The GLRPPR Blog

It’s that time of year again. As students go back to school to focus on the three Rs, school districts and technical assistance providers may want to focus on the two Es (energy efficiency). The Great Lakes Regional Pollution Prevention Roundtable (GLRPPR) has developed a Topic Hub on Energy Efficient Schools and Students that describes energy efficient practices and research available to schools and introduces resources that support changes in operations, maintenance, and behavior. Numerous ways exist to reduce escalating energy costs and this Topic Hub assembles guidelines and comprehensive energy programs, identifies educational efforts and case studies, and provides examples of best practices for schools. A “Curricula” section identifies energy related instructional materials and standards-linked K-12 curricula for classrooms.

New resources are continuously added to the Hub’s “Complete List of Links.” If you would like to suggest links for the hub or have other comments, please contact Joy Scrogum.

See the main Topic Hub menu on the GLRPPR web site for other Hubs maintained by GLRPPR and other Pollution Prevention Resource Exchange (P2Rx) centers.

The Great Lakes Regional Pollution Prevention Roundtable (GLRPPR) has developed a Topic Hub on Sustainable School Design that addresses many areas, including: indoor air quality; energy consumption and options; construction materials; education materials; water use; waste management; transportation; community interaction; landscaping and the building envelope. It draws upon the myriad resources available to school administrators, school boards, and community planners with the hope that these tools will guide the design of more optimally sustainable schools. The Topic Hub deals with the big issues of construction and retrofitting, siting and commissioning, and actual design of new and remodeled schools. Pollution prevention opportunities and alternative technologies that include lighting, acoustics, air quality, and well-being needs for students and school staff for a healthy and safe learning environment, are presented. Case studies and a glossary of terms are also provided, as well as a “Curricula” section that focuses on teacher training, classroom curricula for grades K-12, college and graduate level programs, community outreach, student-led community projects, and administrator education related to sustainable development and building design.

New resources are continuously added to the Hub’s “Complete List of Links.” If you would like to suggest links for the hub or have other comments, please contact Joy Scrogum.

See the main Topic Hub menu on the GLRPPR web site for other Hubs maintained by GLRPPR and other Pollution Prevention Resource Exchange (P2Rx) centers.

As the old song goes, “I’ve been one poor correspondent/I’ve been too, too hard to find” of late.

But better late than never — so here are my slides on Green Chemistry (and especially, Green Chemical Engineering) from the Region 5/7 P2 Roundtable meeting in Omaha.

And, as well, here are some photos from the event.

Did you know you could rate the usefulness of the answers provided in the GLRPPR Help Desk Archive? Just click on the “View Answer” link for any question in the archive. Below the response displayed, there will be a prompt saying “Was this answer helpful to you?” and you may click “yes” or “no.” Note that if you would like to add to or comment upon the information provided in the archived answer, you can click the word “Comments” at the bottom of the response and fill out a simple online form to submit your comment. This is your opportunity to share information about a resource that you’re aware of, but which wasn’t included in the archived answer, to say how you used the information provided, or to simply thank our Help Desk Librarian for the great info.

Remember that submitting a pollution prevention related question to the Help Desk Librarian is easy–just fill out the online form and submit it. You’ll get an hour of free literature and Internet searching by a professional librarian and a response within a week that will provide a great start for exploring the topic you’ve inquired about. Archived Help Desk questions and answers are also integrated into relevant Sector Resources on the GLRPPR web site.

If you have questions or would like further information about the GLRPPR Help Desk, contact Laura Barnes.

For those of us who live in the Great Lakes Region, it’s the time of year when snow and ice set the scene. Visions of a winter wonderland may be inspiring you to participate in any number of wintry recreational activities, including skiing, ice skating, snowmobiling, etc. Before you join in any reindeer games, however, you may want to take a moment to consider how P2 applies. Here are some resources to help you out.

• Ski Areas Topic Hub: Developed and maintained by the Peaks to Prairies Pollution Prevention Information Center, this P2Rx Topic Hub provides P2 information for ski area operations managers and technical assistance providers.
• Clean Snowmobiles Topic Hub: Another great resource from the folks at Peaks to Prairies, this guide discusses the pollution and wastes associated with snowmobile operation, more environmentally-friendly snowmobiles, and what snowmobile dealers, tour operators, fleet managers and enthusiasts can do today to prevent pollution from their snowmobiles.
• GLRPPR’s Outdoor Recreation Sector Resource includes a subcategory devoted to Ski Areas. The Tourism/Leisure Sector Resource may also provide helpful information if you’re traveling to a resort.
• The GLRPPR Help Desk Archive includes a question and answer related to how to make an ice arena more energy efficient.
• A recent post from Treehugger discusses an environmental scorecard for U.S. ski resorts provided by the Ski Area Citizens Coalition.
• Check out the web site for Crystal Mountain resort in Michigan. This ski area has a chairlift called the Crystal Clipper that is powered by wind energy.
• The USDA Forest Service provides Ski Area Best Management Practices (BMPs).
• The Green Room is a database of ski area environmental programs and practices provided by the National Ski Areas Association.
• Protect Our Winters (POW) is a non-profit organization that focuses on global warming and the winter sports community.
• Venture Snowboards and Arbor Snowboards are a couple of snowboard manufacturers that use sustainably harvested materials and donate portions of their profits to conservation efforts.

GLRPPR has developed two new school-related Topic Hubs as part of the P2Rx Topic Hub project. Before any Topic Hub is published, topical experts review its narrative portions for accuracy and completeness.

“Energy Efficient Schools and Students” describes energy efficient practices and research available to schools and introduces resources that support changes in operations, maintenance, and behavior. Numerous ways exist to reduce escalating energy costs and this Topic Hub assembles guidelines and comprehensive energy programs, identifies educational efforts and case studies, and provides examples of best practices for schools.

“Sustainable School Design” addresses many areas, including: indoor air quality; energy consumption and options; construction materials; education materials; water use; waste management; transportation; community interaction; landscaping and the building envelope. It draws upon the myriad resources available to school administrators, school boards, and community planners with the hope that these tools will guide the design of more optimally sustainable schools. The Topic Hub deals with the big issues of construction and retrofitting, siting and commissioning, and actual design of new and remodeled schools. Pollution prevention opportunities and alternative technologies that include lighting, acoustics, air quality, and well-being needs for students and school staff for a healthy and safe learning environment, are presented.

If you’re interested in reading the narrative portions of these hubs and providing some voluntary feedback, please contact Joy Scrogum or Bob Iverson. We’re looking for 2-4 experts to evaluate each of these new hubs; one person may evaluate both hubs if they desire. If you are selected to review the hubs, we’ll contact you with a link to the information you’ll need to read and further instructions. Your name will be included in the “Acknowledgments” section of the final published Topic Hub as a “Technical Reviewer.” See the Acknowledgments section of the Pollution Prevention for Arts Education Topic Hub for an example.

Our greatest asset is the technical expertise of our members and their willingness to share their knowledge with colleagues throughout the region. We appreciate your input and look forward to working with those selected to review these new resources.

In May, GLRPPR announced the new P2 Search tool, designed to search several different pollution prevention (P2) related web sites simultaneously. Now we’re pleased to report that the total number of sites currently included in this search engine is 45. GLRPPR Help Desk Librarian Laura Barnes has added the “GreenBiz” family of web sites (www.greenbiz.com, www.greenerbuildings.com, www.climatebiz.com and www.greenercomputing.com), as well as OSHA, CDC’s National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences to this customized Google search tool. The complete list of sites included in P2 Search is available at http://www.glrppr.org/search/p2_search_list.cfm. If you have suggestions for other web sites you think should be included in P2 Search, contact Laura Barnes.

We appreciate feedback on P2 Search. Our thanks go out to Harmony Madill of Environment Canada’s Canadian Pollution Prevention Information Clearinghouse (CPPIC), who contacted us recently after trying out P2 Search and noticing that some documents available on CPPIC weren’t showing up in the search results, even though they were showing up in the results of a standard Google search. Laura Barnes did some investigating and discovered that P2 Search was looking at the index of the English version of the CPPIC site (it’s available in English and French, of course), rather than the more generic http://www.ec.gc.ca/cppic (sometimes you can be too specific). Laura remedied the situation by broadening P2 Search to include the entire Environment Canada domain. Nice catch, Harmony!

You can add P2 Search to your own web site or to your customized Google homepage (iGoogle) by following the links and instructions available in the lower right hand corner of the P2 Search homepage. Code is provided for adding the tool to your web site, so if you’re not technically savvy or not authorized to alter your organization’s web site, you’ll need to provide this to your webmaster. If you do this, tell us about it to help us get a feel for how many people are using this option. Happy searching!

The Pacific Northwest Pollution Prevention Resource Center (PPRC) has developed three new Pollution Prevention Resource Exchange (P2Rx) Topic Hubs: P2 for Hospital Sterilizers, P2 for Area Source Categories, and Biotechnology Labs. The Hospital Sterilizer Topic Hub provides information for health care facilities and pollution prevention professionals on the sterilizer ethylene oxide (EtO) and how to reduce its use while providing necessary sterilization capabilities at a health care facility. The P2 for Area Source Categories Topic Hub provides information and tools to facilitate assistance to sources that are themselves small emitters of toxic air pollutants, but collectively comprise 1/4 to 1/3 of all toxic air emissions. The Biotechnology Labs Topic Hub provides information for biotech research labs, manufacturers, and P2 professionals on how to reduce toxic material use, wastes and energy and water use in biotech labs.

For more information on the P2Rx Topic Hubs, and to see a complete list of available Topic Hubs, see the GLRPPR web site.