January 19, 1995: Vol26n13: Report urges emphasis on enviornmental business

By ELLEN GOLDBAUM
News Bureau Staff
A report issued Dec. 13 by graduate students in an urban-planning
class in the UB School of Architecture and Planning urges New York
State to place more emphasis on developing its profitable
environmental-business sector as a way to boost economic development,
while promoting environmental protection. The report recommends that
joint public and private-sector initiatives should aim at:
	 Adopting a more market-based approach to environmental
legislation to unite economic and environmental interests.
	  Expanding export capabilities for this sector.
	  Developing a business-assistance program to help companies
select pollution-prevention technologies that best suit their
businesses and improve their competitiveness.
	  Establishing a Pollution Prevention and Production-Process
Enhancement Institute to conduct research and act as an extension
service to businesses.
	The students outlined their findings on Production-Process
Enhancement: A New Strategy for Economic Development and Environmental
Protection in New York State" in a presentation at Baird Research Park
in Amherst.
	The project, conducted for UB's New York State Center for
Hazardous Waste Management, was done for a class taught by former
State Sen. John Sheffer, now UB senior fellow in policy studies, and
Ernest Sternberg, associate professor of urban planning. The report
says New York State and WNY are home to a comparatively large number
of small, high-tech businesses engaged in environmental protection.