EUGENE–Vice President Al Gore recently recognized two University of Oregon faculty for their common sense contributions to environmental reform.

The pair are participating in the Common Sense Initiative (CSI), a pioneering national program launched by the Environmental Protection Agency to bring "common sense" reform to environmental protection.

Robin Morris Collin, an associate professor of law at the UO School of Law, and Robert Collin, an associate professor in environmental studies, were recognized for their work on the CSI printing sector subcommittee. Morris Collin and Collin, who are married, helped develop a regulatory framework that seeks to benefit the environment, printers and the public through clearer and more effective printing industry standards.

"My CSI experience was both challenging and rewarding," said Morris Collin. The program developed by the subcommittee spells out steps both to help the printing industry improve its performance and to increase public involvement in environmental decision making.

The program is named PrintSTEP, an acronym for Printers’ Simplified Total Environmental Partnership. It tests a variety of new approaches for making the regulatory system more effective, flexible and easy to understand.

PrintSTEP simplifies the process of implementing existing environmental standards rather than changing them. Key elements of the new approach include matching the level of regulatory oversight with the level of waste or emissions generated, enhancing opportunity for public involvement, providing plain-language tools to help printers understand regulatory requirements and streamlining the environmental permit process.

"Robin and I are very proud of the four years we collectively spent working on this effort. CSI included six sectors that developed about 42 projects, and PrintSTEP is the only one to get to this stage," said Collin. "It is the first multi-media, community-involved, sector-based permit process that hopefully will make the environment cleaner. I believe it’s a smarter way to get environmental regulations and an effort that underscores the growth of civic environmentalism."

Morris Collin and Collin say the Federal Register will publish requests for proposals for PrintSTEP pilot projects nationwide this month. The couple will continue to oversee the program.

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