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P2 News Items
12 Steps To A 'Greener' Supply Chain (12/01/2008)
In the 12-step movement, they say admitting you have a problem is the first step toward recovery.
And when it comes to energy usage and waste in supply chains, we have a major problem.
The U.S. Department of Energy's Annual Energy Review shows that industrial and transportation sectors--those that coincide with supply chain activities--account for 61 percent of U.S. carbon emissions. This indicates that a careful examination of energy use throughout the supply chain provides substantial opportunities for improvement.
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Changing the Climate: Looking Toward a More Cost Effective, Energy Efficient Future (11/24/2008)
(Washington, D.C. --Nov.18, 2008) The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Department of Energy are helping states lead the way in an effort to promote low cost energy efficiency. More than 60 energy, environmental and state policy leaders from across the country have come together to produce the updated National Action Plan Vision for 2025: A Framework for Change. The action plan outlines strategies to help lower the growth in energy demand across the country by more than 50 percent, and shows ways to save more than $500 billion in net savings over the next 20 years. These actions may help to reduce annual greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to those from 90 million vehicles.
"The significant action taken by states, utilities and energy customers advances low cost energy solutions," said Robert Meyers, principal deputy assistant administrator for EPA's Office of Air and Radiation. "The plan is a big step toward a more energy-efficient future, helping to reduce greenhouse gas emissions while growing the American economy."
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Funding: Pollution prevention grants available for hospitality industry (11/24/2008)
DNREC's Pollution Prevention Program announced on Thursday that $15,000 in competitive grant funding is available to Delaware's hospitality industry for pollution prevention projects.
The cost-share funds are to be used for projects that prevent or reduce pollution at the source. The deadline for submission of project proposals is Jan. 15, 2009.
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Getting rid of mercury (11/24/2008)
In ancient Roman mythology, Mercury was the fleet-footed messenger of the gods. But in today's world, mercury is an unloved messenger of destruction. A neurotoxic metal, mercury spews from coal-fired power plants and infiltrates the environment; it is especially damaging to fetuses as they are developing.
Mercury is present in coal in only minute amounts, but the 1,100 electricity-generating utilities in the U.S. burn so much coal that they send 48 tons of mercury up and out their chimneys each year. To reduce the public health threat, about 20 eastern states have either begun or will shortly begin to regulate mercury emissions from the largest coal-burning power plants.
By 2013, if a long-anticipated federal rule imposing such regulations nationwide goes into place, mercury control will be big business. Suppliers of abatement chemicals and catalyst control technologies expect a market of $500 million a year or more. Many providers are racing now to position themselves for this new market.
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Student brain power wins EPA grant for MIT Design of Alternative Energy Systems (11/24/2008)
Boston, Mass. -- Nov. 20, 2008) -- Students at MIT working on designing a system that creates power using solar heat and methane gas received one of 49 national EPA grants which are helping programs that protect the environment and are economically profitable.
The $10,000 grant has been awarded to the Mass. Institute of Technology in Cambridge through EPA's People, Prosperity and the Planet (P3) program, which provides funds for designs to move developed and developing world toward sustainability. EPA awarded a total of $880,000 in P3 grants to student teams representing 39 universities in 23 states.
As one of the 43 grants for new projects, MIT's project will involve researching and developing a design for a system to generate renewable energy using the solar and organic resources available in a region and that best meet the needs of local communities. By focusing on solar thermal, biogas, and algal CO2 technologies, the MIT system aims to increase the efficiency and decrease the CO2 load to the atmosphere of a traditional diesel generator. The system will be designed with widely available materials so it can be manufactured and distributed locally by energy entrepreneurs in the developing world.
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U.N. energy efficiency project targets hotels (11/21/2008)
The U.N. World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) has launched a new project leading to at least 20 percent overall energy savings and increasing renewable energy use by 10 percent in hotels. It targets particularly small and medium enterprises (SMEs), which represent the vast majority of hotel rooms in the accommodation sector and that can benefit from best practice trends and technology advances, according to a Nov. 13 press release.
The project brings together partners from the hotel, environment, and renewable energy communities and is supported by the European Union (EU).
Over half of the world's 5.9 million hotel rooms are located in Europe. 90 percent of these are in small and medium sized hotels, while the remaining 10 percent belong to major groups.
Energy
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EU chemical registration REACH nears deadline (11/20/2008)
Manufacturers that make chemicals in the European Union member states or import them in from outside the zone have until December 1 to pre-register with the EU's legislative REACH regulation (Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals).
The decree has been in force since June 2007 and applies to any firm making or importing over a tonne per year of an individual chemical. Any company using such a quantity of a chemical on its own or as part of a product will have to have it registered with the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) after a phased implementation over the next decade.
The REACH initiative replaces around 40 separate legislations that previously governed the use of chemicals in the EU. Its four objectives, according to the ECHA, are to 'improve the protection of human health and the environment from the risks that can be posed by chemicals'; 'Enhance the competitiveness of the EU chemicals industry, a key sector for the economy of the EU'; 'Promote alternative methods for the assessment of hazards of substances'; and 'Ensure the free circulation of substances on the internal market of the European Union'.
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KY: State wants new rules to reduce mercury (11/20/2008)
In what they describe as a major undertaking, Kentucky officials are starting to work on regulations that would reduce the amount of mercury put into the air by coal-fired power plants.
John Lyons, director of the state Division of Air Quality, said 10 to 20 states already regulate mercury. Kentucky, he said, would be the first in the Southeast to do so.
Federal regulations proposed by the Bush administration's Environmental Protection Agency have been thrown out by the courts, and developing new ones could take a long time, Lyons said. Kentucky, which had planned to follow the federal lead, has to act on its own, he said.
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Vermont hotel project awarded grant to reduce waste (11/20/2008)
(Boston, Mass. -- Nov. 19, 2008) - A project to reduce waste at hotels in Vermont has received $25,000. The funding comes from the "Resource Conservation Challenge," an EPA program to conserve natural resources and energy by managing materials more efficiently.
The Northeast Recycling Council, working with the Vermont Green Hotels program, was given the money for a three-year project aimed at reducing the amount of sold waste generated, increasing recycling, increasing the rescue and composting of food and reducing the use of toxic chemicals in hotels.
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Funding: Environmental Education Grants Available (11/20/2008)
(Boston, Mass. -- Nov. 19, 2008) The call is going out to educators, education institutions, public/state environmental agencies and non-profit organizations that EPA is seeking applications for environmental education grants for fiscal year 2009. The applications must be postmarked by Dec. 18, 2008.
EPA funds environmental education projects that focus on educating teachers, students, parents or the general public about human health problems. These issues range from pollution; improving teaching tools and techniques for educators through workshops; building state or local capability to develop and deliver environmental education or public outreach programs; or promoting environmental careers and stewardship among students through hands-on activities.
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MA: Green Transportation: MassDEP puts electric bike into use around downtown Boston (11/19/2008)
MassDEP's fleet of vehicles expanded recently, but only for those who either work in the Boston office or are spending the day at One Winter Street. And the good news is you won't need to worry about re-filling the gas tank, the windshield wiper fluid or even having a driver's license. But you will need dry road conditions and some familiarity with the rules of riding a bike downtown.
That's because this new addition is an electric bike donated to MassDEP by the utility company N-Star in 2000; until recently, it was sitting in storage. Dusted off, refurbished and tuned up by Steve White and his colleagues in MassDEP's Bureau of Waste Prevention, this foldable mountain bike is blue in color, but "green" in its deployment. It will be available for use for treks around town, mainly to get to meetings.
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Researchers work on easier tracking of dangerous mercury emissions (11/14/2008)
Researchers at the University of Michigan are in the early stages of finding a way to track harmful mercury emissions from coal-burning plants. And if mercury emissions can be tracked, perhaps they can be better regulated.
"There's a considerable amount of coal being burnt in Michigan and mercury advisories in lakes in Michigan," said Joel Blum, a professor of geological science at U-M. "We'd like to understand better the details of how mercury gets into our lakes and into our fish."
Mercury is a natural occurring element, but it enters the environment through human-generated sources like incinerators, chlorine-producing plants and coal-burning power plants. In 2002, about 2,000 lbs of it was emitted in Michigan, according to the Department of Environmental Quality.
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TEXT-ICL launches product to reduce mercury emissions (11/14/2008)
ICL IndustrialProducts (ICL-IP) is launching Merquel, a new product line for reduction of mercury emissions from coal fired power plants, kilns and incinerators.
The Merquel product line is based on ICL-IP's line of inorganic bromides tailored specifically to be applied in various proprietary technologies developed in recent years to reduce mercury emission.
Mercury is a neurotoxin affecting child and infant development. According to the UN Environment program, once released, mercury persists in the environment where it circulates between air, water, sediments, soil and biotain various forms.
Current emissions add to the global accumulation; and as mercury pollution travels great distances through the atmosphere, it is a global problem.
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Dry cleaners invest in eco-friendly solutions (11/10/2008)
Donn Frye sees green as a bottom-line issue for the dry cleaning industry.
As president of Scottsdale-based Prestige Cleaners Inc., Frye has practiced sustainability for more than 12 years because it saves him money, even when the products cost more up front.
It's a move many in the industry have yet to take, largely because the costs can reach into the tens of thousands of dollars. But they all will have to make some changes eventually, as they are faced with increased U.S. Environmental Protection Agency regulation of the most widely used dry cleaning chemical: perchloroethylene, a petroleum-based solution often called perc.
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EPA grants to help prevent pollution in New Jersey and New York
(11/10/2008)
(New York, N.Y.) From promoting the use of less toxic dry cleaning methods, to encouraging environmentally-protective practices at marinas, to education about the proper disposal of prescription drugs, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is making its grant money count across New Jersey and New York. The Agency has awarded more than $400,000 in grants geared toward funding projects that help prevent pollution in those two states.
"Preventing pollution at its source is one of the best ways we can protect our air, water and land," said EPA Regional Administrator Alan J. Steinberg. "These grants help give the experts who work on these issues every day the resources to make a real difference for our environment."
EPA awarded the New Jersey Small Business Development Center at Rutgers University a grant for $181,240 to promote alternatives to traditional dry cleaning, which often uses toxic chemicals that threaten human health. The center will partner with New Jersey state officials and manufacturers to give technical support, fund demonstration projects and educate dry cleaners on viable non-toxic alternatives that they can use to replace commonly-used dry cleaning chemicals.
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New assessment highlights effective mercury-free alternatives (11/06/2008)
(11-6-08) There are alternatives to mercury, according to a just-released preliminary assessment of the uses of elemental mercury in a number of products. The Environmental Protection Agency has concluded that switches, relays, button cell batteries, non-fever thermometers, and measuring devices, such as thermostats, don't have to contain mercury.
Under the Chemical Assessment and Management Program, EPA evaluated the use of elemental mercury in certain products and the availability of effective, economical mercury-free alternatives. The assessment determined that the use of mercury in certain products poses a "high-priority, special concern." The agency plans to take prompt regulatory and voluntary action to encourage the use of mercury-free alternatives and reduce the use of mercury in products.
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Funding: Water marketing and efficiency grants (11/05/2008)
Through the Challenge Grant Program - Water Marketing and Efficiency Grants, Reclamation provides 50/50 cost share funding to irrigation and water districts and states for projects focused on water conservation, efficiency, and water marketing. Projects are selected through a competitive process, based on their ability to meet the goals identified in Water 2025: Preventing Crises and Conflict in the West. The focus is on projects that can be completed within 24 months that will help to prevent crises over water.
Reclamation awarded $4.5 million dollars in August 2008 to fund 15 projects in seven states. Including the matching contributions of non-federal partners, the selected projects represent a combined investment of more than $31.8 million in water management improvements.
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Funding: Grants available for projects to improve quality of drinking water in NYC watershed (11/03/2008)
Grant applications are now being accepted on a continuous basis for Water Quality Improvement Projects (WQIP) under the New York City Watershed Program. The program is offering $3 million in grant funds for polluted runoff abatement, which includes assessment, planning and research and outreach and education projects in the New York City watershed.
Drinking water for New York City comes from reservoirs in a nearly 2,000-acre watershed located in Delaware, Greene, Schoharie, Ulster, Sullivan, Westchester, Putnam, and Dutchess counties. Together, these reservoirs provide about 1.4 billion gallons of drinking water per day.
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NY: Pollution being reduced at sites in and near NYC (11/03/2008)
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) has taken steps designed to tighten controls on odor-generating processes at the sewage-sludge pelletization plant owned by New York Organic Fertilizer Company (NYOFCo), located at Hunts Point in the Bronx. DEC issued an amended solid-waste permit that requires NYOFCo to install an air-pressure alarm to help keep odors from escaping the plant; undertake several maintenance measures to prevent odors; prevent excessive buildup of unprocessed sludge in the plant, and pay the costs for an independent "odor response monitor."
In addition, DEC soon will initiate a proposed modification to the solid-waste permit to require more specific odor monitoring and control measures. NYOFCo can agree to these new provisions or challenge them in an administrative proceeding.
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