Permitting Digitalization in Virginia
Virginia stands out from other states in its permitting reform efforts because it has really nailed transparent permitting, and in doing so, significantly cut down the processing time for most state permits.
Day 2 at the Society of American Foresters Conference: The Technology-Capability Gap
Expanding our Understanding of Wetlands: Nation-wide Updates to the Wetlands Impact Tracker
Empowering Our Forest Stewards: A New Era of Innovation
4 Pillars for Permitting Innovation
The permitting reform space is growing fast, and there are clearly different philosophies for why this work is important, what values should guide us in identifying solutions, whether reform is even needed, and how we build a large enough coalition to make meaningful changes at all levels of government.
Reimagining Forestry in the Digital Age: An Invitation to the Old Guard and the Next Generation
Updates to our Permitting Tools Inventory
Forbes Announces Jessie Mahr as Global Sustainability Leader!
NEPATEC2.0 - The Next Step in AI-Driven Permitting Innovation
Is the Juice Worth the Squeeze? Collecting Advisories for the National Drinking Water Tool
Conservation At the Axis of Artificial Intelligence and Acceleration: Killer Apps for Some, Questions for All
Project Update: National Drinking Water Explorer Tool
A Look At CEQ’s New CE Explorer
On June 5th, the CEQ’s Permitting Innovation Center released their first prototype experiment, the Categorical Exclusion Explorer. The Explorer is the first time a collection of cross-agency Categorical Exclusions (CEs) has been transformed into data for experimentation. This is still in the experimental stage, and we applaud the Permitting Innovation Center for releasing early-stage products and experiments. Early and iterative releases are ideal for gathering feedback and improving future releases.
We’ve discussed using existing environmental review data management and sharing as an area ripe for experimentation and innovation.
NextGov: Trump administration debuts permitting modernization plan, even as staff cuts could jeopardize it
First Look at CEQ’s Permitting Technology Action Plan
This blog is a first look at the Council on Environmental Quality’s (CEQ) Permitting Technology Action Plan, which aims to modernize federal permitting processes. The plan includes data standards for interoperability between agencies, service delivery standards for workflow automation and digital documents, and a maturity model for agencies to gauge their progress. Key highlights include implementing data standards, improving document management, and using GitHub for open collaboration. We note the potential for multi-agency procurement and prize competitions and outline potential impacts for agencies, applicants, and vendors. We express cautious optimism due to the plan's technical depth, interoperability focus, and use of existing work but also note concerns about talent gaps and the aggressive initial 90-day implementation timeline.
Environmental Accelerators - Value-Driven Velocity
We need to simplify environmental permits to boost their impact
Disadvantaged Community (DAC) Definitions in the Great Lakes States for Drinking Water State Revolving Funds: Guidance for a Mapping Tool to Explore and Assess DAC Definitions
New map tool shows state-by-state differences in how states define 'disadvantaged community' for drinking water funding
