Brownbag: Challenges in Evaluating the Effectiveness of Voluntary Programs: Case Studies from the EPA (Presenters Jeffrey Harris & Jill Ferguson)

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Inspector General (EPA OIG) is an independent office within EPA that helps the Agency protect the environment in a more efficient and cost effective manner. The office consists of auditors, program analysts, investigators, and others with extensive expertise. The Office of Program Evaluation (OPE) manages, coordinates, and has overall responsibility for leading the design and implementation of program evaluations within the OIG. Within OPE, the Cross-Media Product Line focuses on evaluations of EPA as related to the complex environmental threats that transcend air, water, and land. As EPA has increasingly relied on voluntary programs as tools for protecting the environment the OIG has, in turn, worked to evaluate the effectiveness of these programs. During this brown bag session, Jeff and Jill will discuss the challenges faced in evaluating voluntary programs. EPA’s 54 headquarters voluntary programs are diverse, reportedly providing a variety of benefits to several different customer groups, including some non-governmental organizations and the public.