CIWMB Strategic Plan, November 1997

Appendices C and D

Appendix D: Glossary Of Terms

Appendix C: Key Assessment And Planning Initiatives

Following is a more detailed discussion of the key assessment and planning initiatives conducted by the Board since 1994.

The "Getting to 50 Percent" Initiative

In order to facilitate meeting the 50 percent diversion requirement of the act, the Board sought input from cities and counties, the public and private waste management and recycling industry, manufacturers, environmental groups, the public, and Board staff on the issues associated with reaching the goal; potential solutions to obstacles; and the Board's role in achieving 50 percent diversion.

A cross-functional team comprised of Board staff evaluated suggestions received from cities, counties and Board staff at the Board's three 50 percent Initiative public workshops. Approximately 1,000 suggestions were received, analyzed and placed into nine major categories. Within each category, suggestions with like themes were combined into concepts and each concept was evaluated for additional costs to the Board and others; demonstrated success and time to optimize the impact on the waste stream; and sphere of influence. Additional information was gathered on whether the idea was a new, expanded, or modified Board program and whether it would require legislative changes. The team then performed a screening level analysis to assist the Board in determining which of the suggestions received should be pursued further. Staff recommendations were presented to the Board for consideration at the January, 1997 Board meeting.

The recommended concepts and strategies were assigned to Board Committees, based upon subject, in order to allow for more detailed analysis and discussion. During the March 1997 Board meeting, the Board directed staff to pursue 28 of the 44 original concepts/strategies proposed. These approved concepts will now move on to the next step in the process, and be evaluated for cost-effectiveness and impact to reach the 50 percent diversion requirement by the year 2000. The evaluation will be completed by Board staff using the strategic planning process.

The Market Development Plan (Excerpts from the 1996 Plan)

The Board adopted its first plan for market development Meeting the Challenge: A Market Development Plan for California in 1993. By late 1995, the Board recognized that changes in the state's economy and recycling industry infrastructure, as well as in the needs of local government, made revision and update of the 1993 plan a necessity. Additionally, developing and maintaining a market development plan had become a mandated activity with the passage of AB 1909 in 1993 (PRC 42005-42009). The Board's previous plan provided general guidelines for implementing the Board's market development programs.

To begin the update process, Board staff prepared reports on major secondary materials markets and conducted workshops to gather public comments and suggestions on priorities the Board should establish for its market development programs. The final 1996 market development plan Meeting the 50 Percent Challenge; Market Development Strategies Through the Year 2000, is the result of these activities.

The 1996 plan was prepared with extensive public input. The proposed plan was circulated to interested parties for public comment, and two public workshops were held on June 14 and June 19, 1996. Based on comments received, the plan was revised to better meet the needs of local governments and businesses. The plan was then adopted by the Board at its publicly noticed August 28, 1996 meeting.

The premise of the 1996 plan is that market development must address three closely interrelated activities, each of which is extremely sensitive to factors primarily affected by the private sector: collection and processing of materials, manufacturer use of recycled feedstock, and product marketing and consumer use.

For many secondary materials and products, market development is affected by industry's relative inexperience with recycled feedstocks. Thus, manufacturers' specifications, consumer preferences and perceptions, perceived and actual feedstock and product quality, and public policy decisions all impact the supply and demand of secondary materials and products made from them.

The Board's market development program must consider how these complex and interrelated factors affect each other. The Board has consistently sought comments and suggestions from all participants in the market development community when developing and evaluating programs. Additionally, the Board directs that its market development programs should:

• Promote partnerships among State government, business, and local governments for stimulating market development for recycled materials.
• Encourage manufacturing of value-added products whenever possible.
• Develop or expand self-sustaining businesses that will not be dependent on long-term government support.

Assessment of the Tire Fund Allocation Process

The Board receives an annual appropriation from the California Tire Recycling Management Fund to administer the Tire Recycling Act and related legislation. These programs include:

• The waste tire market development program.
• The waste tire hauler registration and manifest program.
• The waste tire facility permitting and enforcement program.
• The waste tire site stabilization and remediation program.

Program implementation began in 1990 and is supported by a $0.25/tire fee paid by persons leaving tires for disposal with tire dealers. Recently enacted legislation,AB 2108 (Mazzoni), changed the point of fee collection to the point of retail purchase and became effective January 1, 1997. These statutory fee collection provisions sunset June 30, 1999, thus the program is funded for three remaining years (FY 96/97, 97/98, and 98/99). The projected total discretionary funding over this three-year timeframe is approximately $16.8 million. It should be noted that, while the fee collection provisions sunset in 1999, all of the program mandates continue.

In the past, the Board approved tire program activities and fund allocations on an annual basis. Through this assessment process, the Board is working toward a three-year planning cycle, which will result in a more comprehensive approach to the alllocation of tire funding. The assessment included conducting an in-depth analysis of program history and funding priorities contained in the background paper entitled Tire Program Priorities and Funding Allocations, August 1996. In addition, the Board held a public workshop on September 5, 1996 to obtain input from a wide range of interested parties concerning their recommendations for tire program priorities and funding allocations. This input was used to assist the Board in reaching decisions concerning the allocation of program dollars and associated programmatic and policy decisions. Testimony was received from a number of industry sectors, local government representatives, representatives of environmental organizations, and from recognized experts in the field of waste tire management.

The "Other 50 percent" Initiative

The purpose of The Other 50 percent... A Plan for the Protection of the Public Health, Safety and the Environment is to describe the programs and activities of the Board's Permitting and Enforcement Division, which is responsible for activities relating to facility permitting, compliance, and enforcement, in a strategic way, as priorities that meet internal and external customer needs.

The division began this planning process by preparing a Mission Statement, as follows:

"The mission of the Permitting and Enforcement Division is to protect the public and environment and to balance the concerns of the public, the regulated community, other government agencies, and the Board."

Within the context of internal and external customer needs, the division has defined its key goals and objectives for Board consideration in order to set the critical focus and priorities for the Board's permitting and enforcement related work. During the process of developing this plan, Division staff worked with its primary external clients and staff within the program to clarify strengths and opportunities. To date, the "Other 50 percent" Initiative is under continued development by the division and will incorporate the direction of the Board's 1997 Strategic Plan into its final plan.

The Statewide Waste Prevention Plan (Excerpts from the 1993 Plan)

Waste prevention reduces waste management costs and pollution generated by collecting, processing, recycling, incinerating, and landfilling discards. Furthermore, it conserves landfill space and can add years to the expected lifespan of a landfill. The goal of waste prevention is not to discourage economic activity or job creation. It is aimed at encouraging production processes and consumer choices that are efficient and conserve resources.

Waste prevention often encourages innovation and creativity. For instance, many businesses have found that when new ways of reducing waste and using resources more efficiently are identified, improved products or packaging emerge. In this way, waste prevention can help California businesses compete effectively in national and international markets. Also, many individuals and organizations have found creative ways to reuse items, such as refinishing old doors for remodeling projects, using odds and ends in sculptures and stage sets, and manufacturing used sails into cloth bags and clothing.

Although waste prevention offers great potential to reduce waste, it is a relatively underdeveloped approach, especially when compared to traditional waste management practices that rely on managing discards, including recycling. This is not surprising because recycling offers a relatively quick and proven approach of diverting significant amounts of waste from landfills.

Consequently, to encourage widespread understanding and action, the state Legislature mandated the Board to develop strategies to promote waste reduction.

The Board is responsible for developing strategies to promote waste prevention efforts within the public and private sectors [Public Resource Code Section 40407(f)] and is required to make recommendations for 1) legislative action to promote waste prevention, 2) actions to improve packaging and product design, 3) actions to develop and implement product durability standards, and 4) actions to reduce toxicity of packaging and products.

The Statewide Waste Prevention Plan was prepared in response to this mandate. To determine what prevents program administrators from developing waste prevention programs and what activities the Board could undertake to facilitate implementation of waste prevention programs, the Board conducted extensive research. Information was collected using a variety of methods, including literature and program reviews, surveys, interviews, and two symposia focused on waste prevention.

In the process, local government representatives, private sector manufacturers and designers, state regulators, environmental activists, educators, and retailers identified overriding barriers to waste prevention. The Board identified more than 40 activities that could be implemented to overcome those barriers, and prioritized those activities for implementation by the Board. Implementing these priority activities will not only advance waste prevention throughout California and acknowledge its placement at the top of the integrated waste management hierarchy, but will also reduce a significant portion of the waste stream, and reduce costs to individuals, businesses, institutions, and governments.

The Program Integration Plan

The Program Integration Planning (PIP) effort was initiated as a means of assessing and addressing issues raised regarding integration of staff work within the Board. Through internal and external feedback, the need to examine how the Board could more effectively integrate its programs was identified in order to improve the quality of its work and the processes and procedures used to accomplish the work.

The mission of the PIP is to maximize how the Board's divisions, offices, and programs interrelate; and to facilitate collaboration throughout the Board, resulting in the effective coordination of resources and efforts. The primary goal of the PIP is to institutionalize a participative planning and operating framework that enables and encourages the Board and staff to:

• Consistently communicate program information internally in order to more effectively coordinate Board efforts.
• Continue to build a customer focus into the way the Board does business.
• Approach work more innovatively while constantly asking "Can we do this a better way?"
• Routinely build collaborative work relationships with internal and external customers and suppliers.

The PIP process began with the development of a mission statement by each section, branch, office, division, and the Board member offices. The second phase involved approximately 45 group interviews wherein virtually every work- group at the Board had the opportunity to share their thoughts about how to improve the work is approached and completed. Participants were asked to identify roadblocks to the effectiveness of their programs, and engage in group discussion on "what works"?, "what doesn't work?," and "what could work?," in promoting better communication, collaboration and customer focus within and among our workgroups, and with stakeholders. The major categories of roadblocks identified were:

• Communication/Work relationships
• Leadership
• Organizational processes

The next step involved conducting focused "buzz group" sessions, in order to examine the roadblocks, issues, and concerns in more detail. The participants developed specific recommendations and/or identified areas for further study and discussion. Once all workgroup interview and buzz group data was comprehensively analyzed, recommendations representing staff's interests in numerous internal issues were developed and adopted by the Board's Executive Staff. These recommendations consist of activities that will facilitate the organization in meeting the PIP's goals and will be phased into the organization over a set timetable. A system for monitoring, tracking, measuring, and reporting the outcomes of the implementation was also instituted.

The "California Competes" Initiative

In response to Governor Wilson's "California Competes" Initiative, the Board inventoried all of its major program activities; determined whether or not each activity is a core function integral to accomplishment of its mission, or essential to another board or department's mission; developed performance, cost and quality measures for all core activities; and made recommendations on which programs could be transferred, outsourced, improved or retained.

The result of this effort was the identification of 13 activity proposals for which implementation plans were submitted to Cal/EPA and the Governor's Office. The Board has been in the process of conducting the activities described in the implementation plans over the last year, and will continue its commitment to the implementation of these plans in an effort to streamline and reduce duplication among State programs. Monthly updates on these activities are provided to Cal/EPA.

Partnership 2000

Partnership 2000 is a unique working group established by the Board in 1996 to promote collaboration and partnership between Board staff and its Local Enforcement Agencies (LEA), who provide direct regulatory oversight of waste management facilities on behalf of the Board. The creation of this group was spawned by an acknowledgement by both Board management and the California Conference of Directors of Environmental Health (CCDEH) on behalf of the LEAs that the working relationships between the parties had suffered due to differing interpretations of waste related laws and regulations as well as lack of clarity in roles and responsibilities.

The vision of this special collaboration is for the Board and the LEAs (working through CCDEH) to work in partnership and collaborate in the identification and resolution of issues with the goal of improving the mutual effectiveness of both parties in meeting solid waste management legislative mandates.

The mission of Partnership 2000 is to develop a positive working relationship whereby the Board and CCDEH set an agenda to clarify state and local roles and responsibilities; to facilitate communication and collaboration; and to secure a commitment from all levels to work together so mutual program and policy objectives can be met.

Through the utilization of a problem-solving process that identifies underlying interests of parties in order to achieve options and agreements for mutual gain, the members of Partnership 2000 provided identification of the key strengths and challenges of the Board and its LEA partners as related to the provision of appropriate enforcement actions for solid waste facilities.

The results to date have included a first-ever collaboration between Board staff and LEAs in the development of the Board Permitting and Enforcement Policy, a new Integrated Training Team to improve the process for delivery of Board training, as well as enhanced working relationships between the respective staffs, among other outcomes.

This partnership is ongoing. In addition to Partnership 2000, Board staff continually work with all LEAs (including those not represented by CCDEH) through the Enforcement Advisory Council (EAC) as a forum to raise issues of mutual interest. Together, these activities build on the previous identification of internal and external challenges and opportunities as they relate to the Board's regulatory responsibilities, so that the Board's ability to achieve mutual policy and mandate objectives with its partners is continuously improved.

Appendix D: Glossary Of Terms

Following are brief definitions of each of the Strategic Planning elements required in a Strategic Plan.

Vision Statement - A vision creates an inspiring picture of what the organization would like to become beyond today. It is not bound by time, represents global and continuing purposes, and serves as the foundation for the strategic planning process.

Mission Statement - The mission of an organization is a brief, concise statement that describes its unique purpose and reason for existence. It identifies what the organization does, for whom and why. A mission statement reminds the public, the Governor, the Legislature, and organization personnel of the unique purpose promoted and served by the organization.

Values - Values are the human factors that drive the conduct of an organization and that function as a guide to the development and implementation of all policies and actions. Values summarize the operating philosophies that will be used in fulfillment of the vision and mission.

Goals - Goals are issue-oriented statements that reflect the realistic priorities of the organization and chart the future direction of the organization by focusing its actions toward clearly defined purposes and policy intention. Within the scope of the mission, goals move the organization toward the realization of its vision.

Objectives - Objectives are specific and measurable targets for the accomplishment of a goal. They mark interim steps toward achievement of the mission and goals. An objective is achievable, measurable, and sets the direction for strategies and action plans.

Strategies - Strategies are specific courses of action that will be undertaken by the organization to accomplish it goals and objectives. Strategies are action-oriented rather than procedural in nature and are directly linked to output measures.

Action Plans - Action plans are the specific workplans that will be used to accomplish the organization's goals, objectives, and strategies.

Performance Measures - Performance measures are indicators of the work performed and the results achieved. They describe, in both quantifiable and qualitative terms, how well the activities and processes within an organization are achieving specified goals and objectives and strategies. Measures are the most effective means to obtain and understand performance feedback.

Monitoring and Evaluation Plan - This is the system used to regularly measure and evaluate the effectiveness of the organization's performance results relative to the strategic plan. The plan is revised in accordance with the results of this ongoing evaluation.

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Last updated: September 8, 1997