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Source: CERES organization

A joint report by Ceres and Sustainalytics

The Road to 2020: Corporate Progress on The Ceres Roadmap for Sustainability assesses how U.S. businesses are progressing on sustainability and uses as a framework, The 21st Century Corporation: The Ceres Roadmap for Sustainability, a guide for integrating sustainability across a company’s entire enterprise. Specifically, it evaluates where 600 large publicly traded companies¹ stand on sustainability issues in terms of governance, stakeholder engagement, disclosure and performance.

REPORT OVERVIEW AND METHODOLOGY

This report evaluates if and how 600 large U.S. companies are meeting many of the expectations outlined in the Roadmap. It is intended to allow companies to assess how they are performing against their peers and to see what businesses are doing across economic sectors. It is not an absolute measure of performance but a relative one. Simply because a company is performing better than its peers with regard to a specific Roadmap expectation does not mean it has fully met that expectation.

Sustainalytics’ environmental, social and governance (ESG) research and analysis platform was leveraged as the basis for The Road to 2020 assessment process. Indicators from the ESG platform were selected as proxies to measure the expectations from the Roadmap, and Sustainalytics also customized the database to include additional indicators that would strengthen the assessment. Industry-specific weightings were assigned to address unique areas of impact and exposure.
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SEATTLE, June 7, 2012 /Environmental Expert/ — Carpet recycling has come to the Northwest. A growing number of businesses, both local and national, are developing processes to move carpet out of the waste stream and into new products.

Recognizing the growing business potential here, the Washington StateRecycling Association (WSRA) is presenting ‘In the Loop: The NW Carpet Recycling Value Chain.’ This business networking event and educational program will take place in Kent at the ShoWare Center on June 21.

More than 100,000 tons of carpet enters the waste stream in Washington annually, and about 98 percent of it goes to landfills. But during the past two years:

• Most carpeting installers are now diverting used carpeting to recyclers
• Over a dozen haulers and sorting facilities have begun handling carpet
• Regional capacity to process used carpeting into its individual components has grown in the region with the expansion of an existing company and opening of two new ones
• A growing number of companies are creating products from the recycled components

The half-day event will include displays and short talks that will highlight the stages of recycling carpet, along with the end products being made from the recycled components.

Among the speakers will be those from:

• Agrestal Designs, which makes tiles from recovered limestone
• Recovery 1, a sorting and processing facility for carpet
• Washington State University’s Materials Engineering Lab, which works with local businesses to improve equipment, processing, and testing of products

Mannington Commercial is the presenting sponsor of the event. Additional sponsors include Division 9 Contract Flooring, Aquafil, Interface, Shaw, and CDL Recycle. Seattle Public Utilities, King County Solid Waste Division and WSRA will host the event.

Registration is limited. To register, please go to www.wsra.net or call 206-244-0311.

The Washington State Recycling Association is a trade organization representing the state’s diverse recycling industry. WSRA ‘Washington Recycles Every Day’ events provide business connections and education throughout the local recycling industry. Additional events are planned around the state during the summer.

SOURCE Washington State Recycling Association

Los Angeles became the largest city in the nation and the latest in a string of California cities — including San Jose, San Francisco and Long Beach — to approve a ban on plastic bags at supermarket checkout lines. Clean-water advocates estimate Californians use 12 billion plastic bags a year and that less than 5% of the state’s plastic bags are recycled.

View Full Story From Los Angeles Times

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is launching a new design competition called the Campus RainWorks Challenge to encourage student teams on college and university campuses across the country to develop innovative approaches to stormwater management. This competition will help raise awareness of green design and planning approaches at colleges and universities, and train the next generation of landscape architects, planners, and engineers in green infrastructure principles and design.  Stormwater is a major cause of water pollution in urban areas in the U.S., impacting tens of thousands of miles of rivers, streams, and coastal shorelines, as well as hundreds of thousands of acres of lakes, reservoirs, and ponds.

Student teams, working with a faculty advisor, will submit design plans for a proposed green infrastructure project for their campus. Registration for the Campus RainWorks Challenge opens September 4, and entries must be submitted by December 14, 2012 for consideration. Winning entries will be selected by EPA and announced in April 2013.  Winning teams will earn a cash prize of $1,500 – $2,500, as well as $8,000 – $11,000 in funds for their faculty advisor to conduct research on green infrastructure.  In 2013, EPA plans to expand Campus RainWorks by inviting students to design and complete a demonstration project assessing innovative green infrastructure approaches on their campus.

EPA is encouraging the use of green infrastructure as a solution to help manage stormwater runoff. Green Infrastructure uses vegetation, soils, and natural processes to manage stormwater runoff at its source and provide other community benefits. Green infrastructure is increasingly being used to supplement or substitute for single-purpose “gray” infrastructure investments such as pipes, and ponds. The Campus RainWorks Challenge will help encourage the use of green infrastructure projects on college and university campuses to manage stormwater discharges.

For more information on the Campus RainWorks Challenge: http://water.epa.gov/infrastructure/greeninfrastructure/crw_challenge.cfm

Tournament Zero Waste Challenge exceeds ambitious goals by diverting more than 97 percent of waste and recovering 82 percent of materials

TEMPE, Ariz., May 18, 2012 /PRNewswire/ — Waste Management officially announced today the final diversion and recovery percentages as part of the Zero Waste Challenge from this year’s Waste Management Phoenix Open (WMPO) PGA TOUR tournament. More than 97 percent of waste generated by the tournament was diverted from landfills, exceeding the 90 percent tournament goal. Eighty-two percent of tournament materials were recovered from the waste stream through recycling, composting, material reuse and charitable donations – far exceeding the goal of 70 percent.

While the tournament ran from January 30 to February 5, months of set-up took place prior to the event, followed by weeks of post-event material removal. All materials diverted were carefully handled and tracked to ensure nearly nothing went to waste.

The Zero Waste Challenge initiative mandated that all vendors utilize compostable or recyclable serving materials or containers, and educated patrons about the proper disposal of materials in either recycling or compost bins for all waste produced at the event. For the first time in PGA TOUR history, no trashcans were present on course. Volunteer recycling ambassadors were stationed throughout the course to ensure materials went in the appropriate bins, and a dedicated operations team behind the scenes sorted materials.

Waste Management’s Sustainability Services team, which has expertise in sustainable event management, led the greening of the WMPO. The team of experienced sustainability professionals worked closely with tournament organizers to develop creative solutions to the unique waste management challenges presented by the event, which attracted 518,262 people. The program’s success reinforces that the Waste Management Phoenix Open is the ‘greatest and greenest’ show on grass.

The recycling efforts at the 2012 WMPO tournament conserved the following resources:

• 1,149 mature trees
• 394,310 gallons of water
• 574,856 kilowatt-hours of electricity
• 843 cubic yards of landfill airspace

Recycling, composting and alternative fuel efforts avoided 582 metric tons (MTCO2E) of greenhouse gas emissions.

‘The tremendous success of the Zero Waste Challenge would not have been possible without the teamwork of a dedicated group of our employees, WMPO vendors, the Thunderbirds, and TPC Scottsdale,’ said David Aardsma, Waste Management chief sales and marketing officer. ‘Waste Management is an environmental solutions leader, and the Waste Management Phoenix Open is our platform to show communities and businesses across North America what’s possible when you think green.’

‘Waste Management has certainly taken the greenest show on grass to the next level with the successful diversion and recovery results at this year’s tournament,’ said Alex Clark, 2012Waste Management Phoenix Open tournament chairman. ‘The Thunderbirds were thrilled to collaborate with Waste Management on the innovative Zero Waste Challenge and we are proud to have such a supportive and involved title sponsor.’

Materials were recovered at the 2012 Waste Management Phoenix Open in many ways, but the highlights include:

• Recycling
  Plastics, including LDPE, HDPE, PET, aluminum, paper, cardboard, glass, and metal were sent to WM’s Arizona Community Ecocenter Material Recovery Facility (MRF) for processing.
• Composting
  Food, napkins, plates and paper cups used during the tournament were processed in a digester to produce high-quality compost for surrounding communities.
• Charitable Donation
  WM donated carpet to a local Habitat for Humanity ReStore to sell the carpet to the public. Proceeds of carpet sales help Habitat achieve its mission of building homes, communities and hope.
• Transforming event materials into new innovative materials
  All of the scrap wood was processed by a local organic lawn and garden company, GRO-WELL, who ground the wood into mulch.Turf and green mesh were sent to a company that recovers the energy and mineral components from waste for use as fuel and product additives used in manufacturing processes. This conserves fossil fuels and natural mineral resources and diverts the materials from landfills.

While not included in the tournament recovery goals, the approximately 140,000 used golf balls filling the WM water feature on the lake at hole 18 were donated to The First Tee, a youth charity teaching life skills through the game of golf. Many tournament materials are also stored each year for use in future years, including the WM water feature structure, leaderboard, sheets of wood and event decor.

Waste Management uses its title sponsorship of this premier golf tournament to convey key messages of sustainability, environmental awareness, turning waste into a resource, extracting value from the waste stream, and innovating and optimizing its operations and the customer experience. The tournament’s diversion and recovery success resulted in other major sporting and event organizations across the country contacting the company to help reduce and recover waste at their events.

ABOUT WASTE MANAGEMENT

Waste Management, Inc., based in Houston, Texas, is the leading provider of comprehensive waste management services in North America. Through its subsidiaries, the company provides collection, transfer, recycling and resource recovery, and disposal services. It is one of the largest residential recyclers and also a leading developer, operator and owner of waste-to-energy and landfill gas-to-energy facilities in the United States. The company’s customers include residential, commercial, industrial, and municipal customers throughout North America.  To learn more information about Waste Management, visit www.wm.com or www.thinkgreen.com.

Source: Federal Register

SUMMARY: This rule modifies the testing procedures approved for analysis and sampling under the Clean Water Act. EPA proposed these changes for public comment on September 23, 2010. The changes adopted in this final rule fall into the following categories: New and revised EPA methods and new and revised methods published by voluntary consensus standard bodies (VCSB), such as ASTM International and the Standard Methods Committee; updated versions of currently approved methods; methods reviewed under the alternate test procedures (ATP) program; clarifications to the process for EPA approval for use of alternate procedures for nationwide and Regional use; minimum quality control requirements to improve consistency across method versions; corrections to previously approved methods; and revisions to sample collection, preservation, and holding time requirements. Finally, EPA makes changes to three effluent guideline regulations.

DATES: This regulation is effective on June 18, 2012. The incorporation by reference of these methods is approved by the Director of the Federal Register on June 18, 2012. For judicial review purposes, this final rule is promulgated as of 1:00 p.m. (Eastern time) on June 1, 2012 as provided at 40 CFR 23.2 and 23.7.

Guidelines Establishing Test Procedures for Analysis of Pollutants Under Clean Water Act: Analysis and Sampling Procedures, 29758-29846

http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2012-05-18/pdf/2012-10210.pdf

http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2012-05-18/html/2012-10210.htm