Reimagining Permitting Processes: A Case Study of Virginia’s Permitting Enhancement and Evaluation Platform

At the Environmental Policy Innovation Center (EPIC), our goal is to advance ecological restoration at scale, yet permitting costs consume up to ⅓ of project budgets. We need money to go to nature, not paperwork. Over the past two years, the Environmental Policy Innovation Center (EPIC) has quantitatively and qualitatively analyzed policies and processes related to restoration project permitting. Here we provide a case study of adoption of e-permitting technology that ameliorated many permitting bottlenecks.