The U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB) is asking for public comments on its draft 2012-2016 CSB Strategic Plan - a document which includes the CSB’s strategic goals, strategic objectives, and associated measures for managing and evaluating agency operations.

The draft plan is now posted on the CSB’s website. Comments must be emailed to strategicplan@csb.gov by April 12, 2012.

The draft plan is derived from the Board's legislative mandate has three strategic goals:
• 1: Conduct incident investigations and safety studies that involve accidental releases or potential releases of hazardous chemical substances.
• 2: Improve safety and environmental protection by securing implementation of CSB recommendations and broadly disseminating CSB findings.
• 3: Preserve the public trust by maintaining and improving organizational excellence.

The CSB says the first goal drives the core mission of the agency by ensuring that the CSB selects and completes incident investigations that have the potential to generate recommendations with high preventive impact. It also focuses the agency on developing and completing safety studies with an emphasis on emerging safety issues.

Goal 2 focuses on implementing recommendations and their associated advocacy and outreach. The third goal serves to bind all agency processes using best practice project management. This includes the agency’s high-performing information technology, administration, general counsel, procurement, and financial services functions.

In updating the plan, the CSB interviewed stakeholders in industry, academia, and other government agencies, as well as CSB Board members and key managers and staff.

The CSB is an independent federal agency charged with investigating industrial chemical accidents. The agency's board members are appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate. CSB investigations look into all aspects of chemical accidents, including physical causes such as equipment failure as well as inadequacies in regulations, industry standards, and safety management systems. The Board does not issue citations or fines but does make safety recommendations to plants, industry organizations, labor groups, and regulatory agencies such as OSHA and EPA. www.csb.gov.