While the push is on to green buildings, the RSC Equipment Rental firm has devised a new service to help reduce the environmental impact of a key component of construction: It tracks the emissions of every diesel unit that rolls out of its lots around the country.

Owens Corning is teaming up with one of the country’s largest environmental services companies for a new program aimed at reducing the amount of used asphalt roofing shingles sent to landfills.

Owens Corning will introduce its national shingle recycling program in the Midwest before rolling it out to the rest of the U.S. The company’s Preferred Roofing Contractors who pledge to recycle their shingle tear-offs will be able to take them to drop-off recycling and processing centers provided by Heritage Environmental Services. Rollout of the program will depend on participation and reaction from contractors and homeowners.

Concrete — the main downstream product for cement — is the world’s second most consumed material behind water, but its recycling rate varies wildly by region.

The Netherlands, for example, banned concrete waste from entering landfills so nearly all concrete is recycled. On the other end of the spectrum, data suggest Spain and Portugal recover just a fraction of the construction and debris waste generated in the two countries.

A coalition of cement companies called the Cement Sustainability Initiative wants to reduce the concrete landfill rate to zero by boosting awareness of the benefits of reusing concrete in a new report, “Recycling Concrete.”

“This proposal builds a foundation for cleaner streams and greener neighborhoods through improved treatment technologies and prevention practices,” said Benjamin H. Grumbles, EPA’s assistant administrator for water.

In addition, for certain large sites located in areas of the country with high rainfall intensity and soils with a high clay content, stormwater discharges from the construction site would be required to meet a numeric limit on the allowable level of turbidity, which is a measure of sediment in the water. In order to meet the proposed numeric turbidity limit, many sites would need to treat and filter their stormwater discharges.

Construction activities such as clearing, excavating and grading significantly disturb the land. The disturbed soil, if not managed properly, can easily be washed off the construction site during storms and enter streams, lakes, and other waters. Stormwater discharges from construction activities can cause an array of physical, chemical and biological impacts.

Sediment is one of the leading causes of water quality impairment nationwide, including reducing water depth in small streams, lakes and reservoirs.

Information on the proposal: http://www.epa.gov/ost/guide/construction/

Featured presenters include Tyree Guyton of the Heidelberg Project, Detroit Michigan; Jay Williams, Mayor of Youngstown, Ohio; Rick Lowe of Project Row Houses, Houston, Texas and Michael W. Groman of the Philadelphia Green Program.

The conference will include several course tracks to highlight innovative practices in building reuse and vacant property stabilization around the country. You can continue to learn about these issues and to apply what you’ve learned at an optional training titled Designing A Project For Deconstruction which will be held on Wednesday, November 19th. The training will be a mix of presentations, Q&A, a hands-on job-site visit with exercises for participants, and a general forum for discussion.

Participants are also encouraged to attend pre-and post-conference tours of the city which will highlight the important stories of Buffalo and the city’s incredible architecture, as well as stories of both persistent decline and new hope, largely emerging from citizen-led revitalization efforts.

The conference will be held at the Hyatt Regency in downtown Buffalo. Please contact us with questions or sign up today for the early registration price.

Every business looks for a trademark, and Matthew Danchanko has spent five years toiling to make quality the mark of his general contracting company in Johnstown.

But since last week, the most discernible quality of Danchanko Inc. might be that its dump truck smells like french fries.

With diesel costs climbing locally to nearly $4.90 a gallon, Danchanko began researching biodiesel and invested about $3,500 in the equipment and supplies he needed. Biodiesel is made through a process of straining used cooking oil – procured from restaurants for a small fee – that is mixed with select additives.

EPA Region 7 has developed fact sheets to inform plumbing, heating and cooling contractors who repair or replace mercury-containing gas regulators, pressure gauges, heat generators and thermostats about the health risks and liability issues associated with a mercury release.

The fact sheets (http://www.epa.gov/region07/mercury/#contractors) were created to help prevent mercury releases, which present a serious environmental and health problem. The information describes to contractors how to properly dismantle, contain and dispose of mercury-containing units. The fact sheets also provide information on how to clean up mercury releases, health effects of a mercury release, who to contact if there are questions, and how to report a release.

PlanetReuse.com is the world’s first Web site that connects buyers and sellers of reused and reclaimed construction materials and equipment and allows them to purchase products with integrated shipping online.

With its European counterparts blazing the trail, the North American vinyl (PVC) roofing industry announced a new phase in its commitment to environmental sustainability through recycling. The Vinyl Roofing Division of the Chemical Fabrics & Film Association has initiated a feasibility study to evaluate strategies for making post-consumer recycling in North America viable on a broad scale.

Not all environmentalists oppose a controversial proposal to demolish asbestos-laden buildings without first removing the hazardous substance.

Neil Carman, who directs the clean air program of the Sierra Club’s Lone Star chapter in Austin, supports efforts by the Environmental Protection Agency to develop alternate methods that would make it less expensive to demolish asbestos-contaminated buildings. And he supports plans to test the method this week at a building nestled in a residential area on Fort Worth’s east side.

Whose responsibility is it to pick up the construction and demolition debris in areas of New Orleans hardest hit by Hurricane Katrina and flooding?

It seems that the three garbage contracts signed by the city of New Orleans shed little light on the subject.

Buffalo’s supply of empty old Victorian houses, broken-down bungalows and closed factories is not blight to some, but wealth lying in wait.

Local treasure hunters are part of a growing national interest in “deconstruction” — the salvaging, dismantling and reselling of old building parts.

One Niagara Falls man salvages factory beams made of dense oldgrowth pine that can be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. In Buffalo, a new nonprofit store called “Buffalo ReUse” sells a range of salvaged items, such as solid pine paneled doors, oak flooring and old-fashioned soaker tubs.

On May 15, EPA announced the release of a draft report that evaluates an alternative demolition process for buildings containing asbestos. Scientists and engineers from EPA’s National Risk Management Research Laboratory and the Dallas regional office compared the current process of demolishing a dilapidated, asbestos-containing structure with a new method called the Alternative Asbestos Control Method (AACM).

The first demonstration project was successfully completed in Fort Chaffee, Ark. Preliminary findings show AACM procedures to be protective for the cleanup of many asbestos-containing buildings.

When it comes to solid waste, most people think of candy wrappers, soda bottles and Styrofoam packing peanuts instead of the house they’re living in or the Target where they shop. However, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that up to 40 percent of U.S. solid waste is construction and demolition (C&D) debris. Even worse, only 35 to 45 percent of this debris actually makes it into properly designated landfills. Some waste is recycled or managed on-site, but at least a third is illegally dumped in non-permitted landfills.

Protecting Wisconsin’s Waters: Better Oversight of Development is Necessary to Prevent Runoff Pollution (PDF; 967 KB)
Source: American Rivers
From press release:

The report, Protecting Wisconsin’s Waters: Better Oversight of Development is Necessary to Prevent Runoff Pollution, finds that weak enforcement practices at the Department of Commerce (which oversees commercial construction sites) allow developers to skip required runoff prevention measures.

“Construction sites can operate in ways that reduce stormwater runoff and protects Wisconsin’s rivers,” said Gary Belan, Associate Director of American Rivers’ Healthy Waters campaign. “Unfortunately, this isn’t happening consistently in Wisconsin.”

These weak enforcement practices will have serious consequences for water quality in areas of the state that are expected to grow and develop rapidly, such as Madison, Milwaukee, Green Bay and central and western communities like Plover, Onalaska and Eau Claire. If development continues at even half the pace as in the past, the amount of built-up land in Wisconsin could increase by about 12 percent by 2020, a construction site one and a half times the size of Milwaukee county.

Commercial & Residential Contractors, Demolition Contractors, Realtors, Property Managers, Building Maintenance Providers, Home Inspectors, Local Building & Zoning Officials & Inspectors are urged to attend. A $35 nonrefundable fee will be charged to cover meal expenses. Workshops will be held from 8:30-4:30 on the following dates and locations:

• January 31, 2007 John A. Logan College, Carterville
• February 1, 2007 Gateway Center, Collinsville
• February 7, 2007 Waubonsee Community College, Sugar Grove
• February 8, 2007 Wilbur Wright Community College, Chicago
• February 21, 2007 Heartland Community College, Normal
• February 28, 2007 Stoney Creek Inn, Moline

For more information or to register and submit payment on-line visit http://www.ienconnect.com/enviro. If you have questions, please contact the Illinois Small Business Environmental Assistance Helpline at 800/252-3998, or send an e-mail to dceo.sbeap@illinois.gov.

Construction sites often generate huge amounts of waste, but not all of the waste should go to landfills.

Sam Bradley, the lead contractor to build the main office for the Homebuilders Association of Greater Springfield, is taking steps to sort construction waste.

Dec. 20–Boston is expected to become the first major city in the nation to require private developers to adhere to a strict set of so-called green-building standards, officials said yesterday.

The standards will be required before permits are issued for all projects of 50,000 square feet or more. The goal is to make new buildings more energy efficient and environmentally friendly, by promoting, for example, use of efficient heating and cooling systems, recycled building materials, and careful separation and disposal of waste.

City officials said they will ask the Boston Redevelopment Authority tomorrow to incorporate the green building standards into municipal zoning laws, following the recommendations of a task force appointed by Mayor Thomas M. Menino in 2003. The standards are expected to be formally adopted by the Boston Zoning Commission in January after a public comment period.

In California, pollution from construction equipment in 2005 was responsible for an estimated 1,132 premature deaths, nearly 183,000 lost work days, 1,086 hospitalizations, and $9.1 billion dollars in annual costs, according to a new report from the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS). Nine out of every ten construction-related health effects in California have occurred in the state`s five most populated air basins.

It’s not easy to recycle C&D debris in Ohio, a state with low tipping fees and a relatively large number of disposal sites. Indeed, at first glance, it is a money loser, until one goes behind the initial numbers and looks at the reasons for the recycling. Then it makes sense, and can even mean more dollars in the future.

A major U.K. construction company has publicly pledged to eliminate its landfill waste by 2010, as it attempts to lead a sea-change in an industry responsible for a third of U.K. waste — three times as much as all householders combined.

This pilot extends the DfD concept to construction of residential housing by convening an experts group to formulate innovative DfD principles, building a case study house, documenting research and results, and promoting the incorporation of these principles into future housing design.

Who: Dan Ahern, EPA Region 4
Pamela Swingle, EPA Region 4
Andrea Korber, CHRC
Brad Guy, Hamer Center for Community Design Assistance at Pennsylvania State University

What: Design for Disassembly Case Study home showcasing innovative housing construction. A presentation will be given about the house, followed by a question and answer session and tour of the house.

When: 10:00 a.m. to noon, Saturday, June 3rd
Where: 71 Boulevard
Atlanta, GA 30312

For more information, please visit the EPA Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response Innovations web site at www.epa.gov/oswer/iwg or the Community Housing Resource Center web site at www.chrcatlanta.org.