AGC and EPA partner for Smart Sectors program

Arlington, Virginia-based Associated General Contractors of America (AGC) CEO Stephen E. Sandherr and Tom Couling, the chair of AGC’s environmental forum, joined senior officials at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in the launch of the agency’s Smart Sectors program.  EPA invited AGC to partner on an effort to eliminate or improve rules AGC says have failed to deliver results and stifled economic growth. 

“Finding a way to combine a deep knowledge of how to protect the environment with an understanding of how construction firms operate is the most effective way to craft programs and policies that deliver significant environmental protections to commercial construction sites,” Sandherr says. “The administrator clearly understands that firms will be able to do more to protect the environment if the regulations they must follow are crafted with an understanding of how employers operate.”

The Smart Sectors program’s goals include better informed rulemaking, reduced burden and increased transparency about environmental performance. Through this new partnership, AGC will have a direct point-of-contact in EPA’s office of policy and an opportunity to shape the outcomes on issues on the agency’s to do list as outlined in the regulatory agenda.

AGC has been calling for EPA to revive the Bush Administration’s Sector Strategies program, through which AGC worked collaboratively with the agency to develop numerous industry-specific compliance tools including the online Construction Industry Compliance Assistance Center and a toolkit for developing an environmental management system. The program, temporarily ended by the Obama Administration, dates to the Clinton Administration.