The GLRPPR Blog

Learn how to make your organization more “green” at a special workshop Wednesday, June 3 in Indianapolis. In the morning, an information specialist from the Illinois Sustainable Technology Center will present a green business workshop. At this session, you will learn how to save money and improve your organization’s environmental performance through green business practices such as greening the office, green purchasing, activity based cost accounting, greening the supply chain, recycling, and green cleaning/janitorial practices. The training will also cover energy efficiency opportunities associated with common office functions, such as heating/air conditioning, electronic devices, appliances, and lighting.

A participant at an earlier ISTC workshop said she will use the information she learned to transform the athletic supply company where she works. “The facts and figures will help me convince the bosses to switch products and processes. I can show how it’s cost-effective.”

Another participant said the information will help his Developmental Services company to “convert buildings to newer bulbs and ballasts…as well as research and find a vendor to recycle office paper.”

The afternoon will feature a presentation about the Kansas Green Teams. Participants will hear a case study of teams that have brought efficiencies/greening systems into the office and industrial workplace. This program has been especially successful in Green Government projects.

The workshop is being held in connection with the EPA Region 5 and Region 7 Joint Conference at the Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Artin Indianapolis. Participants can attend just the workshop day, or stay for the full conference June 4 & 5. Registration for the workshop alone is only $25.

To register, and for information about the conference speakers, go to http://www.glrppr.org/meetings/Summer2009/.

Region 5/Great Lakes Region Pollution Prevention Roundtable (GLRPPR) has been very fortunate to represent 25% of the National Pollution Prevention Roundtable (NPPR) Board the past few years. Four of the 15 Board members are from Region 5 and include:

• Rich Bossingham, Indiana DEM (at large), rbossing@idem.in.gov
• Robert Jackson, Michigan Dept of Energy, Labor, and Economic Growth (Region 5 representative and Board chair), jacksonr1@michigan.gov
• Cindy McComas, MnTAP, University of Minnesota (at large), mccom003@umn.edu
• Gary Miller, ISTC, University of Illinois (emeritus/past chair), gmiller@istc.illinois,edu

However, three of these four individuals have terms ending in September 2009 and the NPPR Board needs new pollution prevention blood to serve three-year terms. The NPPR is the largest membership organization in the United States devoted solely to pollution prevention. The mission of the NPPR is to provide a national forum for promoting the development, implementation, and evaluation of efforts to avoid, eliminate, or reduce pollution at the source.

The Board is currently accepting nominations for Region 5 and at-large candidates. Regional Board candidates must be a representative of a local, state or tribal governmental organization. The at-large board positions are open to all voting members in good standing.

The NPPR Board presents fun and challenging opportunities to work nationally on ways to promote and sustain pollution prevention as a fundamental environmental protection strategy that includes involvement with policy, technical, and measurement issues.

Serving on the NPPR Board provides you with opportunities to network, improve leadership skills, be a liaison with your favorite workgroup, and strategize/implement ways to improve NPPR. Board member benefits include networking, leadership opportunities, travel scholarships to the annual Environmental Partnership Summit, ability to set policy and direction of NPPR, the opportunity to contribute on position papers, and being “in the know” on ECOS, EPA, and other national programs and projects.

In return, the Board representatives will participate in monthly conference calls, attend Board meetings in October and May, join a NPPR workgroup or committee, provide views and concerns of NPPR members, and promote NPPR within the Region. The Board term is October 1, 2009, through September 30, 2012.

Please contact any of your Board representatives if you are willing to serve a term on the NPPR Board beginning in October 2009.

“I have served on the Board for four years in a variety of capacities. A highlight has been learning from very bright colleagues about how they “do” pollution prevention in their states and organizations. I have also been able to push my specific interests and get help from others with similar interests. It is gratifying to see the progress we have made and the impact we have as an organization on federal policy, funding for our programs, and in developing new leaders in the pollution prevention movement. We have also been involved in international pollution prevention programs including trips to South Korea, the Middle East, Mexico and Canada. NPPR also has strong, very good staff to work with including Jeff Burke, the Executive Director. Serving as a Director on the NPPR Board has been very valuable to me in more ways than I can count and I recommend it highly. You will be better for it.”

Gary Miller

Institute of Natural Resource Sustainability

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

After demonstrating long-term compliance with environmental laws and voluntarily agreeing to implement continuous improvements, eight new members have been accepted into the Indiana Department of Environmental Management’s (IDEM’s) Environmental Stewardship Program (ESP).

“These businesses are models for other Hoosier companies and show that sound environmental management is good for business,” said IDEM Commissioner Thomas Easterly. “ESP members voluntarily eliminate waste, preserve resources and protect Hoosiers and the environment. They deserve recognition for going beyond the basic requirements of the law.”

This is the third year of the ESP program, and there are 46 members participating in this initiative. ESP’s newest members include:

• Frito-Lay, Inc., Frankfort, Clinton County

Frito-Lay, Inc. has agreed to install water meters at each process point and implement monitoring activities and process controls to optimize water use, thus reducing water use by 82,765,244 gallons by the end of 2009.

• Guardian Automotive Trim, Inc., Evansville, Vanderburgh County

Guardian Automotive Trim, Inc. is committed to reducing natural gas usage in the plating process boiler by 10 percent in its first year of membership as a result of pre-heating the day tank that returns water to the boiler and reducing the amount of time that water has to cool down, thus maintaining a more consistent water temperature.

• Nishikawa Standard Company, LLC – Bremen Facility, Marshall County

Nishikawa Standard Company, LLC – Bremen Facility is committed to reducing its solid waste during its first year of membership by 8,500 pounds by replacing 23 automated paper towel dispensers with 19 highly-efficient electric hand dryers in an effort to eliminate landfill contributions.

• NOF Jasper 11th Avenue, Jasper, Dubois County

NOF Jasper 11th Avenue has agreed to increase the amount it recycles by 26,920 pounds by the end of 2009 with the creation of a new training program for employees and implementing 5S principles to make separating recyclables more visual for employees.

• NOF Santa Claus, Santa Claus, Spencer County

NOF Santa Claus has agreed to increase the amount it recycles by 15,631 pounds by the end of 2009 with the creation of a new training program for employees and implementing 5S principles to make separating recyclables more visual for employees.

• Ottenweller Company, Inc., Fort Wayne, Allen County

Ottenweller Company, Inc. is committed to reducing the amount of propane used in its forklifts by 34,051 pounds, or 30 percent, by improving staging methods and using jacks and carts.

• SAMTEC, Incorporated, New Albany, Floyd County

SAMTEC, Incorporated has agreed to involve all of its employees in reducing their environmental impact by recycling 1,000 pounds of aluminum cans and 1,500 pounds of plastic bottles in the employee cafeteria by the end of 2009.

• Subaru of Indiana Automotive, Inc., Lafayette, Tippecanoe County

Subaru of Indiana Automotive, Inc. is committed to replacing a solvent-borne top coat with a water-borne top coat reducing volatile organic compounds by 202,287 pounds by the end of 2009.

To become an ESP member, a business must maintain an exemplary compliance record, certify that it has adopted and implemented an approved environmental management system, and commit to specific measures for continued improvement in its environmental performance.

ESP members qualify for expedited permit review, flexibility in permitting, reduced reporting frequencies, and coordination of compliance inspections. To maintain ESP membership, companies must report on their environmental initiatives every year and reapply for ESP membership every three years.

For details about the program, visit IDEM’s Web site at www.idem.IN.gov/prevention/esp.

About IDEM

IDEM (www.idem.IN.gov) implements federal and state regulations regarding the environment. Through compliance assistance, incentive programs and educational outreach, the agency encourages and aids businesses and citizens in protecting Hoosiers and our environment.

Lightning storm and brush fire, West Richland, August 7 2008 — #41 in Explore on Aug 15!, originally uploaded by Scott Butner.

Had an interesting experience in the phenomena known as viral media the other day, which I think might have some relevance to the world of P2.

I had taken a series of photos of a rare eastern Washington lightning storm — we don’t get them very often — which I’d posted to my Flickr site. It was sort of a dramatic shot, and not too surprisingly it soon became one of my most visited photos — racking up about 700 views in the first week.

Then, one day last week, someone posted it to the social recommendation site, Digg.com.

In the next 5 hours, it was downloaded 18,000 times. In the next 3 days, it was downloaded nearly 39,000 times — 3 times as often as ALL of my 2,500 other photos combined.

We live in an age where attention spans are short, but once you capture the (internet) public’s attention, you can get a huge amount of focus almost immediately. Problem is, making this happen is almost like lightning — hard to control, hard to predict.

Figuring out how to get the P2 message out on the viral media — places like YouTube, Flickr, and Digg — ought to be the focus of some real attention. Perhaps a workshop session at the next NPPR meeting?

SB

As the web developer and resident “geek” of our office, I’m asked a lot questions regarding technologies that are shaping the web. One of the most common questions I get is “What’s so cool about RSS anyhow?”. While I fancy myself as someone who can speak technology in “Plain English”, the folks at Common Craft have created a video demonstrating simply and effectively why RSS is such a great tool. Check it out below!

Now that you’re an expert on consuming RSS feeds, here are the RSS feeds that GLRPPR offers:

• GLRPPR Blog
• GLRPPR Environmental News
• Sector Resources (Click on a Sector Resource to get the feed)
• The latest Sector Resource documents

If any of you have any additional tips or tricks with regard to RSS feeds, please leave a comment.

PU Mixing station, originally uploaded by Scott Butner.

this is a mixing station at one of the factories we visited here in Busan — this is where polyurethane is mixed with solvent and dyes to the customer’s specifications, then mixed before being sent to the knife coater.

The factory recently installed fume hoods over each mixing station, to reduce vapor concentrations (the solvent mix is a blend of toluene, MEK and DMF — DMF is relatively non volatile (bp around 153 C) but the other two are of course fairly volatile.

Some of the material is sprayed onto the floor and fume hood walls, as it wicks up the impeller shaft and is then scattered about. This creates a clean-up problem as well as some loss of working material.

Perhaps a bigger concern is that the facility emits about 30 tons/mo of solvent vapors which is not recovered. The b.p. range and water miscibility of DMF make this a problematic recovery, but I’d be interested in hearing if anyone’s aware of case studies…..

SB

Busan skyline, originally uploaded by Scott Butner.

Well, the NPPR team (Ken Grimm, Pollution Prevention Resource Center; Tony Cooper, WA Department of Ecology; Thomas Vinson, Southwest Zero Waste Network; and myself) spent a day acclimatizing to Busan, South Korea. We’ll be here all week conducting P2 assessments and training.

Busan is Korea’s 2nd largest city, and while it’s architecture is often uninspired, the setting of the city is beautiful — nestled amongst steep hills that surround a bustling harbor, it is somewhat reminiscent of San Francisco.

Evidence of growth is everywhere. As you can see.

Tomorrow, we’ll be starting our first assessments.

Lunar Eclipse sequence – Feb 20 2008, originally uploaded by Scott Butner.

Couldn’t resist posting this sequence of photos of last night’s lunar eclipse, even though it has absolutely NOTHING to do with pollution prevention or information technology, much less their supposed intersection.

Though I will say that digital photography is a great example of dematerialization, the replacement of a material object with pure information. In “the old days” when I did film photography, I would have needed to go through dozens of pictures, a couple rolls of film, and the associated gallons of rinse water and processing chemicals, to come up with the same image. By working entirely in bits and bytes, I’m left using a small amount of electricity to charge the camera’s batteries.

Have we dematerialized all the products we can? What’s the next big breakthrough that will eliminate the need to make products, much less waste?

SB

Welcome to the GLRPPR Blog–a new service we’re providing to help keep you informed about pollution prevention resources from throughout the Great Lakes region and beyond.

The Great Lakes Regional Pollution Prevention Roundtable (GLRPPR) is a professional organization dedicated to promoting information exchange and networking to pollution prevention (P2) professionals in the Great Lakes regions of the United States and Canada. GLRPPR is a member of the Pollution Prevention Resource Exchange (P2Rx), a national network of regional information centers funded in part by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

The GLRPPR Blog is meant to facilitate and encourage networking and information exchange among P2 professionals and others in the Great Lakes region who are interested in promoting sustainability principles in industry and everyday life. We hope you’ll come to view the blog as a means to stay up-to-date on environmental issues and to share ideas and techniques with your colleagues. Not everyone can come to conferences for direct interaction with their colleagues; let the GLRPPR Blog bring the benefits of such interaction to your desktop.

Read on, and don’t hesitate to leave comments on posts that you find interesting. For further information about weblogs and answers to commonly asked questions about the GLRPPR Blog, see our FAQ page.