U.S. Office of Personnel Management - Ensuring the Federal Government has an effective civilian workforce

2008 Presidential Award for Management Excellence

Environmental Protection Agency

Overall Management Award

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) protects and improves air quality; ensures water is safe; preserves and restores the land; protects the health of people, communities, and ecosystems; and encourages governments, businesses, and the public to exercise environmental stewardship and adopt practices that are environmentally sustainable.

EPA has instilled a results-oriented performance culture throughout the organization. A rigorous performance management framework provides consistent and unifying terminology; 'bottom-up' improvement initiatives; outcome-focused measures; and increased transparency. A Performance Management Council comprised of senior regional and program executives provides guidance on incorporating performance tools and data into management systems and linking performance and innovation. EPA incorporates States and other partners into planning, operational decisions and performance data. Finally, EPA's new Program Analysis Division focuses exclusively on improving operations and outcomes.

This year, EPA launched EPAStat, integrating the Agency's comprehensive performance management system with State, local and Tribal entities who are key partners in achieving EPA outcomes. By making external entities part of a single performance management system, EPA Stat improves its partners' ability to learn, adopt, adapt and change. A Quarterly EPAStat Report and a new Performance and Accountability "highlights" document improve EPA's public communication of its performance data.

EPA's significant management outcomes this year include:

• award of "Green" Status in all five Government-wide management initiatives under the President's Management Agenda;

• acknowledgement by the Government Accountability Office that EPA is a positive "outlier" among Federal Agencies and Departments in its use of performance management data;

• development of improved efficiency measures for research projects across government; and

• alignment of performance measures with State partners.