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The mission of the Sustainability Program is to
reduce the amount of waste being generated and going to landfills in
California and to decrease greenhouse gas emissions. Major efforts to
accomplish this:
- Changing how and where waste is generated and
reducing the amount generated by California's businesses, local
governments, State agencies, industries, and the public.
- Promoting better resource management by increasing
waste prevention, reuse, composting, and recycling.
- Educating, motivating, and providing businesses and
manufacturing sectors with technical assistance, either directly or
through local governments.
- Working with the private and public sectors to
increase the purchase of environmentally preferable products.
- Assisting local governments and State agencies in developing and
implementing diversion programs.
These efforts focus on conserving and protecting
resources, preventing waste from being generated, and promoting
sustainable business practices, which encompasses product stewardship
and environmentally preferable purchasing approaches. They support the
State's efforts to implement the
California
Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 by reducing greenhouse gas emissions
associated with waste management. More specifically, they include:
- Implementing programs designed to increase
public participation in all aspects of waste reduction, including
waste prevention, reuse, recycling, and composting.
- Implementing programs to assess and help develop secondary materials
markets, including stimulating the procurement and use of secondary
materials in manufacturing.
- Providing technical assistance in the collection and use of
secondary materials.
- Overseeing and assisting local governments and State agencies in
achieving statutorily mandated waste diversion goals.
- Promoting procurement of recycled-content and environmentally
preferable products by the state, local governments, private
industry, and the public.
- Conducting research into ways that existing and new products can
incorporate recycled-content materials into product design.
- Providing financial assistance through grants and loans to
governmental, non-profit and private entities to increase reuse,
recycling, and overall market development and to develop sustainable
business practices.
- Conducting statewide waste characterization studies.
- Fostering research and demonstration projects involving the use
of solid waste to produce alternative energy and fuel products.
- Developing and implementing tracking systems to determine
program successes or failures.
The
Strategic Directives include a set of overall objectives of the
organization that provide direction and measurable objectives for staff.
The Strategic Directives that apply to the Sustainability Program are
the following:
- SD-3: Minimize Waste
- SD-5: Producer Responsibility
- SD-6: Market Development
- SD-7: Customer/Local Assistance
- SD-8: Enforcement/Permitting
- SD-9: Research and Development of Technology
- SD-10: Fiduciary Responsibility
- SD-11: Public Outreach and Environmental Education
The Sustainability Program comprises three divisions:
Staff Directory |
Program Organizational Chart |
