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Thank you for celebrating P2 week with EPA! We had a blast sharing pollution prevention resources and success stories on @EPAChemSafety on Twitter and the EPA P2 webpage.
In this issue:
Upcoming Webinars
North Carolina DEQ’s Environmental Stewardship Initiative (ESI) Annual Conference
Date: October 4-7, 2021, 9:30 a.m. – 11:30 a.m. EDT, 1:30 p.m. – 3:30 p.m. each day
Description: The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ), an EPA P2 grantee, will host the 2021 ESI annual conference virtually this year. The conference will cover P2 related topics such as sustainable purchasing, EPA’s Safer Choice program, green labs, industrial stormwater, sustainable packaging, auditing waste vendors (with focus on hazardous waste) and more. View the agenda for the full list of sessions.
Creating Sustainable Processes by Implementing Lean Methodology
Date: October 7, 2021, 3 p.m. – 4 p.m. EDT
Description: This webinar will provide an overview of Lean principles and methods to eliminate non-value-added activities and waste in business processes. Speakers will demonstrate how Lean principles have been used to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and other waste and describe how Lean manufacturing can be utilized to reduce, reuse, and recycle material resources. This webinar is sponsored in part by EPA’s P2 Program and East Carolina University’s Center for Sustainable Energy and Environmental Engineering.
Speakers:
- Merwan Mehta, Professor, East Carolina University College of Engineering and Technology
- Jinkun Lee, Assistant Professor, East Carolina University College of Engineering and Technology
America’s Most Energy-Efficient Plants Webinar Series
Date: October 13, 2021, November 17, 2021, and February 9, 2022, Noon EDT/EST
Description: This webinar series will provide an inside look at how ENERGY STAR certified plants – the most energy-efficient manufacturing plants in the nation – have achieved top performance. Learn from energy managers what it took to improve or maintain energy performance at these facilities. The series will take place throughout fall 2021 and will focus on three sectors: cement and glass, paper and petroleum, and bakeries.
Program Updates
New P2 Awards Program Launched in EPA Regions 4 and 8
EPA Regions 4 and 8 have announced new P2 regional awards programs to recognize organizations and companies that have shown excellence and innovation in P2 practices. The programs aim to highlight P2 success stories to encourage others to consider implementing P2 approaches. Government agencies, EPA grantees, contractors and cooperative agreement recipients are not eligible to apply, however they may nominate a business or organization to be considered for an award. A compliance screening will be conducted for all eligible award applications. These are annual, voluntary, and non-monetary award programs. For additional information visit the Region 4 P2 awards webpage or the Region 8 P2 awards webpage. Applications for both awards will be accepted through October 19, 2021.
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EPA Launches New Webpage on P2 Financing
EPA has published a new webpage with information on financing P2 interventions. Funding for P2 projects can be challenging because they often require upfront costs with potential savings accruing over time. The new webpage includes P2 financing tips and links to important financing resources.
Safer Choice 2021 Partner of the Year Winners Announced
In case you missed it, EPA announced the 2021 Safer Choice Partner of the Year Winners during P2 week. EPA recognized 33 Safer Choice Partner of the Year award winners across 16 states and the District of Columbia for achievement in the design, manufacture, selection, and use of products with safer chemicals.
Grantee Highlights
Berkeley Green Chemistry Students Bring their Expertise to Industry and Government
Students from the University of California, Berkeley’s Center for Green Chemistry (BCGC) are working with the public and private sectors to advance safer chemical substitutes. The work is part of the Greener Solutions/Greener Partnership program, a multi-disciplinary graduate course funded by an EPA pollution prevention grant, where students are trained in chemical alternatives and chemical hazard assessment, and then work with companies and government agencies to apply their research. In this school year, the students investigated safer substitutes for Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in carpets, rugs and packaging. Eight students have been placed as interns. One intern project involved developing and testing a method for removal of PFAS from recycled carpet, and another intern project focused on creating algae-based, biodegradable single-use plastic bags.
 This summer, BCGC hosted a symposium at the 2021 Green Chemistry and Engineering Conference entitled “The PFAS-Free Future: Greener Solutions for a Circular Economy,” which highlighted opportunities for greener alternatives to PFAS in food and product packaging and carpet treatments, as well as opportunities for feasible interventions for PFAS destruction at the end-of-use phase of the carpet lifecycle, and the emerging issue of PFAS in building materials.
Nevada Green Business Program Builds on P2 Technical Assistance from Across the Nation
The Nevada Green Business Program (NVGBN), which is funded by EPA, was launched in early 2019 and is the state’s first and only program of its kind. The program uses the GreenBizTracker, a web-based software program developed by the California Green Business Network, to tap into the experiences of other P2 programs. The GreenBizTracker gives programs around the nation the ability to track and collect data on green businesses and share their experiences and best management practices.
“On-boarding a new P2 program in Nevada was made much easier with the support of P2 programs from other states," said Donna Walden, President of greenUP!, the organization that co-founded NVGBN. In particular, the GreenBizTracker helped NVGBN in its outreach to various manufacturing sectors where P2 activities can be highly technical and sector specific.
To date, 20 Nevada businesses have received green business certification. Based on GreenBizTracker data, NVGBN estimates that the P2 actions of these businesses have cut 224,824 pounds of greenhouse gas emissions, saved 1,576,085 gallons of water, diverted 265,950 pounds of solid waste and saved 509,299 kWhs (kilowatt-hours) of energy.
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P2 Helpline
The P2 Hub Helpline offers information and resources about pollution prevention. Please contact the Helpline at p2hub@epa.gov or (202) 566-0799.
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