2Sustain

Last week, President Obama visited the Daimler Trucks North America (DTNA) manufacturing facility in Mount Holly, North Carolina, where he announced a new $1 billion National Community Deployment Challenge to spur deployment of clean, advanced vehicles in communities around the country.

DTNA is a partner in the Energy Department’s SuperTruck initiative, which is focused on increasing the fuel efficiency of long haul trucks (aka, 18-wheelers) by 50 percent by 2015.

While these particular trucks represent only 4 percent of the on-road vehicles in America, they are responsible for almost 20 percent of the country’s on-road fuel consumption, and this class of vehicle currently consumes more than 30 billion gallons of gasoline each year.

In order to achieve the SuperTruck imitative goal, companies like Daimler are developing and improving a number of vehicle technologies, including engine efficiency, aerodynamics waste heat recovery and hybridization.  Through these types of improvements, the Energy Department estimates fuel economy increases could save long-haul truckers more than $15,000 per truck per year in fuel costs. (In an earlier post, I reported that MIT researchers also have identified significant cost savings for businesses that use electric vehicles to make deliveries on an everyday basis in big cities.) (more…)

In an effort to provide all of us with fundamental information about our communities, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released its annual Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) earlier this month. This analysis provides information on nationwide toxic chemical disposals and other releases into the air, water and land, as well as data on waste management and pollution prevention activities n neighborhoods across the country.

TRI data is submitted annually to EPA and states by multiple industry sectors including manufacturing, metal mining, electric utilities and commercial hazardous waste facilities. Facilities must report their toxic chemical releases to EPA under the federal Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA) by July 1st of each year. In addition, the Pollution Prevention Act of 1990 requires information on waste management activities related to TRI chemicals.

EPA’s analysis for the latest reporting year, 2010, concluded that disposals are higher than the previous two years, but lower than 2007 and prior year totals.

The 2010 TRI data showed that since 2009 there has been: (more…)

Both large emission sources and certain suppliers are now required to report their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)  –and the deadline to submit this data is just around the corner.

Fortunately, the agency has released a new electronic GHG Reporting Tool (e-GGRT) to simplify the process.

EPA’s GHG Reporting Program (GHGRP), launched a year ago (in October 2009), requires the annual reporting of GHG data from large emission sources across a range of 28 industrial industry sectors. Likewise, suppliers of products that would emit GHGs if released, combusted or oxidized are also required to report GHG data.

Under this program, the deadline to submit 2010 reports is September 30, 2011.

The EPA says it expects to receive 2010 GHG data from approximately 7,000 large industrial GHG emitters and suppliers, including power plants, petroleum refineries and landfills. The agency plans to publish non-confidential GHG data collected through the GHGRP by the end of 2011. (more…)

Business today relies on electronic technology. Computers, cell phones, tablet devices and the like are now integral to how we do our jobs.

Ultimately, though, this dependence comes with a heavy cost. Every year, the US alone produces some 2.5 million tons of used electronics, all made from valuable resources such as precious metals and rare earth materials, as well as plastic and glass.

As a global leader in the design, development and consumption of new and improved electronic technologies, shouldn’t we be doing more to curb e-waste and advance a more sustainable approach to the design and manufacture of electronic products?

Fortunately, the US recently took a significant step in that direction.

Late last month, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA),  along with Sprint, Dell and Sony Electronics announced the “National Strategy for Electronics Stewardship,” an exciting new private-public partnership aimed at curbing e-waste, encouraging sustainable electronics lifecycle management and promoting the domestic electronics market.

This new strategy includes the first voluntary commitments made by Dell, Sprint and Sony, and also commits the federal government to take specific actions that will encourage the more environmentally friendly design of electronic products, promote recycling of used or discarded electronics and advance a domestic market for electronics recycling that will protect public health and create jobs.

As outlined in the strategy report, the federal government will take the following steps: (more…)

A new report evaluates job impacts under these two Clean Air Act rules currently being proposed by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA):

• the Clean Air Transport Rule, focused on sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide emissions from 31 targeted states in the East and Midwest and

• the Utility MACT rule which, for the first time, will set limits on hazardous air pollutants such as mercury, arsenic, lead and hydrochloric acid.

The research concluded that the job impacts are positive,  underscoring the significant economic benefits of updating the nation’s power plants.

The report, New Jobs-Cleaner Air: Employment Effects under Planned Changes to EPA’s Air Pollution Rules, prepared for Ceres by Dr. James Heintz of the Political Economy Research Institute at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, finds that these new air pollution rules will provide economic benefits and jobs across much of the United States, concentrated especially in the next five years.

More specifically, the report concludes that: (more…)