Region 6, ZEROWASTE (Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas)

From National P2 Results Data System

The Southwest Network for Zero Waste is a group of environmental professionals dedicated to finding money-saving options for conserving our natural resources. We are a collaborative project of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the University of Texas, and regional environmental agencies. Together we work to identify pollution prevention options for large and small businesses as well as consumers.

Request for Revisions/Additions to the P2 Results Data System

U.S. EPA Region 6

Submitted by the Southwest Network for Zero Waste), September 2007

Regional Roundtable Training and Meeting

The following recommendations are based upon feedback obtained from the Region 6 P2 Roundtable Meeting of March 8, 2007 which was the culmination of several teleconferences. These requests for changes reflect the overall consensus of EPA region 6 programs.

- Overall users found the interface and heuristics easy to use, and had no comments about the look and feel. Zero Waste therefore recommends keeping this navigational scheme.

- Region 6 P2 Programs exert a tremendous effort to collect cost savings data from the businesses that participate in their programs. There is currently no place to put cost savings from a project.

We strongly suggest you allow programs to enter cost savings by project

- We would like to turn off cost calculators, or label estimated costs very clearly as estimated savings. - More guidance needs to be given on what time period the data represents. Our regional roundtable noted that there are three ways to interpret the year started/ended

1. Year P2 Project started/ended

2. Year project started/ended by the facility as a result of the

3. Year data collected

As a group we agreed to enter the year the data was collected.

- Some members wanted to have the abilty to display the data from their individual programs and projects publicly. For instance, the project input form would have a checkbox that allowed users to select “display for public”. The summary sheet would then have, for example, a summary of New Mexico’s Green Zia programs and a summary of the data for a series of workshops.

Suggestions from one or more programs

The following suggestions are based on feedback received from users as the Zero Waste Network assisted them with input of their regional data.

- Level 3: Gasoline saved

- Level 3: Use BTU’s not Therms

- Level 3: Solid Waste is usually measured in Cubic Feet

- Level 3: A field to capture regulatory reduction as a result of P2 (may be level 2)

- There was a general consensus that a set of converters to help with Tons/pounds, or KwHr to therms etc. Would be helpful

- Level 3: Gallons of wastewater discharged to POTW’s

- Level 3: Include a field for TRI Releases and Transfers, some programs only have data on total TRI releases and transfers. This is probably uniqe to our region, but important for them to track.

- Edit Regional Project information not functional.

- Level 3: Track Highly Reactive VOC’s (HRVOC’s)

Suggestions from Zero Waste Network

- Administrators should be able to enter data for other programs or edit the data without going through their login function. Often a program sends the data, and we have to enter it.

- P2 Plans are probably a level 2 activity since they involve a behavior from the company

- If built in converters are not possible, we should link to a consistent place for conversion. For instance, on solid waste, we should use a consistent factor for converting tons to cubic feet.

- Should give administrator privileges to edit project data for customers

- Should log who made the changes/updates and when.

- Allow users to create their own password/login, and enter data which is held for review similar to work Prabin did on RENEW.