Pollution Prevention and Resource Conservation

In today’s fast paced, “disposable” society, every home, business and governmental agency generates massive amounts of waste. Products cost a price to purchase and again to be disposed of. Preventing waste in the manufacturing marketing of products, and altering the way we make purchases and perform tasks, therefore, can reduce waste and operational costs. Manufacturing and packaging products in such a way as to have a minimal impact to the environment is the first vital step to preventing pollution. But consumers also have the opportunity and the responsibility to reduce waste by practicing environmentally conscious procurement minimizing the handling, treatment, and disposal costs associated with waste. Purchasing products that are durable and long lasting, free of toxic materials and excessive packaging, and are able to be reused and/or recycled can drastically reduce waste.

Operational procedures can also be assessed and revised to further optimize resource efficiency and cost savings. Duplex printing and electronically mailing reports and correspondences, for instance, can significantly reduce the amount of paper, ink, toner and electricity consumed. Such significant reductions in waste will in turn lower operating expenditures. Therefore, organizations that assess their waste stream, identify pollution prevention measures, prioritize prevention goals, establish performance measures and implement a pollution prevention (P2) strategy demonstrate responsible and efficient environmental and fiscal management. Several Federal mandates have sparked multiple P2 initiatives.

The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA)

In order to encourage the use of materials recovered through recycling and help reduce waste produced, Congress directed government agencies to increase their purchases of recycled-content products. The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) and Executive Order 13101 encourage the development of comprehensive procurement guidelines and policies. Affirmative environmental procurement, or “green” purchasing, promotes the use of materials recovered from solid waste. Such policies and programs identify products that are or can be made with recovered materials. They also recommend organizational procedures for buying products with the highest recovered material content level practicable. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Comprehensive Procurement Guidelines (CPG) lists 650 recycled-content products currently available.

But green purchasing includes more than just the acquisition of recycled content products. Green Procurement includes the purchasing of environmentally preferable products and services, biobased products, energy- and water-efficient products, alternate fuel vehicles, products using renewable energy, and alternatives to hazardous or toxic chemicals.

The Executive Order 13101 defines environmental preferable products or services as "...products or services that have a lesser or reduced effect on human health and the environment when compared with competing products or services that serve the same purpose.” Because Americans spend about 90 percent of their days indoors, poor indoor air quality resulting from toxic building materials, household/office furniture and supplies can negatively affect occupant health. By choosing non-toxic cleaning products, or “green” cleaners, for instance, homes and office environments can be both comfortable and safe. Green building supplies are non-toxic, and low in volatile organic compounds.

These mandates also address increasing the amount of waste being recovered and recycled. The Initiative to Promote Environmentally Benign Adhesives (IPEBA) resulted when the U.S. Postal Service introduced self-adhesive stamps. Ordinary mailing labels, self-sealing envelopes, and other adhesive-coated products are not recycled because the glue can clog recycling machinery or cause weaknesses in the paper that cause it to break during the manufacturing process. The time it takes to clear jammed equipment and dispose of the waste costs American business an estimated $800 million annually. The IPEBA is developing environmentally preferable mailing labels, envelopes, and other adhesive products that will improve the ability for office paper to be recycled and greater recovery of high-fiber content paper stock. Some products using benign adhesives are already available.

The Farm Security and Rural Investment Act, (FSRIA)

The Farm Security and Rural Investment Act, (FSRIA), better known as the Farm Bill, mandates that federal agencies purchase innovative biobased products. Biobased products are defined as commercial or industrial products (other than food or feed) that are composed of biological products or renewable domestic agricultural materials (including plant, animal, and marine materials) or forestry materials. The citrus-based cleaners and straw board wall panels are an example of all biobased products already produced and marketed.

Biobased industrial products that are produced from renewable plant and animal sources are more environmentally benign than their petroleum based counterparts in that they are biodegradable as well as recyclable. Biobased products are intended to be domestically produced in order to support the U.S. economy, in particular, farmers and rural communities. They also will reduce our country’s dependency on foreign energy. In Maryland, 14% of the residential electricity demand in the state could be generated using biomass fuels. Products for which biobased counterparts are being developed include:

The U.S. Department of Defense prepared a Model Green Purchasing Plan covering all of the components of the Federal green purchasing program. OFEE encourages others to use DoD's plan as a model for preparing their own plans.

Green Building Executive Orders

The Federal and State governments both have mandates that their require agencies to design and construct buildings with more sensitivity to waste reduction, natural resource conservation and environmental impact. One of the biggest environmental problems today is the consumption of fossil fuels, resulting in air pollution, water, and soil pollution. Automobiles and factories are the most obvious fossil fuel perpetrators, but buildings consume more than half the energy used worldwide. Decisions made during the design and construction of a building will affect the environmental performance of that building for decades. An integrated design approach can often take advantage of energy savings that become feasible when the interaction between separate building elements, such as windows, lighting, and mechanical systems, are considered. Green Building (link) incorporates high levels of insulation, passive solar orientation and natural lighting, as well as high-performance windows. Environmental design minimizes cooling loads through careful building design, glazing selection, and landscaping. Renewable energy resources are utilized to meet energy demands and the installation of energy-efficient mechanical equipment, lighting, and appliances ensures efficiency and long term cost savings.

As long as the durability or structural integrity of a building is not compromised reducing the surface area of a building will reduce energy consumption and cost. Measure that save energy and materials include minimizing the overall building footprint, simplifying the building geometry, and designing buildings for efficient use of space in dimensions that optimize materials and reduce cut-off waste.

Land use decisions should be environmentally sensitive to air, water and soil quality and conservation, and habitat protection. Green Building views the design of the entire site, not just the building, and attempts to have minimal environmental impact by incorporating non-toxic, locally available/produced building materials. Standard construction uses materials that have been extracted from the ground or harvested from forests and are then treated with ozone-depleting HCFCs and VOCs, which continue emitting pollutants long after construction is complete. The manufacturing of these building products has consumed energy and created pollution. In addition, there are certain building materials that have significant environmental impacts associated with disposal. Green Building avoids the use of materials that generate a lot of pollution during manufacture or use, and generally uses materials with low embodied energy (the energy used in resource extraction, manufacturing, and shipping). Green Products may also include products made from waste or recycled materials, or salvaged from deconstruction sites.

Some architects and engineers concerned with environmental sensitivity are now employing a variety of strategies to limit the environmental impact of building construction. Among these solutions is the reuse of existing buildings through adaptive reuse, which is a form of recycling on an architectural scale. For new construction, architects can better control the use of materials and reduce waste by utilizing materials that require little energy to produce and ship, are renewable, modular and prefabricated.

Before the development of efficient artificial lighting, heating, and cooling systems in the 20th century, access to fresh air and daylight was a primary determinant of building design and orientation. In the last fifty years buildings have increasingly relied on mechanical systems for their light and air. Some contemporary architects, however, are again promoting natural systems. Natural ventilation and illumination are now becoming more widely accepted as architects and engineers develop advanced techniques for providing natural air-conditioning in buildings of unprecedented size in the hottest of climates, as well as reviving older, forgotten strategies.

Greenery inside and outside of buildings is a crucial part of the cycle of water consumption and waste. Understanding this relationship is important, as architects attempt to curb water consumption, reduce waste water, and use natural plant materials to mitigate the impact buildings have on their surroundings. Large buildings can consume millions of gallons of water a day, while during a single rain storm millions of gallons can be lost, as untreated water runs off into sewers or the ground. Engineers and architects are now collaborating to develop ways of using this run-off as undrinkable "gray" water in sinks and toilets. Greenery cleans our air by converting carbon dioxide into oxygen, and cleans our water by filtering run-off water before it is released into the surrounding environment.