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EPA is pursuing options for developing a voluntary standards and verification system that evaluates and recognizes efforts to maximize the net environmental benefit of cleaning up contaminated sites. These standards for "green cleanup" would guide and stimulate efficient, cost-effective, and low-impact site remediation by encouraging property owners, developers, and communities to go beyond state and federal requirements for cleanup as well as land revitalization projects.

EPA's Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response and regional offices worked with state agencies to develop a framework outlining the desired outcomes of a potential green cleanup standard and verification system. ASTM International is now using the framework as a starting point for developing a standard guide, and EPA is identifying potential uses for the standard, along with options for verification.

For more information:

• View the Green Cleanup Standard Initiative project update of January 2010 (PDF) (2 pp, 66KB).
• Visit ASTM International online for updates on the new ASTM guide being developed for green cleanup at waste sites. Stakeholders interested in participating in the consensus process need to: (1) become an ASTM member and join Committee E50 Environmental Assessment, Risk Management and Corrective Action as well as the E50.04 Corrective Action Subcommittee; and (2) contact the ASTM staff manager (Dan Smith, dsmith@astm.org) to request participation in the Green Cleanup Task Group. Task Group members will be placed on the e-mail distribution list for materials such as progress reports, revised drafts, and notices of upcoming meetings.
• See the Incentives for Greener Cleanups (PDF) paper issued in June 2009 by the Association of State and Territorial Solid Waste Management?s Greener Cleanups Task Force. In August 2009, the Task Force also released Incorporating Greener Cleanups into Remedy Reviews (PDF), a paper that examines the need to review sustainability of remedies under the various remedial programs.
• View EPA's archived Green Remediation Voluntary Standards Initiative webinar of March 4^th, 2009, which discussed how a voluntary standard and verification system could maximize net environmental benefits of site cleanups across regulatory frameworks. Q&A Highlights (PDF) (3 pp, 66.83KB) summarize questions posed by webinar participants and corresponding answers from EPA presenters.