(1) Stakeholder participation in and support for an environmental excellence program agreement is vital to the integrity of the environmental excellence program agreement and helps to inform the decision whether an environmental excellence program agreement can be approved.

(2) A proposal for an environmental excellence program agreement shall include the sponsor's plan to identify and contact stakeholders, to advise stakeholders of the facts and nature of the project, and to request stakeholder participation and review. Stakeholder participation and review shall occur during the development, consideration, and implementation stages of the proposed environmental excellence program agreement. The plan shall include notice to the employees of the facility to be covered by the proposed environmental excellence program agreement and public notice in the area of the covered facility.

(3) The coordinating agency shall extend an invitation to participate in the development of the proposal to a broad and representative sector of the public likely to be affected by the environmental excellence program agreement, including representatives of local community, labor, environmental, and neighborhood advocacy groups. The coordinating agency shall select participants to be included in the stakeholder process that are representative of the diverse sectors of the public that are interested in the agreement. The stakeholder process shall include the opportunity for discussion and comment at multiple stages of the process and access to the information relied upon by the directors in approving the agreement.

(4) The coordinating agency will identify any additional provisions for the stakeholder process that the director of the coordinating agency, in the director's sole discretion, considers appropriate to the success of the stakeholder process, and provide for notice to the United States environmental protection agency or other responsible federal agency of each proposed environmental excellence program agreement that may affect legal requirements of any program administered by that agency.