Ross & Associates supports organizations addressing environmental, public health, and natural resources concerns. We help them identify strategies, develop programs and policies, and evaluate their effectiveness. We are practitioners with outstanding analytic and strategic thinking skills that contribute to the success of our clients.
EPA recently released Planning for Sustainability: A Handbook for Water and Wastewater Utilities, which provides water utilities with a concise, step-by-step approach for incorporating sustainability considerations into their long-range planning. Ross & Associates worked closely with EPA to develop the Handbook starting with a conceptual design around four key elements of planning—from goal-setting and alternatives analysis to financial strategy development. Ross & Associates convened leading water utility executives and associations to test the concepts in the Handbook and share their lessons from sustainability planning in action. Utilities can follow the Handbook's step-by-step process, read how other utilities have incorporated sustainability considerations into planning, evaluate their own implementation through a set of diagnostic questions, and use the many resources referenced in the Handbook. This effort is part of a series of projects and publications by EPA and Ross & Associates to assist utilities with the effective and sustainable management of their infrastructure and water resources.