FY 2021-22 Region 7 Healthy, Resilient, and Sustainable Materials Management Grant

• Funding Opportunity Description
• Award Information
• How to Apply
• Frequently Asked Questions
• About Sustainable Materials Management 

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Funding Opportunity Description

Funding Opportunity Number: EPA-R7-LCRD-2021

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Region 7 (EPA) is soliciting applications from eligible entities to improve community health, resiliency, and sustainability through source reduction, reuse, and recycling, which are key pillars of the EPA’s Sustainable Materials Management (SMM) hierarchy. SMM is a systemic approach to using materials more productively over their life cycles. It represents a change in how our society thinks about the use of natural resources and environmental protection. By looking at a product's life cycle, we can find new opportunities to reduce environmental impacts, conserve resources, and reduce costs.

Under this announcement, EPA is seeking to fund projects that demonstrate: 1) a commitment to support SMM efforts, particularly those that move toward source reduction; 2) SMM implementation after EPA funding for the project has ended; and 3) projects that are replicable by other entities and in other locations. EPA is especially interested in projects that support and/or align with a state/local government or community mandate, policy, and/or priority to improve community health, resiliency, and sustainability through source reduction, reuse, and recycling. 

Eligible entities include states; local, county, and tribal governments; interstate and intrastate government agencies and instrumentalities; public educational institutions; and nonprofit organizations that are not 501(c)(4) organizations that lobby, including nonprofit educational institutions and nonprofit hospitals and hospitals that are operated by state, tribal, or local governments.  

Eligible projects must take place within EPA Region 7, which serves Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, and nine Tribal Nations.

Award Information

EPA anticipates awarding approximately $600,000 under this announcement (up to $300,000 in FY 2021 and up to $300,000 in FY 2022 based on anticipated funding, which is not guaranteed and may change). Awards will be issued and managed through EPA’s Region 7 Office. EPA anticipates awarding three to six (3-6) grants, ranging from $50,000 to $200,000, each with a project period of up to two (2) years.

How to Apply

Refer to the full grant application at Grants.gov: Opportunity number EPA-R7-LCRD-2021.

The deadline to submit an application is Monday, May 3, 2021, at 11:59 p.m. (EDT).

In order to apply, the applicant’s Authorized Organizational Representative (AOR) must submit a complete application package electronically to EPA through Grants.gov. Instructions for applying through Grants.gov are provided in Section IV and Appendix A of the grant announcement.

Please allow enough time to successfully submit your application in the event that unexpected errors require you to resubmit your application.

Applications submitted through Grants.gov will be time- and date-stamped electronically. If you have not received a confirmation of receipt from EPA (not Grants.gov) within 30 days of the application deadline, please contact Gayle Hubert at hubert.gayle@epa.gov or (913) 551-7439. Failure to do so may result in your application not being reviewed.

If you do not have the technical capability to apply electronically through Grants.gov, because of limited or no internet access that prevents you from being able to upload the required application materials to Grants.gov, please refer to the procedures for an alternate submission exception request in Appendix A of the grant application.

Frequently Asked Questions

Question: What information is needed to apply through Grant.gov? 
Answer: Prior to applying through Grants.gov, the applicant must: 

• Have an active Data Universal Number System (DUNS) number. 
• Have an active System for Award Management (SAM) account.
• Be registered in Grants.gov.
• Designate an Authorized Organizational Representative (AOR) as the individual  submitting the application through Grants.gov. 

Note: The registration process for applying through Grants.gov may take a month or more to complete. Please start the registration process early. The electronic submission of your application must be made by the AOR of the organization who is registered with Grants.gov and is authorized to sign applications for federal funding assistance.

If you have questions, would like additional information about the grant program, or want to be added to our mailing list to receive the annual application guidance, please contact Gayle Hubert at hubert.gayle@epa.gov or (913) 551-7439.

About Sustainable Materials Management (SMM)

The EPA Region 7 Healthy, Resilient, and Sustainable Materials Management grant program will support Region 7 communities as they develop and implement sustainable materials management systems that help make their communities safer, healthier, and more resilient.

SMM is a powerful tool that can build community health, including:

• Reducing the use, release, and exposure to toxic chemicals.
• Implementing life cycle approaches to reduce the health and environmental impacts of materials use.
• Employing upstream solutions that reduce the need and cost of environmental cleanup and pollution management on land and prevent trash and litter in Region 7 streams, lakes, and rivers.

SMM implementation also helps to build community resilience and sustainability, including:: 

• Reducing the demand for virgin, raw materials.
• Increasing the efficiency of materials use and reuse.
• Creating opportunities for in-process recycling and the innovative reuse of materials.
• Fostering systems in which materials like edible food, packaging, and building materials are used for their best and highest purpose.

For more information, visit:

• EPA’s Sustainable Materials Management page