CONTACT
Bill Sheehan, Exec. Director
Product Policy Institute
706.613-0710 * bill@productpolicy.org

  FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

TWO ENVIRONMENTAL EXPERTS BRING MORE DIVERSITY AND TALENT
TO THE PRODUCT POLICY INSTITUTE’S BOARD OF DIRECTORS

New Appointees Offer Expertise in Environmental Public Policy and Public Health

Athens, Georgia (June 17, 2009) – Two experts in the environmental arena have been appointed to the Product Policy Institute’s (PPI) Board of Directors, expanding the geographic diversity and skill-set for the organization. Commissioner Victoria Reinhardt, D.P.A., from Ramsey County, Minnesota, and Ms. Carolyn Raffensperger, M.A., J.D., from Ames, Iowa, will serve on the PPI Board and help the organization achieve its mission of waste prevention and sustainable production and consumption practices through public policy and good governance.

“We’re honored to have Victoria and Carolyn join our Board of Directors,” said Helen Spiegelman, Product Policy Institute Board President. “The experience they bring to the table in the area of environmental public policy adds a wealth of knowledge and talent to our already formidable Board.”

PPI advocates public policies that protect public health and safety and address climate change by encouraging waste prevention and clean production.  Founded in 2003, PPI’s strategy is to organize communities and their local governments to press for state-by-state Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) framework policies that hold producers responsible for ensuring their products and packaging do not become public liabilities.
        
Commissioner Reinhardt has worked on environmental policy at the local, state and regional level for over 20 years.  She holds leadership positions with the National Association of Counties where she secured adoption of four product stewardship resolutions, including one supporting the framework approach to product stewardship. 

In Minnesota, she chairs the Environment and Natural Resources Committee of the Association of Minnesota Counties.  She currently serves as chair of the Ramsey/Washington Resource Recovery Board, vice-chair of the Solid Waste Management Coordinating Board for the Twin Cities region and is a member of the National Paint Product Stewardship Initiative. Commissioner Reinhardt holds a Doctorate of Public Administration from Hamline University.

“I’m happy to work with PPI because they are leading efforts to organize governments for comprehensive producer responsibility, including work through the National Association of Counties,” said Commissioner Reinhardt.

Ms. Raffensperger is the founding executive director of the Science and Environmental Health Network, where she has guided the organization since December 1994. As an environmental lawyer she specializes in the fundamental changes in law and policy necessary for the protection and restoration of public health and the environment. She is co-editor of Precautionary Tools for Reshaping Environmental Policy published by M.I.T. Press (2006) and Protecting Public Health and the Environment: Implementing the Precautionary Principle, published by Island Press (1999).

“I am pleased to be part of the Product Policy Institute's work, because I see PPI's mission as a direct application of the broader governance work I do,” said Raffensperger. “PPI's work of engaging local communities behind policy reform restores public control over the waste problem that ultimately influences the producers who design throwaway products and packaging.”

Carolyn and her team are at the forefront of developing new models for government based on precaution and ecological integrity. The new models include guardianship for future generations, a vision for the courts of the 21st century, and the public trust doctrine.

For more information, contact: Bill Sheehan, Executive Director, Product Policy Institute at 706.247.2500 or bill@productpolicy.org . 

About the Product Policy Institute:
The Product Policy Institute (PPI) is a non-partisan research, communication and educational organization promoting policies that advance sustainable production, consumption and good governancein North America. Founded in 2003, PPI assists the formation of local government product stewardship councils that work to shift product waste management from taxpayer funded to producer funded and managed systems to motivate brand owners to design more sustainable products and packaging. PPI helped launch the California, New York, Vermont and Texas Product Stewardship Councils and is currently working with communities and local governments in other states. PPI is a 501c3 charitable organization under the Internal Revenue Service tax code. For more information, go to www.productpolicy.org .
P.O. Box 48433, Athens, GA  30604  *  706-613-0710

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