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Hospitals & Health Networks

Without automated supply chain systems, hospitals tend to overstock inventory items, storage space is wasted, accurate inventory counts are unavailable, stocks get lost or obsolete, and missing up-to-date price lists prevent facilities from maximizing buying potential. Automating the supply chain not only streamlines the flow of materials, it favorably impacts the bottom line, making it an essential step in wiring the enterprise.
Read the complete article at Hospitals & Health Networks

EPA is inviting small businesses, governments, and not-for-profit organizations to participate in two Small Business Advocacy Review Panels to establish standards for vehicle emissions and update emission standards for refineries. The first panel will propose standards for vehicles and gasoline, and changes to fuel certification for all categories of gasoline-powered highway vehicles and nonroad engines and equipment. The second panel will develop emissions standards for petroleum refineries for multiple pollutants, including greenhouse gases. Self-nominations must be received by May 16.  For more information, go to  http://www.epa.gov/sbrefa/tier3.htm and http://www.epa.gov/sbrefa/refinery.htm

The educational system in the United States once ranked among the best in the world, but the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) most recent statistics show the US produced only average proficiency scores when compared against other countries in science, reading, and math.  We now have a unique opportunity to regain our practice of effective teaching and prepare our youth for a rapidly changing future by incorporating environmental sustainability and social responsibility into all aspects of our educational system.

A positive example for how to develop sustainability pedagogy can be found at The Cloud Institute for Sustainability Education.  This New York City based non-profit has developed a holistic approach that involves the individual student along with his or her classroom, school, and community.  Known as Education for Sustainability (EfS), this learner-centered method works with the primary influences in the lives of students, knowing that true, long-term change is most easily attained when nearly all major influences support the new vision.  The idea that a person’s surroundings will have to transform in order to support the much needed true shift in our cultural values is a powerful concept and exactly what will be required.  Just as important is the Cloud Institute’s distinction as to the focus of their work.  They are involved in “educating for sustainability, rather than about sustainability.”

While organizations like The Cloud Institute are focused solely on educating for sustainability, others include environmental protection as one piece of a larger mission.  The Marion Institute works with communities, schools, and individuals on green economics and environmental education in addition to health, healing, and spirituality.  They have launched four Seed to Table programs that link classroom experiences with the time children spend in the garden.  The Marion Institute also aids schools in developing composting programs and providing field trip opportunities to visit local farms and green industries.

Read the complete article at Environmental Leader

 

You are probably already aware that recycling and composting provide many environmental benefits. But did you know that diverting recyclable and compostable materials from the waste stream can lead to significant greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reductions? In fact, within California, Oregon, and Washington, recycling or composting many of the commonly found items in the disposed waste stream could reduce GHG emissions by more than 32 MMTCO2e, (million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent), the equivalent of taking 6.3 million cars off the road for a year.

We are pleased to share this finding from a new report, “Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions through Recycling and Composting,” produced by the West Coast Climate and Materials Management Forum, an EPA-led partnership of western city, county, state, and tribal governments.

Recycling and Composting from a Climate Perspective

This landmark study identifies the top ten materials in California, Oregon, and Washington with the greatest potential for reducing GHG emissions if diverted from landfill disposal through recycling and composting. The analysis, carried out using EPA’s Waste Reduction Model (WARM) and statewide disposal characterization data, reveals that there are common materials in all three states that promise the greatest emissions reduction potential. These four priority material categories include: carpet, core recyclables, dimensional lumber, and food scraps.

Although recycling is an established practice in many West Coast communities, this report shows that further progress can be made by diverting greater quantities of materials currently recycled or composted, and by establishing new programs for materials such as carpet and dimensional lumber. The report offers current information about successful and innovative local programs, and resources to help you reach your goals. Approaching recycling and composting from a climate perspective challenges many of our assumptions.  We hope that the report stimulates new thinking and help you find new directions in your work.

This report shows that recycling and composting also contributes significantly to the green economy. Recycling or composting just half of core recyclables (corrugated containers, office paper, aluminum cans, newspaper, magazines, PET and HDPE containers, and steel cans) and food scraps currently in the three-state waste streams would yield almost $1.6 billion in additional salaries and wages, $818 million in additional goods and services produced, and $309 million in additional sales across the West Coast.

At a time when limited resources are available for meeting multiple urgent policy goals, programs that focus on recycling and composting these priority material types can deliver emissions reductions and contribute to climate action goals, while producing other more widely accepted benefits such as resource conservation, cost savings, job creation and economic development.

We hope you find this report interesting.  Please share it with your colleagues and tweet about your favorite facts. For more information, or to learn about how to become involved in the Forum, contact call or email Ashley Zanolli at EPA Region 10, 206-553-4425.

Thank you for your support and for your positive contribution to climate change mitigation and the green economy through recycling and composting.

>> Read the Full Report

Oversized AC, Screwed-up Manual J, ENERGY STAR HVAC Tirade!

By: The Green Building Inspector

I was checking some REM/Rate files for our HERS raters yesterday, mostly submitted for ENERGY STAR homes. I’ve come to expect Manual J heating and cooling load calculations submitted along with the files to be less than perfect. Mostly, I accept them because they’re close enough.

Yesterday, though, I received a Manual J to go along with a file for an ENERGY STAR home that was beyond the pale. It was egregiously horrific. It was spectacularly sordid. It did come close to meeting the ENERGY STAR Version 2 requirements for Manual J (tight or semi-tight infiltration and correct design temperatures), but whoever put this one together was singularly devious in his efforts to justify the oversized air conditioning systems he wanted to install.

Yeah, he did the usual things to fabricate extra cooling load, but when that wasn’t enough, he resorted to one trick that’s not used nearly as often as it might be. Keep reading, my friend, and I’ll let you in on his secret.

One of the first things I do when checking to see if a cooling system might be oversized is to look at the ratio of conditioned floor area (in square feet) to the cooling capacity (in tons). ENERGY STAR and other high performance homes usually come in at about 1000 square feet per ton or more. The house I built was about 2000 square feet per ton.

A lot of HVAC contractors, though, don’t do Manual J sizing calculations but instead rely on rules of thumb. Mostly they use 500 to 600 square feet per ton. This house came in at 368 square feet per ton! That’s ridiculous, especially for a house in Charlotte, NC.

When I went into the reports, here are the problems I found that are typical of bad Manual J’s:

• They put 6 people in the calculation when this house should have had 4. (It should be the number of bedrooms plus one.)
• The HERS rater calculated that the house had 184 square feet of window area; the Manual J had 383 sf.
• The HERS rater used a window U-value of 0.32; the Manual J had 0.53. (Lower is better.)

Those three items alone inflated the cooling load sigificantly. Not enough for this contractor, though. Evidently he really wanted to install a 2.5 ton air conditioner for the upstairs zone, yet after all those shenanigans, the Manual J result was only 1.5 tons. So, what did he do to get that extra ton to show up in the Manual J? He could have gone in changed wall insulation or duct leakage or any number of other parameters, but there was an easier way.

Manual J calculates the sensible and latent loads separately and adds them together for the total load in Btu/hour. The sensible load is how much cooling you need to do to bring the temperature down, and the latent load is how much cooling you have to do to bring the humidity down. If you take the sensible load and divide it by the total load (stick with me here – we’re almost there), you get what’s called the Sensible Heat Ratio, or SHR.

The Manual J report often submitted shows the total load (sensible plus latent), but it also shows what they call the required total capacity of the equipment at a particular SHR. Whoever does the Manual J can override the default SHR of 0.75, and that changes the required capacity. Most air conditioning equipment comes with an SHR in the 0.7 to 0.75 range.

The crafty calculator who completed this Manual J figured out that by adusting the SHR, he could get the required capacity to equal what he wanted to install. In this case, he needed 0.53 SHR to get his 2.5 tons. Can you even get an air conditioner with 0.53 SHR?

Come on, HVAC guys! Do it right! If you can’t do this for ENERGY STAR Version 2, you don’t have a chance with ENERGY STAR Version 3, which is much harder.

Gwen Migita, Las Vegas Sun

The Public Utilities Commission of Nevada will decide this month if NV Energy’s proposed energy efficiency projects will be approved. State lawmakers will also be considering a bill that would establish energy efficiency standards for appliances.

Caesars Entertainment’s sustainable practices show that investments in energy efficiency are worth it for the environment and for everyone’s bottom line.

In 2003, Caesars Entertainment created a companywide program dedicated to energy efficiency and resource conservation. Over the years, the company has invested more than $62 million in various energy-saving strategies, which altogether have reduced energy use of the company’s operations by 170 million kilowatt-hours, enough to power 16,000 average homes each year.

This reduction in energy use is also saving the company $20 million a year on utility bills. This is money that is now being invested in making our business stronger and more competitive, rather than being spent on unnecessarily higher energy bills. On top of the savings, our efforts have also earned us numerous environmental leadership awards and industry recognition.

Read the complete article at Las Vegas Sun

 

Agency to host webinar to show how to use the public health data

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today announced improvements to the availability and usability of drinking water data in the Enforcement and Compliance History Online (ECHO) tool. ECHO now allows the public to search to see whether drinking water in their community met the standards required under the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA), which is designed to safeguard the nation’s drinking water and protect people’s health. SDWA requires states to report drinking water information periodically to EPA. ECHO also includes a new feature identifying drinking water systems that have had serious noncompliance.

“Today’s improvements to EPA’s ECHO tool support President Obama’s directive to make it easier for the public to search for and use the information we collect,” said Cynthia Giles, assistant administrator for EPA’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance. “Improved access to information about our nation’s drinking water is critical for communities, nonprofit organizations, public water suppliers, regulators and industry that all have a stake in ensuring the water in our communities is safe and healthy to drink.”

The new Safe Drinking Water Act information on EPA’s website provides:

– Users with information about whether their drinking water has exceeded drinking water standards.
– A serious violators report that lists all water suppliers with serious noncompliance.
– EPA’s 2009 National Public Water Systems Compliance Report, which is a national summary of compliance and enforcement at public drinking water systems.

The serious violators list identifies water systems that have had serious noncompliance due to a combination of unresolved violations. The data in ECHO shows that overall, the number of systems identified as serious violators continues to decrease due to lead agencies, in most cases the states, more efficiently addressing serious noncompliance. Currently, approximately 4 percent of all public water systems are considered serious violators. Through increased oversight and enforcement efforts, EPA will continue to work to reduce the rate of noncompliance and the number of public water systems that are serious violators.

Under the SDWA, water suppliers are required to promptly inform customers if drinking water has been contaminated by something that could cause immediate illness or impact people’s health. If such a violation occurs, the water system will announce the violation and provide information about the potential health effects, steps the system is taking to correct the violation, and the need to use alternative water supplies (such as boiled or bottled water) until the problem is corrected. Systems inform customers about violations of less immediate concern in the first water bill sent after the violation, in a Consumer Confidence Report, or by mail.

EPA’s enforcement goals for clean water include working with states and tribes to ensure clean drinking water for all communities and improving transparency by making facility compliance data available to the public. The release of drinking water violations data in ECHO advances these goals and creates additional incentives for government agencies to improve their reporting of drinking water violations and increase efforts to address those violations.

EPA will host a webinar demonstrating how to use the Safe Drinking Water Act violation information in ECHO on Tuesday, May 17, 2011 at 2 p.m. EDT. The demonstration will show users how to search for information about local water quality, how to compare data by state, and highlight other features of the tool.

Reserve webinar seat: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/787466401
Safe Drinking Water Act search page:  http://www.epa-echo.gov/echo/compliance_report_sdwa.html

The U.S. Department of Energy has released the first in a series of design guide aiming to cut the energy consumption of commercial buildings in half.

The first of the 50% Advanced Energy Design Guides focuses on small and medium-sized office buildings, and is available for free download. The DOE says the guides provide a practical approach to help architects and engineers design buildings that achieve 50 percent energy savings compared to the commercial building energy code used in many areas of the country.

The guidance also supports President Obama’s goal to reduce energy use in commercial buildings 20 percent by 2020, and will help drive demand for energy-saving products made in the United States, the department says.

The guides recommend ways that designers can choose energy efficient designs for daylighting, building envelope assemblies, and heating and cooling systems, among other technologies. They also recommend commonly available equipment.

Read the complete article at Environmental Leader