Environment and Sustainability
Clean air, clean water and a strong economy go together. Manufacturers lead the world in emissions-reducing innovation and are pressing for environmental rules grounded in the best-available science.
Environment & Sustainability
Cleaner air, cleaner water, stronger economy — manufacturers deliver all three.
Everyone wants clean air and clean water. Everyone wants good jobs and a strong economy. Manufacturers are proving these goals go together — leading the world in emissions-reducing innovation, investing in water reuse and recycling and pressing for environmental rules grounded in the best-available science so progress and production grow side by side.
Sources: NAM regulatory rebalancing package (April 2025); EPA reconsideration announcement (March 2025); ENERGY STAR program data cited in the NAM-led coalition letter (2026); industry coalition letter on the IRIS program (March 2025).
The priorities
Manufacturers’ environment & sustainability agenda
Six priorities for environmental policy that protects public health, rewards innovation and keeps manufacturers in America competitive.
Achievable Air Standards
The NAM’s court challenge led EPA to move to vacate the 2024 PM2.5 standard that threatened expansion in much of the country — and the NAM backs Clean Air Act updates that account for wildfires and emissions from overseas.
Clean Water Certainty
Clear “waters of the United States” definitions that follow the Supreme Court’s Sackett ruling, water-quality certifications that stay on schedule — and a national partnership scaling industrial water reuse through EPA’s Water Reuse Action Plan.
Science-Based Chemicals Policy
Manufacturers are holding regulators to the intent of the law on TSCA: risk evaluations that reflect real conditions of use and real workplace protections — and a chemical-assessment program rebuilt on transparent, peer-reviewed science.
A Workable PFAS Framework
Risk-based rules that target genuine exposure concerns, protect mission-critical uses — the Defense Department says some alternatives are 10–25 years away — and replace a patchwork of conflicting state, federal and global mandates.
Climate Progress Through Innovation
Manufacturers lead the world in emissions-reducing technology — and climate policy belongs with elected policymakers, not courtrooms. The Supreme Court took up the climate tort question in 2026 after the NAM urged review.
Sustainability in Practice
From ENERGY STAR efficiency and industrial water reuse to battery recycling and critical-minerals recovery, manufacturers are building the circular economy — and the NAM keeps the voluntary programs that power it funded and working.
Results
Rebalanced rules, real environmental progress
Manufacturers’ advocacy is making environmental regulation work — for public health and for the people who build things in America.
Manufacturers “have been shouldering enormous regulatory compliance costs — nearly $350 billion annually, or 12% of our entire sector’s contribution to the U.S. GDP.” — Jay Timmons, NAM President & CEO, on the NAM’s regulatory rebalancing agenda, April 2025
Sources: EPA motion to vacate the 2024 PM2.5 NAAQS, November 2025 (NAM v. EPA, D.C. Cir.); U.S. House passage of H.R. 6387, H.R. 6398 and H.R. 6409, April 2026; EPA Water Reuse Action Plan 2.0, April 2026; NAM letters to EPA, DOE and DOI, April 2025.
In action
How manufacturers moved environmental policy
- March 2025EPA announces reconsideration of 31 regulatory actions — including the PM2.5 standard, power plant rules and WOTUS — responding to the case made by the NAM and more than 100 manufacturing groups.
- April 2025The NAM delivers its regulatory rebalancing package to EPA, DOE and Interior, documenting nearly $350 billion in annual compliance costs and identifying dozens of rules to fix.
- November 2025EPA moves to vacate the 2024 PM2.5 air standard in the NAM’s D.C. Circuit challenge — and proposes a Sackett-aligned WOTUS definition reflecting the NAM’s testimony.
- January–February 2026The House Energy and Commerce Committee advances seven Clean Air Act modernization bills with NAM support, and the Supreme Court agrees to hear the climate tort case the NAM urged it to review.
- April 2026The House passes the FIRE, RED Tape and FENCES Acts; EPA launches Water Reuse Action Plan 2.0 with the NAM as an official industry partner; PFAS reporting timelines are right-sized after detailed NAM comments.
- May–June 2026The NAM files comments on EPA’s PFAS drinking-water proposals and the EU’s universal PFAS restriction, presses for TSCA modernization in both chambers and backs commonsense risk-management updates that keep workers and communities safe.
Environmental progress, made in America
Help the NAM advance environmental policies that deliver clean air and water, reward innovation and keep manufacturers competing — and winning — in America.
