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  • Author(s): Klevs Mardi
  • Author(s) ID: 35618356500;
  • Document Type: Conference Review
  • Publication Stage: Final
  • Volume: | Issue: | Article Number:
  • Page Start – | Page End – | Page Count:12
  • Cited By:
  • DOI:
  • EID: Scopus2-s2.0-0031337474

Community-based environmental protection (CBEP) is a problem-solving approach that provides a framework for identifying environmental problems, setting priorities, and forging solutions through an open, inclusive process. The approach is devoted to restoring and sustaining healthy ecological and human communities. The approach draws on a collaborative vision of desired future conditions and an integration of ecological, economic, and social factors affecting a place. Attributes of CBEP include: definable geographic areas, specific areas with which groups of people are identified, or areas which are defined by natural boundaries or communities; an identifiable group or groups of interested people in a community or associated with a place having a bias for action; a multi-media perspective that assesses and addresses environmental problems; specific, measurable, collaboratively-developed goals; greater involvement by citizens in setting an environmental agenda; and a management and accountability system that monitors outcomes and adapts over time. The Greater Chicago Initiative is a CBEP project that focuses on the environmental justice areas of the Southeast and West Sides of Chicago, Illinois. Initiated by Region 5 of the United States Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA), the purpose of the initiative is to work with local stakeholders (including the State of Illinois, Cook County, the City of Chicago, industry, and citizens) interested in coordinating various government and private environmental activities for the purposes of effectiveness and efficiency. Often areas of work address environmental problems that fall through regulatory `cracks’ such as, illegal dumping, brownfields, habitat restoration and preservation, asthma/ozone, odors, and pollution prevention. Enforcement and compliance assurance activities often focus on hard to address situations.


Proceedings of the Air & Waste Management Association's Annual Meeting & Exhibition