Justification

Justification for request to change 0625-0217 User Satisfaction Surveys

The International Trade Administration (ITA) requests permission to 1) add a new comment card version to collection 0625-0217 User Satisfaction Surveys and 2) to modify two fields on the currently approved Comment Card for Export Assistance Services.

1. Request for permission to add a new comment card to 0625-0217 User Satisfaction Surveys

ITA would like permission to use a customer satisfaction comment card, which is closely based on the approved comment card for export assistance services, with U.S. companies that participate in the Sustainable Manufacturing Initiative described below. The currently approved customer satisfaction comment cards and the proposed Sustainable Manufacturing Initiative comment card would be used with U.S. companies that have received assistance from ITA.

The Sustainable Manufacturing Initiative (SMI) works to support U.S. manufacturers in their efforts to implement practices and create products that are natural resource efficient, cost-saving and environmentally sound. By harnessing the resources of the federal interagency, the SMI aims to centralize information on U.S. government programs that support sustainable business practices, thus facilitating the use of such programs by U.S. firms nationwide. The Initiative also aims to enhance awareness of sustainable manufacturing's benefits through regional manufacturing facility tours of companies considered sustainability leaders and provide greater understanding of the sector-specific sustainability challenges U.S. firms face through published analyses. Finally, the Department is working closely with the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) to develop a toolkit of metrics firms can use to measure the costs and profits associated with their environmental performance. The SMI website can be found at www.manufacturing.gov/sustainability.

The SMI includes two components that involve direct interaction with the private sector:

1. Organizing Sustainable Manufacturing American Regional Tours (SMARTs) These are facility tours in various U.S. cities to enhance awareness of sustainability’s benefits and facilitate the exchange of best practices among American industries. The tours are designed to showcase successfully implemented sustainable manufacturing and other related business practices to an audience of local business leaders in a selected region.

2. Organizing stakeholder events. In addition to the broad SMI stakeholder events that set priorities and direction for the program, the SMI also organizes smaller events on emerging issues. In 2010 this included the Green Finance Roundtable, with attendance by 70+ from U.S. industry, NGO and government representatives and at which participants discussed trends, strategic issues and the scope of the green finance industry with key public and private stakeholders. The Industrial Water Use event had over 60 participants from industry and non-profits as well as state and local government and addressed issues related to an important resource for manufacturers: water availability and use.

The SMI would like to survey event participants in order to ensure quality customer service, improve future events, and track whether our events help participants adopt sustainability practices. As a new program we need to supply data to show whether our customers are satisfied and are asked to feed into Department-level performance metrics on the green and blue economy. Feedback on the customer satisfaction with the direct, customer-facing elements of this program will be key to program improvement.

Proposed Changes

Since the purpose of the program is “to support U.S. manufacturers in their efforts to implement practices that are natural resource efficient, cost-saving and environmentally sound” the information in the new question 6 is intended to see if any new practices have been implemented following an event. This is related to customer satisfaction because participants are coming to these events in the hopes of learning about programs and practices that they can adopt in their own facility.

Other minor changes include:

Question 1: change “export assistance” to “assistance”

change the name of the organization that is providing the assistance from the “Commercial Service” to the “Department of Commerce’s Sustainable Manufacturing Initiative”

Question 2: change “export assistance service” to service

Change in Burden

The changes associated with the new SMI comment card are as follows:

Annual SMI respondents	Time per respondent	Burden hours
440	7 minutes	hours

II. Permission to modify the Comment Card for Export Assistance Services

ITA would like permission to make minor changes to the text of the currently approved Comment Card for Export Assistance Services so that it can be used by other ITA offices and services to measure customer satisfaction. ITA is placing greater emphasis on ensuring that U.S. businesses are satisfied with the service that they receive from any ITA office or agency.

Currently the Comment Card for Export Assistance Services applies specifically to export assistance services provided by the Commercial Service. Therefore, ITA would like to obtain permission to make minor changes to the export assistance comment card so that it can be used to measure the satisfaction with other ITA services.

The proposed changes are as follows:

Question 1: - change “export assistance” to “assistance”

- change the name of the organization that is providing the assistance from the “Commercial Service” to whichever ITA agency or office is providing the service

Question 2: - change “export assistance service” to service

Change in Burden

We estimate that an additional 500 respondents will use the modified comment card annually. We estimate an annual burden as follows:

Annual estimated respondents	Time per respondent	Burden hours
500	5 minutes	hours

3. Total change in burden hours associated with this change request

The total burden hours associated with this change request to collection 0625-0217 will increase by 93 hours.

	Estimated annual respondents	Time per respondent	Burden hours
SMI program	440	7 minutes	hours
Modification of Comment Card for Export Assistance Services	500	5 minutes	42 hours

Total increase in burden: 93 hours