Creating a Successful P2 Program for Your Business

Successful P2 Plans

Guidance documents for submitting P2 Plans and finding new P2 ideas can be found at our P2 Planning Toolkit | Visit Page >

EPA also provides guidance for developing/maintaining a P2 Plan | Visit Page >

Questions to Help Develop a Successful P2 Plan

This serves as a management/organizational tool to assist in the creation of successful and meaningful P2 plans for your facility. The questions are meant to lead you to ideas for better integrating P2 into your facility’s work and culture.

  • Does your facility have a method for identifying, documenting, and tracking wastes and emissions?

It is important that all employees impacting emissions are aware of how your facility tracks and monitors them.

  • Have you conducted a pollution prevention assessment or an audit of your emissions?

It is difficult to find opportunities to reduce pollution if you aren’t sure where all the emission sources are.

  • Does your facility have a clear understanding of how you want to incorporate P2 moving forward?

It can be easier to gather resources and support if a general plan is in place.

  • Is management supportive of P2 and willing to commit necessary resources for P2 activities?

Encourage management support by identifying cost savings or PR opportunities.

  • Although P2 projects come with capital cost and some annual maintenance costs, will they result in long-term savings and/or return on investment?

Analyze potential non-cost related impacts of a project. Some P2 projects may make the workplace safer or a process easier, which may be worth the initial costs.

  • Do you have an interdisciplinary P2 team? If so, does this team meet frequently enough? And, when they meet, do they go over project metrics, quality of implementation, potential problems in implementation, etc.? 

P2 teams ensure that passionate individuals who want to do the work for P2 are the ones spearheading discovery and implementation.

  • Have you appointed P2 facilitators who can take on P2 work/lead the initiatives as part of their job tasks?
     
  • Have you considered implementing a quality tool like ISO 9000/140000, Pareto principles, total quality management, etc.?
     
  • Do your employees know why P2 is beneficial to them?
     
  • Is there proper training on environmental considerations and appropriate signage?
     
  • Has P2 or sustainability been incorporated into your facility’s culture? If so, how can it be improved?
     
  • Do you solicit and incorporate employee feedback into your P2 plan/goals?
     
  • Are your P2 goals tied to specific processes and tracked in that work area with those key employees?
     
  • Do you share and celebrate P2 progress with all your employees? 
     
  • Are employees recognized for their efforts in implementing P2 projects?
     
  • Are you communicating P2 goals and objectives effectively to your employees and stakeholders?
     
  • Have you integrated environmental considerations and P2 into your business model?

Consider how P2 projects could bring you into compliance with other sectors.

Assign priorities to certain waste streams or activities.

Integrate P2 projects into budget planning and general scheduling.

Bring P2 into the research, development and design phase of projects and process development.

Work with your external consultants, clients and suppliers to join forces on P2 planning and projects.