As announced in last week's UPDATE, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) held its International Conference on Pollutant Release and Transfer Registries (PRTR) September 9-11, in Tokyo, Japan. The three-day conference was hosted by the Environment Agency of Japan in coordination with United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) and the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP).

US-AEP's Environmental Exchange Program (EEP) coordinated the attendance of four delegates working in the area of environmental public disclosure, including Dr. Ahmad D. Habir, Executive Director of Indonesia�s EcoLink Center for Business and the Environment; Dr. Saksit Tridech, Secretary General of Thailand's Office of Environmental Policy & Planning in the Ministry of Science, Technology & Environment, International Environmental Affairs Division; Dr. Tolentino Moya, Program Manager of the Southeast Asia Regional Center of the Global Change System for Analysis, Research, and Training (START) at Chulalongkorn University; and Ms. Wilma Subra, consultant to the Louisiana Environmental Action Network, a prominent U.S. nongovernmental organization (NGO) active in information disclosure.

The event provided a forum for participants to share "lessons learned" from existing and emerging PRTR systems in their respective countries. Dr. Habir, who presented at a session entitled "PRTR Development in Transitional and Industrializing Nations," spoke on Indonesia's PROPER program, which aims to promote industrial environmental compliance through voluntary initiatives, public disclosure, and command and control measures. Dr. Moya from Thailand spoke at a session called "Estimation Techniques for Small Point and Diffuse Sources" on the status of information supporting the development of greenhouse gas inventories in Southeast Asia. Finally, Ms. Subra offered a perspective on how U.S. NGOs use PRTR information. (Note: The Environmental Exchange Program is implemented by the Institute of International Education.)

Through the coordination of US-AEP�s Environmental Exchange Program (EEP), two representatives of the Hong Kong Productivity Council (HKPC) participated in a month-long training program with Energy Masters Corporation of Overland Park, Kansas. Working with the U.S. company from July 28-August 24, Mr. Cham Leung "Raymond" Fong and Mr. Kwok Chi Lee gained hands-on experience in energy performance contracting, through which an energy service company partners with a building owner to design and implement energy-saving measures for the facility. Through this exchange, Energy Masters has established a partnership with HKPC to provide its energy performance contracting services in Hong Kong.

US-AEP�s Clean Technology and Environmental Management (CTEM) initiative recently signed a grant agreement with the Federation of Thai Industries for production of "Factory Walk-Through"�a Thai language video on good housekeeping for industrial facilities. The video will be directed toward factory workers and�with an underlying message that "everyone counts"�provide an overview of clean technology (CT) and environmental management systems (EMS), as well as specific good housekeeping examples. Most EMS and CT training tools are targeted to upper- and mid-level management and are available primarily in English. This tool will fill a gap by appealing to workers and section/line managers, who may have little opportunity to learn about CTEM concepts. The video will be completed in late 1998 and form the centerpiece of an ongoing collaborative education program.

The Policy Group at US-AEP has lined up a number of distinguished speakers for its bi-weekly Policy Forum. This fall, the forum moves beyond industrial environmental performance to also discuss urban infrastructure, climate change, energy, and the current economic crisis in Asia. A sampling of the scheduled events is provided below.

All are invited to attend these discussions, which take place every other Tuesday throughout the fall from 12:00-1:00 pm. Location: US-AEP office at 1720 Eye St., NW, Suite 700, Washington, DC. Mark your calendar, and feel free to bring a lunch to these sessions. For additional information, contact The Policy Group�s Brenda Bateman at 202-835-0333 x 104, or e-mail: bbateman@usaep.org.

September 22: Emerging trends at several international financial institutions tilt toward defining cities and regions as one focus for sustainable urban development policy and programs. Spatial, or "place-based," approaches are a cross-cutting alternative to the sectoral paradigm (housing, transport, environment, etc.) that characterizes most development programs today. Mr. Burack will present background on this emerging trend, discuss the challenges it poses for traditional methods of coping with urban problems, and describe an innovative private sector response to the challenge.

October 20: Environmental Management Task Force; Metropolitan & Rural Strategies Task Force. David Monsma will discuss the work of the Environmental Management Task Force, which was established to advise the President on building an environmental management framework for the 21st century. Cheryl Little will talk about the Metropolitan & Rural Strategies Task Force�s efforts to advance sustainable development in metropolitan and rural communities.

November 10: Task Force on Climate Change. Tamara Nameroff will discuss this group�s role in advising the President on domestic policy options and activities that could reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

November 24: International Task Force. Catherine McKalip-Thompson will talk about this task force�s efforts to promote national sustainable development councils around the world through multilateral agreement on investment, interaction with other national councils on sustainable development, and sustainability in international capital flows.