At the BSR Conference this week, many of the organizations that will lead the charge into Copenhagen for COP15 were in attendance. From NGOs to corporations to government entities, sustainability was front and center in San Francisco. Matter Network sat down at the end of the first day for an interview with Frederick “Derry” Allen of the Environmental Protection Agency.

MN: Good afternoon Derry, and thank you for sitting down with us. What is the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) doing here at a conference like BSR?

An awful lot of the discussion here is about what businesses are doing to become more sustainable, and part of that discussion is what is the role of government; we have many possible roles as a classic regulator, to offer partnerships with government, as a convener of parties, and a source of information. It is important to hear about what people in business are doing and how they see the issues and have us understand how to sort out the roles of government in an environment that is changing very quickly

MN:How do you see a conference like this driving towards Cop15?

DA:I think that it is not at all clear what is going to happen in Copenhagen, but whatever it is will be a very important and it will not be the last word, and it will initiate probably more discussions until it’s completed.

MN:There is a lot of talk at this conference about how NGOs and corporations can work together. Where do government organizations such as the EPA fit in?

DA:I see all these groups bringing something important to the table and we’re no exception. We have as important a role as business and NGOs, as do other groups such as the research and international communities, which are equally important. I think what one of the folks said this morning is true - none of these groups are going to get this done alone.

MN:How do you shift the role of the EPA from being the “stick” to being the “carrot?” Tell us how the EPA is growing out of being just a punitive organization?

DA:We have a lot of partnerships programs happening already that try to help businesses and many others as well state and local governments and citizen groups. As such, we do important tasks that lead to environmental protection and that has been an important feature of the EPA for the last decade. Initiatives as diverse as Energy Star, which encourage manufacturers to make products that are more energy efficient, and let customers examine energy efficiency when they make a purchase. We have some business initiatives that are more directed to small local-oriented programs and partnerships. For instance, for a single watershed, how do you get the parties together to lead to cleaner watersheds? You can’t just do this with regulations; you have to work with parties as diverse as local farms, the community, local government in a variety of ways, and working with other types of experts. It can be local outreach as basic as don’t pour motor oil down a storm sewer. There are a whole lot of ways that we work with groups in ways that are more than just a traditional regulatory function. But that regulatory function is still important, and is a major part of our mission still. And it is important that we keep our regulatory programs strong because it sends a message that there is a minimum you have to do, and that we are serious about it.

MN:As sustainability becomes an international effort, how is the EPA adapting to a more global outlook?

DA:It really depends on what kind of problem you are looking at and the general approach you are taking. So if you are talking about a water pollution issue that is within the United States then we work alone. But you have to work with Canada with water issues around the Great Lakes. If it is climate on the other hand, then that is something that you have to work with countries around the world, since CO2 does not respect national boundaries, and you are seeing more of that happening as we move to COP15. If you are thinking about chemicals in products that get traded internationally, then that is an area where we have to work with different international organizations to address those issue…it is issue dependent but there are a variety of ways to do it.

MN:How are you moving into issues that maybe have not fallen under the traditional mission of the EPA? Have you though about expanding into other platforms like LEED?

DA:With Energy Star, we make sure that the participants have to keep up a level of achievement, but every couple of years we do another survey and frequently raise that bar as the current standards become the norm, and we then move the bar to get certified and make it more challenging. For LEED, it is a little different as it is not our program…it is the U.S. Green Building Council, so I would hope that they would be undergoing a similar function and from time to time they would also raise the bar on what it takes to be LEED certified. For instance, they have recently moved the standard to the LEED 3.0 certification. There are people that EPA talks to, and offers advice to, but at the end of the day it is their program and their responsibility.

MN:If you were talking at BSR this year, what would the topic be?

DA:This gets back to the issue that we were talking about at the beginning, and the importance of the goal of sustainability and the changing roles of the different stakeholders including government. The government role does not occur in a vacuum, and it is only relevant in relation to others in the process. I think as we come to understand these challenges a lot better, and how different stakeholders are stepping up to do things that they would not have done a decade ago, that it means everyone has to think about this: if we are going to do this together, how do we all change together? That is what excites me.