Principles and Elements for Creating and Sustaining Successful PPP for Environmental Community Monitoring Programs: Results from a Scoping Review and Interviews

Introduction: Public–private partnerships (PPPs) can play a critical role in advancing our understanding of environmental exposures by maximizing cross-disciplinary expertise and resource-sharing among government, community, and industry researchers. However, experiences with PPPs associated with community environmental monitoring involving industry partners have not been well-documented. Goal: To build on existing literature combined with the expertise of practitioners from various sectors to identify overarching elements and specific principles necessary for creating and sustaining successful PPPs for community environmental monitoring. Methods: A scoping literature review and 24 semistructured interviews with diverse PPP stakeholders were conducted. Excerpts from the review were coded to successful/barrier elements. Interview transcripts were analyzed using content analysis. Results: Trust emerged as a foundational principle both in the literature review and in interviews. After trust is developed, three critical principles for successful PPPs are: a sound organizational structure with sufficient resources to maintain the PPP, clear and inclusive approaches to communication, and developing scientifically robust data as the basis for decision-making. Conclusions: Community interviewees realized the value of PPPs but engaged in them cautiously given power imbalances and prior negative experiences. Our analyses confirm that historic events and power imbalances affect trust and participation of community partners, and that trust-building is a continuous process requiring honesty, bidirectional communication, sustained presence, and acknowledgment of prior activities adversely impacting the environment. A centralized repository or a professional community society would facilitate the sharing of lessons learned. PPPs may benefit by including trained facilitators for equitable and participatory processes.