Who says you can’t protect the environment and be customer-friendly?
At the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, we’re working hard to make sure we do both.
The department’s mission is to protect the state’s natural resources, which are critical for quality of life, economic development and tourism. Our leadership team and our employees understand that we can’t accomplish the mission without the help of all North Carolinians, including those in business and industry.
Last summer, the department’s senior leadership focused its attention on improving customer service.
One way we’ve done that is through convening roundtables of business and industry, local government and environmental leaders. These monthly meetings have enabled healthy communication and helped us gather suggestions for ways we can improve our services to the taxpaying public.
We also finished a review of our environmental regulatory process with an eye on improving the effectiveness and efficiency of our permitting.
This review included a survey of internal permitting staff and of members of our environmental roundtables. The recommendations that came out of this internal review include a need for:
• Technology improvements, such as digital documents and data-sharing among programs and the public.
• Clearer policies and procedures to improve the consistency and reliability of permitting decisions, including ensuring that rules and guidance are easily accessible to the public.
• Training for both staff and permit applicants to improve permitting effectiveness and timeliness.
• Improving our management of staff, including evaluating programs to highlight any review redundancies and providing cross-training.
• Improving communication and customer service in the areas of delegation of authority and the systematic review and adjustment, where needed, of permit fees.
Senior leadership at DENR is currently reviewing these recommendations, and will make changes where practical, feasible and pragmatic. Please know that employees within the Department of Environment and Natural Resources are working hard to meet the high expectations required by public service as we work together with our residents to secure the future of a clean environment, sustained natural resources, healthier lives, thriving ecosystems and a stronger economy.