Corning Joins Performance Track, Coke & Baxter Add Facilities

Coca-Cola, 3M and Corning facilities are among 55 new members of EPA’s National Environmental Performance Track Program. The latest members bring the total number in the program to nearly 500.

Performance Track members come from a wide range of sectors, such as automotive, paper, personal care products, pharmaceuticals, and government agencies. This 14th new membership round included first-time applications from Portland Veterans Administration Medical Center, City of Lawrence, Kansas Wastewater Utility, and Corning. 3M, Coca Cola, Covanta, and Baxter Healthcare were among 13 companies already represented in Performance Track that added new facilities to the program during this latest membership cycle.

With these new members, Performance Track has also broken ground in three new states: Alaska, Hawaii and North Dakota. In addition, the U.S. Postal Service ramped up its membership with the addition of 18 new member facilities, and several more U.S. Air Force bases joined the ranks of the program.

In April, an evaluation from the Office of Inspector General, “Performance Track Could Improve Program Design and Management to Ensure Value,” found that the program does not have clear plans that connect activities with its goals, and does not have performance measures that show if it achieves anticipated results.

According to the evaluation, only 2 of 30 sampled Performance Track members met all of their environmental improvement commitments.

Performance Track recognizes facilities that set three-year goals for continuous improvements in environmental performance beyond their legal requirements, have internal systems in place to manage their environmental impacts, engage in community outreach and consistently report results.