RE: Greetings and Corporate Environmental Information

[Sanford Lewis <gnproject@earthlink.net>]

Greetings. I am an attorney and activist who works for environmental, labor and community groups, with a focus on corporate accountability. I do extensive corporate research using EPA data, and also have experience working with groups who use libraries as repositories for environmental information on local corporations.

A couple of initial thoughts:

1) The EPA's sector facility index project is an important compiled information source on corporations, allowing comparison of companies along a range of indicators far beyond TRI. I believe more resources should be allocated to refining this database and making it as widely available as the TRI data.
See http://es.epa.gov/oeca/sfi/

2) I see two separate elements of discussion needed here. One is the potential for libraries to serve as repositories for government files, including electronic and paper data. The second is the potential and existing experience with requiring local companies to place added info and updates on their activities in library files, beyond what they file with governments. This has been done successfully in some local "good neighbor agreements."

Sanford Lewis