TRI Program's Mission and Goals
Mission: To provide communities, governments, industry, academia, the public, and all other stakeholders with timely, credible, useful information about the management of toxic chemicals reported by certain industrial and federal facilities.
Goal 1: Collect useful, meaningful data on toxic chemicals—uses, release and other waste management (recycling, energy recovery, and treatment) amounts, and pollution prevention activities.
To meet this goal, the TRI Program:
- works with stakeholders to understand and meet their information needs,
- evaluates chemicals and industry sectors for possible inclusion in TRI to support agency responsibilities under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) and other environmental laws,
- initiates rulemakings to maintain relevant reporting requirements, and
- responds to petitions by individuals, organizations and local, state, and tribal governments to add chemicals, sectors, and individual facilities to the scope of TRI reporting requirements.
Goal 2: Provide facility-certified, quality-checked data that are managed in a transparent way.
To meet this goal, the TRI Program:
- incorporates data quality checks into the TRI reporting software,
- reviews submitted data throughout the year,
- conducts virtual audits and on-site inspections of TRI facilities,
- provides training and guidance to encourage facilities to report high-quality data,
- explains TRI data management timelines, policies, and procedures, and
- analyzes collected data alongside data from other federal and international programs.
Goal 3: Ensure data are accessible and understandable.
To meet this goal, the TRI Program:
- ensures TRI data are continuously available on the EPA website,
- provides tools, training, and assistance to promote appropriate interpretation and analysis of TRI data,
- provides the data in multiple formats in recognition of different user needs, and
- facilitates integration of TRI data with additional data sources.
Goal 4: Engage in outreach to promote sustainability and inform community-based environmental decision-making.
To meet this goal, the TRI Program:
- encourages industry to adopt pollution prevention practices,
- builds awareness of TRI resources through focused communications,
- promotes discussion and collaboration among data users through webinars and conferences,
- assists individual users and communities with analyses and interpretation,
- engages with community and academic stakeholders to enhance understanding and use of data,
- develops tailored resources for supporting research related to tribal issues, and
- collaborates with federal and international partners to evaluate progress toward achieving environmental goals.