inventory and Environmental Performance

Mark Stephan – Washington State University

Michael Kraft – University of WI – Green Bay
Troy Abel – Western Washington University
Introduction
 This presentation
 Key puzzle: Variation across facilities
 Survey analyses of facilities and public
officials
 Trying to make sense of perceived
impacts of the TRI

 Uses of TRI data…….by facilities and

public officials….but also by researchers
Theory

 Information dynamic

 Information mediated by contextual

variables – for example:
 Capacity within Facilities
 Capacity within Communities
Methods

 Survey – 237 facility surveys and

100 public official surveys
 Response rates of 24.2% and
45.5% respectively
 Federal and State officials – high
usage of TRI
 Local officials – very little use of TRI
Key Descriptive Results
 Importance of air emissions
 Fairly positive response to TRI by
facilities
 TRI influence on facility
environmental management – as
perceived both by facilities (see
Table 2) and public officials (see
Table 3)
Correlation Analyses
 See Tables 4 and 5
 Environmental management systems
and use of TRI for source reduction
 Interactions with environmental
organizations and general impression
of the TRI
 Interactions with community groups
and use for TRI in reducing emissions
Discussion

 The TRI is having an effect….

sometimes
 Variations in its influence are
related to mediating factors
 Environmental information
disclosure programs serve as
relevant policy tools
Our Larger Project includes…..

 State level analyses of secondary

data
 More survey results
 More detailed connections between
survey data and performance data
 Policy prescriptions