Posted: July 21, 2014
Source: Environmental Leader.com
Efficiency retrofits of 236 properties showed a combined water and energy savings of $4.3 million over a one-year period, according to research by Bright Power and the Stewards of Affordable Housing.
The research focused on two programs – HUD’s nationwide Green Retrofit Program and the Energy Savers program offered by Illinois’ Elevate Energy and the Community Investment Corporation. One year of pre- and post-retrofit utility bills were collected for 236 properties and analyzed.
TRI – it’s your right to know. For more information about EPA’s Toxics Release Inventory: http://www.epa.gov/tri
The 2013 Toxics Release Inventory preliminary dataset containing the most current TRI data is now available.
You can find out:
What toxic chemicals a particular industrial facility is using
How much is being released into the environment
Whether the facility is recycling or treating any of the toxic chemical waste, or burning any of it for energy recovery
Whether a facility initiated any pollution prevention activities in the most recent calendar year
You can access the data through Envirofacts or downloadable data files on the TRI website. With the Envirofacts TRI Search, it’s simple – just enter a facility name, location, industry sector, or chemical name.
New to TRI? Why not get familiar with some common TRI terms before you start using the data? Or, you can explore a TRI facility to learn about how and where TRI chemicals are used in one type of industry.
Will greener cleaning methods, such as salt-based split stream water technology, replace conventional powders and bleaches?
“Chemical-free” cleaning is something of a trend in the commercial sector, but expense and effectiveness doubts mean it’s not catching on in homes. Photo: Alamy
Randy Reed, deputy assistant director of housekeeping at North Carolina State University, North Carolina’s largest campus, often fretted about the effects of chemicals on the 300 housekeepers as they cleaned. While nobody was ever seriously injured, he fielded several reports of rashes, occasional respiratory problems and headaches, possibly caused by exposure to the harsh smells the cleaners omitted.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration, a government agency, warns of this in its public safety warnings (pdf). Cleaning chemicals, OSHA states, can cause dangerous gases causing headaches, dizziness, wheezing, even lung damage. With this in mind, two years ago, Reed replaced traditional industrial cleaners such as Diversey Glance and Comet Cleaner with Orbio SC 5000 split stream water technology to clean floors, surfaces, even urinals.
This new system uses a salt-based, chemical-free process, where water passes through the system giving it an electrical charge. The solution cleans and sanitizes surfaces leaving it 99% germ free, Reed explains. “On our first trial our hygiene meter monitored the bacteria count on a urinal and found the technology removed as many germs as a regular sanitizer.”
Orbio SC 5000 uses a salt-based process, where water passes through the system giving it an electrical charge. Photo: Courtesy of Orbio
NC State is part of a larger trend in which universities, retailers, sports facilities and large corporations are not just cleaning with greener chemicals, but without chemicals at all.
Companies including Coca-Cola Enterprises in the Netherlands; ISS, one of the world’s largest commercial facilities services providers; and Chapman University, (pdf) one of California’s oldest private universities, have made the switch. Examples include sanitizing facilities with technologies such as steam vapor systems, spray and vac systems using pressurized water to remove and loosen soils along with ozonated and electrolyzed systems using electricity to turn water into a cleaning agent. The use of microfiber cloths and mops, which require only water to remove germs, grime and bacteria also make up the trend.
While industry numbers don’t yet exist, Stephen Ashkin, executive director of The Green Cleaning Network, a non-profit working with corporations to green the cleaning industry, estimates that, based on his client research and surveys, 30% to 50% of corporations and institutions across the US, now clean their facilities with eco-friendly chemical cleaners or cleaners without chemicals at all.
“The professional cleaning industry has changed,” he says. “The newer trend experts are seeing is cleaning without chemicals.” Ashkin believes cleaning products minimizing chemicals will never replace floor finishes, heavy-duty cleaning chemicals or graffiti removers, but this is a “tool in the toolbox for creating a healthy and clean environment while leaving a minimal footprint.”
Defining Chemical-Free Cleaning
The trend is so new that even the description of these products is controversial; while some call them chemical-free, others say eco-friendly. Ashkin rejects the term “chemical-free” cleaning because no cleaning product or device completely avoids chemicals.
“Chemical-free cleaning is a marketing term versus a technical term,” he says. Case in point is companies offering chemical-free cleaning products, such as Tennant, maker of the Orbio systems, which use their own technologies to define “chemical-free.”
OSHA defines green cleaning as products certified by independent organizations as safe to use and less harmful to your health and environment than conventional alternatives such as bleach and ammonia.
Wherever the definition lies, all this means good business for the big players. In April, Tennant posted quarterly results showing growth year-on-year. Other brands including Tursano, maker of the popular Lotus Pro device (similar to the split stream water technology), and the larger company Ecolab also reported positive first-quarter earnings. Makers of chemical free antibacterial microfiber cloths have good customer following as well. Norway-based Norwex, now in multiple markets including Canada, Australia and the US, sells microfiber towels and cloths, microfiber scarf clips for cleaning tablets, glasses and jewellery (instead of toxic sprays and wipes) and dry polyester floor pads for mopping.
But much of this market is in the commercial sector. Based on his client work, Ashkin estimates that residential cleaning remains only around 1-5% of the core eco-friendly and chemical-free cleaning market, probably because the conversion payback is higher for large corporations. Purchasing a chemical-free cleaning device for a commercial space can cost up to $5,000, a worthwhile investment, if used daily. A Lotus Pro split stream water technology cleaning device for your home averages $150 retail, too much for a parent worried about putting food on the table, Ashkin adds. Commercial facilities also have employees to compare costs, and review and analyze the cleaning products they buy, which the household consumer often lacks.
Homemade Chemical Free Cleaning
Another growing trend is Americans making their own cleaning products, with limited chemicals. Senior account supervisor at MMI Public Relations in North Carolina, Jennifer Fair ditched Clorox and other harsh cleaners for recipes she found on Pinterest such as pairing vinegar with baking soda. The vinegar dish soap concoction gets her shower super clean, she says. Other recipes suggest using baking soda, sprayed with water, to clean ovens.
The worst offenders, the study claims, were those labelled as “green cleaners” such as the Simple Green Concentrated All-Purpose Cleaner (labelled as non-toxic and biodegradable) when one of its ingredients is 2-butoxyethanol, a solvent which can cause red blood cell damage and eye irritation. EWG also cites several studies showing pregnant women are more at risk for birth defects when exposed frequently to cleaning chemicals, especially window cleaner and air deodorizer sprays.
Effectiveness of greener cleaning products
Ashkin doesn’t believe home cleaning product recipes work well. “We have a romanticized view that because we can eat it, it’s good for you,” he says.
And can we say split stream chemical-free technologies clean as well as eco-friendly chemicals? Tennant doesn’t know the answer to this question, and Ashkin says it’s too early to know. However, companies are evaluating the technologies, comparing the impact to chemicals and other devices along with the wattage. He suspects the environmental benefits of chemical-free cleaning devices and technology will outshine chemical cleaners.
“Conventional cleaning requires extracting the raw materials, turning these into ingredients, shipping to a formulator who mixes everything into an effective cleaning product before putting the chemicals into packaging (with their own environmental impacts) and finally shipping to the end user. Through green cleaning those impacts go away.”
Debbi McCullough is an independent writer, editor and owner of Hanging Rock Media based in North Carolina.
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More than one-third of all food produced in the US is wasted, according to a survey of consumers’ attitudes conducted by Sealed Air.
The company whose product lines include Bubble Wrap, Cryovac and Diversey commissioned the report to evaluate Americans’ food habits, sustainability practices, and overall awareness of food waste issues.
The study’s key findings show that while there is growing concern and awareness of how much food is wasted in the US, most American consumers still don’t consider their own households to be wasteful or a part of the problem: 67 percent say food waste is a concern; yet only 33 percent say food waste in their home is a concern. Continue reading One-Third of Food Produced Is Wasted, Study Says
Black Rock Solar was a tiny nonprofit back then, cobbled together by a dozen volunteers after the 2007 “burn,” the week long event held in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert where thousands of artists, musicians and creative types gather each August. That year, a solar installation was donated to Burning Man, and the leave-no-trace ethic behind the gathering meant that the volunteers had to find a home for the array once the festival ended. They did — at a local school in Gerlach, Nevada, on the edge of the desert 10 miles from the festival.
That installation was to be the first of many. Armed with fresh experience and knowledge of the state’s rebates and incentives, Black Rock started looking for community organizations that might benefit from low cost, sustainable energy. They also pushed Nevada’s Public Utility Commission to remove a cap limiting incentives to solar installations smaller than 30 kilowatts, opening the door for larger, more visible installations.
WASHINGTON — The price people pay for always-on, around-the-clock Internet connections with modems, cell phones and laptops may be higher than they think.
According to a new report from the International Energy Agency, all of those networked electronic devices are sucking up a whole lot of electricity — mostly just to maintain their Internet connections — generating $80 billion worth of wasted power in 2013.
For the average household, the bill runs to “many tens of dollars per year, per device,” said Maria van der Hoeven, executive director of the Paris-based IEA. “This may not sound like much, but in 2013, the cumulative impact of 14 billion such devices was … unnecessary operation of over 130 mid-sized coal plants producing around 400 terawatt hours of electricity and all the pollution and carbon emissions that goes with it.”
The EPA’s definition of waste treatment can be confusing and potentially costly, so it is important that hazardous waste generators be clear as to what activities might be considered as treatment of hazardous waste, according to Pollution Engineering.
Under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, treating a waste means changing the physical, chemical or biological characteristics of it. Examples of these types of change might be:
