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Above: Frank Hackman, RCGA Board vice chair for environment and Partner Sonnenshein Nath & Rosenthal.
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Effective Environmental Leadership
The RCGA’s leadership in environmental affairs impacts the community and encourages economic growth.
By Frank Hackmann
RCGA, with the direction and advice of both the Environ-mental and Public Policy Councils, has effectively assumed a leadership role in advancement of the region’s environmental infrastructure. That leadership has been demonstrated by:
- Opposing unnecessary or detrimental environmental regulation
- Supporting necessary and appropriate policy
- Participating in program development
- Forming public/private partnerships to spearhead environmental issues.
While the RCGA’s role in the legislative, regulatory and administrative processes (“the process”) has varied from adversarial to advocacy, our message has been readily accepted, because it is both consistently credible and articulate. Our role in “the process” is characterized by consistent, thoughtful and respectful participation by knowledgeable professionals bringing forth reasoned, defensible positions presented in appropriate jurisdictions on a timely basis. Adding to the credibility factor is the RCGA’s well-developed institutional process of garnering input and, where possible, consensus from a membership representative and comprised of a cross-section of the metropolitan region’s business community. Our process, our membership and our commitment to credible participation in “the process” have given the St. Louis business community a real and substantial voice in the management of the region’s environmental infrastructure on local, regional and national levels, alike.
Committee and Workgroup Structure:
The members of the Council may serve on one or more of the nine established committees that examine various issues. In addition to those committees (listed below), a number of ad hoc workgroups are convened throughout the year to address issue-specific topics of concern to RCGA members and the region as a whole. These committees/ workgroups frequently interact directly with policy-makers and agency officials at local, state and national levels.
Environmental Council Committees:
Air
Brownfields
Communications
Conference
Energy
Pollution Prevention
Public Affairs
Waste
Water
Environmental Council Partnerships:
St. Louis Regional Clean Air Partnership Choose Environmental Excellence – Gateway Region Public/Private Partnership for Pollution Prevention
1999 Accomplishments/Major Initiatives:
- The RCGA continues leadership role in regional air quality management
In 1997 and 1998 Missouri legislative sessions, the RCGA emerged as one of the strongest proponents in the state of air quality programs necessary to satisfy the requirements of the federal Clean Air Act (Act). Subsequent to legislative action on those programs, the RCGA remained active in 1999 in the regulatory process in order to assure timely implementation. Further, the RCGA played a lead role in 1999, first encouraging, then working directly with Missouri’s Department of Natural Resources (DNR) in development of additional rules (NOx RACT) necessary to comply with the Act that might otherwise have gone unpromulgated. In 1999, the RCGA also initiated the St. Louis-specific participation in a lawsuit filed by the Sierra Club and the Missouri Coalition for the Environment against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in which the plaintiffs took exception to the EPA’s choice not to inflict punitive measures on the region. The RCGA and Missouri Chamber, along with Associated Industries of Missouri and the Associated General Contractors all filed motions to “intervene” in the lawsuit in defense of the EPA’s administrative position. For further information, please see the environmental section of the RCGA’s Website.
- RCGA brownfields initiatives, past and present, continue to fuel new reinvestment
The Environmental Council’s Brownfields Committee has been actively advocating development-friendly and environmentally appropriate regulatory and incentive programs for several years in both Missouri and Illinois. Those programs have proven instrumental in the development of several dozen major brownfield projects, and many smaller ones, throughout the bi-state region. In Missouri alone, incentive packages, administered through Missouri’s Department of Economic Development (DED), have factored into the revitalization of more than 15 major projects with a net economic impact to the State in excess of $57 million (measured in net new tax revenue to the state) and the addition of hundreds of new jobs to the region. In addition, the RCGA has been successful in the advocacy of new risk-based assessment and clean-up standards in Missouri, including a provision for a groundwater classification system. These programs, coupled with well-developed voluntary clean-up programs in both states, plus existing and enhanced incentives (being sought in both states in the 2000 legislative session) afford the collective St. Louis regional development community one of the most attractive brownfield redevelopment packages available anywhere in the United States.
- Regional benefits of environmental stewardship borne of institutional collaboration
Institutional partnerships of entities with diverse, if not contrary, historic philosophical perspectives on environmental management, have allowed the region to move forward with “simple steps” as a common theme for a variety of initiatives in which the RCGA has taken an active role. The St. Louis Regional Clean Air Partnership, a coalition of business, public health, academic and other institutions, has been active in the region for several years. While its impact in terms of actual emission reductions might be difficult to quantify, its impact on the region is clear. Attention to “air quality” has achieved a significant level of grass roots recognition, inspiring a range of personal and institutional behavioral/operational changes throughout the region. Hundreds of thousands of this region’s citizens receive daily ozone information during summer months from more than 400 of the region’s largest employers, several media sources and many other targeted outreach vehicles. The concerted efforts of the institutional partners during the region’s recent significant decline in the number of bad air quality days cannot be discounted.
Another similar collaborative effort was born in 1999. The Choose Environmental Excellence – Gateway Region initiative commenced in St. Louis in coordination with a statewide MDNR effort. Choose Environmental Excellence is a not-for-profit organization that seeks to educate, encourage and reward environmentally friendly personal and business practices throughout the region. Through this effort, we will serve as a clearinghouse for information about recycling and re-use strategies as well as information about waste products/streams and end-users of those products.
For more information about the RCGA Environmental Council, please contact Mike Alesandrini, Director - Environmental Affairs at 314/444-1144 or see the RCGA’s Web site at www.stlrcga.org.
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