Opportunity assessment

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), USEPM Manualfor Waste Minimi cyation Opportunity Assessments, EPA 600/2-88/025, EPA, Washington, D.C., 1988. 

Assessment Phase The assessment phase aims to collect data needed to identify and analyze pollution-prevention opportunities. Assessment of the facility s waste-reduction needs includes the examination of hazardous waste streams, process operations, and the identification of techniques that often promise the reduction of waste generation. Information is often derived from obsei vations made during a facihty walk-through, interviews with employees (e.g., operators, line workers), and review of site or regulatory records. One professional organization suggests the following information sources be reviewed, as available (Ref. 7) ... 

Additionally, the EPA pubhshes a newsletter entitled Pollution Prevention News that contains information including EPA news, technologies, program updates, and case studies. The EPA s Risk Reduction Engineering Laboratoiy and the Center for Environmental Research Information has pubhshed several guidance documents, developed in cooperation with the California Department of Health Services. The manuals supplement generic waste reduction information presented in the EPA s Waste Minimization Opportunity Assessment Manual (Ref. 9). 

Waste Minimization Opportunity Assessment Manual, July 1988 625/7-88-003 ERIC W423 NTIS PB92-216985. 

PSM management systems should be regularly assessed to identify improvement opportunities. Assessment should be based on follow-up user feedback and on the results of PSM audits. 

Regardless of the source of the project idea, each idea should be passed through a process analytics opportunity assessment screen of some sort. It has been our experience that a formalized screening process, developed under the premise of consensus with input from all key stakeholders, is the most effective method... 

Pollution Prevention Opportunities Assessment Control Technologies Assessment... 

To prepare a technology opportunity assessment, we need to consider ... 

In technology opportunity assessment, product is the king P of the four P s. Technology is used as a weapon to differentiate your product from other offerings, and it can be critical to have distinguishing features that customers will pay for. 

Good executive summaries are hard to write because they need to be brief yet contain the key ideas in a form that is easily and quickly grasped. A good process to follow is to write the individual sections of the opportunity assessment first, and then work on condensing the larger sections down to their essentials. 

A key element of any technology opportunity assessment is the description of the technology. In doing so you need to cover the following elements ... 

Describing your gizmo is the easiest part of the technology opportunity assess-... 

To this point, tlie technology opportunity assessment has been an exercise in exactly that, assessment. The final section of the TOA discusses the most promising options going forward, and it should contain the following information ... 

Despite thorough research, technology opportunity assessment may come back with an inconclusive assessment. In those cases, the technology may not quite be ripe or the markets may not yet be sufficiently developed. In cases such as this, it may be useful to shop the TOA around to potential investors, academics, and potential customers, not with the idea of getting an investment, but with the objective of getting feedback on how to reshape the idea so that it is more obviously promising. 

Consider a technology opportunity that might lead to a new business. Assemble a full technology opportunity assessment from previously written pieces. Write an appropriate executive summary, and prepare a 10-minute presentation on the idea for presentation to an group of potential investors. Make the presentation. 

Make a list of websites helpful to technology opportunity assessment. Start with the Kauffmann foundation s website www.entreworld.org. 

USEPA. April 1988. The EPA Manual for Waste Minimization Opportunity Assessments. Prepared by Jacobs Engineering Group, Inc. for the EPA Hazardous Waste Engineering Research Laboratory, Cincinnati, Ohio. 

The initial steps for WREAFS pollution prevention projects usually begin with an opportunity assessment of the specific operation. For example, within DOD the greatest quantities of hazardous waste are generated by plating, cleaning and stripping operations. By conducting waste minimization opportunity assessments at several of these operations, pollution prevention alternatives and recommendations can be shared with similar operations. An assessment of a... 

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