Environmental Performance Agreements

In 1997, the New Directions Group released Criteria and Principles for the Use of Voluntary or Non-regulatory Initiatives to Achieve Environmental Policy Objectives and followed it up in 2001 with Developing Credible and Effective Covenants for the Management of Greenhouse Gas Emissions. The federal and provincial governments are demonstrating an increased interest in utilizing negotiated agreements between industry and government (environmental performance agreements). While many current initiatives of this type are patterned on the NDG documents, there have been no recent attempts to review learnings in these areas to ensure that current and future applications of environmental performance agreements are effective and meet the expectations of all stakeholders.

In February 2006, the NDG organized a two-day North American workshop that convened leaders from business, NGOs and government for a critical evaluation of environmental performance agreements. The background report for this workshop was rewritten and expanded to reflect the discussion at the workshop and evolved into a report that provides detailed guidance in the development and implementation of a wide range of environmental performance agreements.

Partners in this initiative included: Alberta Environment, Dofasco, Environment Canada, Natural Resources Canada, North American Commission for Environmental Cooperation and Ontario Ministry of Environment.

Project report:

Developing and Implementing Credible and Effective Environmental Performance Agreements (pdf, 422 KB)