The GLRPPR Blog

Happy Pollution Prevention (P2) Week! Celebrated during the third full week of September every year, P2 Week is a time to reflect on what you and/or your organization are currently doing to promote pollution prevention and sustainability, as well as a prime time to consider what more you could be doing. Check out the National Pollution Prevention Roundtable (NPPR) web site and the US EPA site for more information on activities taking place this week throughout the country; tips for increasing energy efficiency, reducing waste and sustainable practices; and news. (And of course, you can always browse through the online resources on the GLRPPR and P2Rx web sites for more information and best practices specific to your sector.)

In the Great Lakes region, the Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM) and the Indiana Partners for Pollution Prevention (P4P2) will be hosting the 14th Annual Pollution Prevention Conference and Trade Show on Thursday, September 22.

GLRPPR’s sister Pollution Prevention Resource Exchange (P2Rx) center, the Pacific Northwest Pollution Prevention Resource Center (PPRC) is hosting a 20th anniversary banquet for its regional P2 roundtable during P2 Week.  Highlights will include a presentation by Dara O’Rourke, founder of the Good Guide, and former PPRC staff member.

And to kick off P2 Week, P2Rx has announced the launch of the National Sustainable Lodging Network, an online community of sustainable hospitality practitioners and an information clearinghouse to support the work of this community, found online at www.SustainableLodging.org. This site brings lodging operations together with federal, state, local, and tribal sustainable hospitality programs, including environmental agencies, tourism boards, and lodging associations. The goals for the site are to provide forums for sustainable hospitality practitioners to share information on practices and challenges; elevate sustainable hospitality programs and the facilities that participate in them; increase the adoption of sustainable hospitality practices nationwide; and foster innovation in sustainable lodging through the exchange of ideas.

If your organization or community is hosting a special event this week, tell us about it in the comments section of this post.

Jeff Burke presents P2 Champion awards to Dr. Tim Lindsey & Phil Kaplan.

Two people from the Great Lakes region were honored recently as “Pollution Prevention Champions” by the National Pollution Prevention Roundtable. Jeff Burke, NPPR Executive Director, presented the MVP2 awards to Tim Lindsey, Associate Director of the Illinois Sustainable Technology Center, and Phil Kaplan, recently retired P2 Coordinator for EPA Region 5. They were honored for their leadership and innovation in pollution prevention programs.

Congratulations to both Tim and Phil for this well-deserved recognition!

The Illinois Sustainable Technology Center (ISTC) has received a pair of national environmental awards. Awards were received for the Sustainable Electronics Initiative (SEI) and by Dr. Tim Lindsey.

The 2010 Most Valuable Pollution Prevention (MVP2) awards presented by the National Pollution Prevention Roundtable (NPPR) celebrate the successes of innovators in the areas of pollution prevention and sustainability. These prestigious awards were presented recently at a ceremony in Washington, DC.  ISTC is a unit of the Institute of Natural Resource Sustainability at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Click here to read the rest of the article

National Pollution Prevention (P2) Week is in full swing, and it’s a great time to consider and celebrate what your organization or business, and you as an individual, are doing to prevent pollution in the first place. Promoting the idea of eliminating waste before it is even created is obviously one of the major objectives of organizations like the Great Lakes Regional Pollution Prevention Roundtable (GLRPPR).

This year is particularly special, because it marks the 20th Anniversary of the passing of the Federal Pollution Prevention Act (PPA), which established the national policy that pollution should be prevented or reduced at the source whenever feasible. According to the U.S. EPA’s Pollution Prevention (P2) home page, “Pollution prevention (P2) is reducing or eliminating waste at the source by modifying production processes, promoting the use of non-toxic or less-toxic substances, implementing conservation techniques, and re-using materials rather than putting them into the waste stream.” The best way to solve a problem is to revise your actions to prevent the problem from occurring in the first place. Pollution prevention not only protects the environment and public health, it also conveys economic benefits in terms of increased efficiency and lessening the financial burden associated with waste disposal, toxic clean up, and other liability issues.

The following links will help you learn more about P2 Week and some of this year’s celebrations. I encourage you to share what you and/or your organization is doing for P2 Week in the “Comments” section of this post.

Click here to read the rest of the article

Today begins National Pollution Prevention Week (September 15-21 in 2008).  This year’s theme is “Pollution Prevention – Where Sustainable Practices Begin.” Check out U.S. EPA’s P2 Week page (linked to above) for tips on preventing pollution at home, at work, in the garden and on the road. More in depth information is also provided on the environmental benefits of pollution prevention methods and what is being done to prevent pollution within the U.S. EPA itself.

If you’re planning an activity or celebration in honor of P2 Week, or if your organization offers information on its web site promoting P2 Week, tell us about it by using the “Comments” area for this blog post. The comments will serve as a way to promote your events and share ideas and experiences with the rest of the P2 community.

National Pollution Prevention (P2) Week is the third full week in September each year, making it September 17-23 for 2007. Pollution prevention is reduction or elimination of pollution at the source, and involves more efficient use of resources, the substitution of less harmful substances for hazardous ones, and the elimination of toxic substances from production processes. The National Pollution Prevention Roundtable offers tips for preventing pollution at home, work, and school on its web site.

If you’re planning an activity or celebration in honor of P2 Week, or if your organization offers information on its web site promoting P2 Week, tell us about it by using the “Comments” area for this blog post. The comments will serve as a way to promote your events and share ideas and experiences with the rest of the P2 community.

To leave a comment, click on the word “Comments” (proceeded by a number or the word “No” indicating the number of comments currently associated with a post) or “leave a response” that appears at the bottom of this post after the list of categories the entry was posted to. This will take you to a form in which to type your comment. You must be logged in to WordPress (the blog publishing system used to produce the GLRPPR Blog) in order to leave a comment; if you have not commented on a post before, you’ll need to register (It’s free and easy–it just requires filling out an online form to establish a user name and password. You’ll need those to log in anytime you want to submit a comment.).

Michigan DEQ has a section on P2 Week on its web site, including a P2 Week planner and sample resolution, an environmental calendar, and P2 Week posters. The Indiana Partners for Pollution Prevention are hosting the 10th Annual Pollution Prevention Conference and Trade Show during P2 Week, and IDEM will present the Indiana Governor’s Awards for Environmental Excellence during this event. Check the GLRPPR Calendar for other events that are taking place during P2 Week, and if you know of others, share them in the “Comments” section!