Greenversations

About the author: Lina Younes has been working for EPA since 2002 and chairs EPA’s Multilingual Communications Task Force. Prior to joining EPA, she was the Washington bureau chief for two Puerto Rican newspapers and she has worked for several government agencies.

Lea la versión en español a continuación de esta entrada en inglés.
Some links exit EPA or have Spanish content.

In an effort to fulfill EPA’s mission, we seek community involvement in the decision-making process. We do this by engaging all interested groups through dialogue and collaboration, including those with limited financial and technical resources, English proficiency, and/or past experience participating in environmental decision-making.

By engaging the public, we aim at fostering environmental stewardship in all communities in the U.S., including those with limited English proficiency. End result–the Agency benefits, it’s advantageous to these communities, and ultimately, the environment profits as well.

Census data reveals that around 18 percent of the total population in the US over the age of 5 speak a language other than English at home. Given that language can be a barrier to environmental understanding, we want to address those barriers. Moreover, multilingual communities may live or work in areas that are subject to greater environmental hazards. Therefore, we provide environmental information on lead, pesticides, flood and mold cleanup, children’s health protection, to address many of these issues.

The Agency has been consolidating its environmental information on multilingual websites to facilitate access. Currently, we have websites in Spanish, Chinese (both Traditional and Simplified script), Vietnamese and Korean. We have several initiatives designed to reach out effectively to these communities. For example, the Hispanic environmental health page, the nail salons air quality initiative in Vietnamese and Korean; the informational materials on dry-cleaning regulations in Korean; and the Hispanic Stakeholders Initiative—Beyond Translation, and the EPA-China Environmental Law Initiative in English and Chinese to name a few.

Increasingly, we have found that these multilingual websites are receiving numerous worldwide visitors who are looking to EPA for environmental leadership. New technology such as Web 2.0 [BB note: insert EPA link on web 2.0?] is just another valuable tool in facilitating environmental communication across the globe.

Alcanzando a las comunidades multilingües a través de la nación y del mundo

Sobre la autor: Lina M. F. Younes ha trabajado en la EPA desde el 2002 y está a cargo del Grupo de Trabajo sobre Comunicaciones Multilingües. Como periodista, dirigió la oficina en Washington de dos periódicos puertorriqueños y ha laborado en varias agencias gubernamentales.

En un esfuerzo por llevar a cabo la misión de la Agencia (EPA, por sus siglas en inglés), constantemente buscamos la participación de las comunidades en el proceso para tomar decisiones. Hacemos esto al exhortar la participación de los grupos interesados por medio del dialogo y la colaboración incluyendo a aquellos con recursos económicos y tecnológicos limitados, habilidad de hablar inglés, y/ o experiencia participando en el proceso de decisiones ambientales.

Al buscar la participación del público, tenemos como meta fomentar la capacitación ambiental en todas las comunidades d la nación, incluyendo a aquellos con la habilidad limitada de hablar inglés. Esto es beneficioso para la Agencia, es ventajoso para esas comunidades, y el medio ambiente se beneficia también.

Los datos del Censo revelan que alrededor del 18 por ciento del total de la población en los Estados Unidos sobre la edad de cinco (5) años hablan un idioma diferente al inglés en el hogar. Dado el caso que el idioma puede ser una barrera para que las persona comprendan los problemas ambientales, queremos tratar esas barreras. Además, las comunidades multilingües podrían vivir o trabajar en áreas que sujetas a gran riesgo ambiental. Por lo tanto, proveemos información ambiental acerca de plomo, pesticidas, inundaciones y limpieza de moho, protección ambiental para niños para tratas todos estos tópicos.

Con el propósito de facilitar el acceso informativo, en la Agencia, hemos estado consolidando la información ambiental en las páginas Web multilingües. Entre otros, actualmente, tenemos páginas Web español, chino (ambos caracteres tradicional y simplificado) y coreano. También tenemos varias iniciativas de alcance especialmente diseñadas para estas comunidades. Por ejemplo, El medio ambiente y su salud, la iniciativa de calidad de aire en los salones de belleza en vietnamita y coreano, materiales informativos sobre regulaciones para tintorerías y comercios de lavado en seco y la iniciativa para la comunidad hispana, Beyond Translation, - Más allá de la traducción - y la iniciativa para la Ley ambiental US-China en inglés y chino.

Cada vez más, estamos encontrando que las páginas multilingües reciben numerosas visitantes de alrededor del mundo buscando información y liderazgo de parte de la Agencia. Las nuevas tecnologías tales como Web 2.0 es otra herramienta valiosa para facilitar la comunicación ambiental alrededor del mundo.

About the author: Tami Fordham joined EPA’s Seattle office in June 2001 and moved to Anchorage, Alaska to join the Alaska Operations Office in September 2004. Tami serves as the Alaska Resource Extraction Tribal Policy Advisor and is the Tribal Coordinator for Tribes in Western Alaska.

The last time I was visiting with my family in Washington I learned that my parents decided to start making canvas shopping bags. They were noticing plastic bags everywhere littering the streets and hanging in the trees, you may have seen this in your local area, and so decided to start making the canvas bags to sell at their local store and to their friends. I have one of their bags and when people ask who made it, I get to proudly share their story of making a difference in the environment.

I have the great honor to work in partnership with Tribal Governments in Western Alaska along the Lower Kuskokwim River. Plastic bags are often seen throughout the tundra and so many of the communities I work with have worked to ban plastic bags in their village. The environmental programs have made canvas bags available to the tribal members in the place of plastic bags. There are many people that are now taking plastic bags and crocheting them into purses and bags that can be re-used. To find out more, check out their website. Just a few weeks ago a woman all the way from Florida called our office to find out about different re-use projects that could be done because she wanted to find projects that made a difference for the environment.

One person can make a difference, just imagine if we all made one change in how we live our lives the ripple effect it would have in our world.

About the author: Molly O’Neill is EPA’s Assistant Administrator for the Office of Environmental Information and Chief Information Officer

Recently, I attended a government leadership summit that focused on collaboration. It was represented by state, local and federal leaders. I was there not just to speak but also to learn. I am always looking for ideas outside of EPA that we might take advantage of in our business. Sometimes, you see something special and it opens your eyes to future benefits.

At an evening session, I saw a demonstration of something called “Virtual Alabama”. I had been hearing the buzz around this for several weeks and it didn’t disappoint. Now, from a technology perspective this wasn’t a big deal to me. It is simply a well orchestrated Google Earth implementation from a statewide perspective. The impressive part was the incredible collaboration that occurred to bring almost all the government related information together visually. And it was at the state and local levels! In one application, the user could view environmental information, crime information, land use information, etc. all at once.

Alabama has effectively engaged a small team of people whose job it is to harvest this data and make it available to decision-makers. They are constantly consuming more data and adding new functionality. For example, universities and colleges are now sketching on the maps to show what the insides of their buildings look like. Another cool example involves historical aerial photography. After a recent tornado, officials could look at pictures of towns before and after the tornado to respond to emergencies and also to help insurance companies estimate damage. I also saw how they incorporated a tool EPA uses called “Aloha” into their application to look at toxicity dispersion modeling with just a few lines of code!

At EPA, I talk about how owning data is passé, but using it is not. There are data sources outside of EPA that are very important to our Mission and we need to access them. That’s why building partnerships to share information is so important. If one agency collects the data, technology today allows it to be shared pretty easily. Federal government needs to shift the paradigm from data owners to data collaborators and to embrace technology as the enabler.

Virtual Alabama started as a Homeland Security project that has been adopted by the entire state. I believe its success lies on the fact that there is an organization in place well adapted to constantly harvest data – a data fusion center. This is my take away from another insightful leadership summit in seeing Virtual Alabama as a best practice… something we at EPA can certainly learn from.

Since March, EPA has been reaching out to the public and specific stakeholder groups during our National Dialogue on Access to Environmental Information, and the comment session is now over. I would like to thank those who contributed their ideas during this time. I learned about great examples of information sharing, including Virtual Alabama. Check out the National Dialogue website for summaries of the stakeholder sessions and more on the upcoming strategy document that compiles what we’ve learned.

About the author: An aspiring amateur plumber, Aaron Ferster is the science writer-editor for EPA’s Office of Research and Development.

A few weeks ago my wife and I met with one of Johns Hopkins’ top surgeons to discuss a second cochlear implant (CI) for our youngest daughter, who is deaf. She had CI surgery for one ear six years ago, and there are significant potential benefits in getting one for her other ear. The doctor talked about improvements to surgical techniques, new sound processing strategies, and advances to the latest generation of CIs, which truly represent the height of bio-technology.

After the appointment we drove home and I spent the afternoon on something with a decidedly lower gee-whiz factor: draining and removing the bathroom toilet so I could turn it sideways, then upside down so a small scissors that had accidently dropped in would wind its way through the traps and twists and drop out. It worked. But perhaps more importantly, it gave me something to do while waiting for the doctor’s office to call with a surgery date. All in all, not a bad day.

I had another good day thinking about the astounding diversity of technology that surrounds us while attending a session entitled “Green Building Research Needs and the Promise of New Technology” at this year’s EPA Science Forum. The session was chaired by Ken Sandler, who wrote about his efforts to establish a new EPA strategy for green buildings on Greenversations. The panel discussion included exemplary case studies of the latest research and design in lowering a building’s environmental footprint when energy savings and sustainability are priorities.

The talk was inspiring, and like anyone with energy bills to pay, I’m eager to see the advent of low-impact, carbon-neutral homes and office buildings complete with the latest real time information technology guiding energy consumption choices. But like turning the toilet upside down while waiting for the phone to ring, I’d like something I can do today while the green building revolution continues to gathers steam. Luckily, a quick web search reveals a bunch (including a few excellent ones that have already been covered on this blog), including: installing compact florescent light bulbs, greenscaping the yard, biking to work, making a rain barrel, buying energy star appliances, and planting shade trees.

Now if only someone would invent scissors that dissolve in water. Oh well.

About the author: While Jeffrey Levy of EPA’s blog team enjoys vacation, he’s sending along environmentally relevant thoughts and pictures.

Everywhere we go in Hawaii, we hear about taking care of aina (”eye-nuh”), the land. As an environmentalist, it’s really nice to find so much dedication to protecting the natural world.

That spirit is evident in Len and Jane Sutton, our innkeepers in Hilo. I was originally intrigued by the guidebook’s mention of a private waterfall on the property. There are other waterfalls to swim in, but I’m guessing they’re crowded. Whereas yesterday morning, my wife and I had the whole thing to ourselves for an hour. For an anniversary trip, that’s hard to beat!

But this place isn’t special just because of the waterfall. The natural beauty is matched by how the Suttons manage the place. Len built his own small hydroelectric plant that supplies all of their electricity, working extensively with state biologists and the Hawaii Dept. of Land and Natural Resources. Their roof catches rain and sends it to a treatment system. And soon, they’ll be composting and growing some of their own food. Basically, their goal is to have a negative carbon footprint.

Protecting the environment really does take all of us: regulatory agencies like EPA and individuals making good decisions. But it seems to me the best situation is when our lives intersect with the environment, because internal motivation will always be more powerful than external requirements.

Here in Hilo, the Suttons have found the perfect match of a magic location and a sustainable way to enjoy it.

Each week we ask a question related to the environment. Please let us know your thoughts as comments. Feel free to respond to earlier comments or post new ideas. Previous questions.

Driving less, carpooling, and combining errands all mean less pollution. And with fuel prices rising, people are driving less, or driving smarter when they can. But many find it very difficult to drive less because of where they live or what they do.

What would convince you to change your driving habits?

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En español: Cada semana hacemos una pregunta relacionada al medio ambiente. Por favor comparta con nosotros sus pensamientos y comentarios. Siéntase en libertad de responder a comentarios anteriores o plantear nuevas ideas. Preguntas previas.

Actividades como el guiar menos, hacer carpool y combinar mandados todas contribuyen a reducir la contaminación. Mientras los precios del combustible están en alza, las personas están conduciendo menos y lo están haciendo de manera más inteligente siempre que pueden. Sin embargo, a veces se les dificulta guiar menos debido al lugar donde viven o por lo que hacen.

¿Qué le convencería para cambiar sus hábitos de guiar?

About the author: While Jeffrey Levy of EPA’s blog team enjoys vacation, he’s sending along environmentally relevant thoughts and pictures.

Aloha from sunny Hawaii! Like Karen Reshkin a few weeks ago, I’ll be sending a few entries from vacation back to the office.

Several years ago, I worked for the SunWise Schools program, so I know all about sun safety, from applying (and re-applying) sunscreen to wearing long- sleeve shirts, and even staying out of the sun during the middle of the day. And I know that the strongest sun occurs on the summer solstice (last week), when there are no clouds, at low latitudes and at high altitudes. Add in no recent exposure, and my wife and I have the perfect setup for major sunburn.

So when we went up Haleakala on Maui, we knew we needed to be very careful. We put on SPF 50 sunscreen that blocked both UVA and UVB, and we wore jeans, long-sleeve t-shirts, and hats with big brims (it’s only in the 60s at 10,000 feet).

For snorkeling the next day, we slopped on SPF 60, which was so thick it took several squirts to cover everything. And we wore shirts in the water.

The result? Sunburned faces. We couldn’t believe it until we realized:
1) we hadn’t been burnt at all after the mountain, so it wasn’t that trip.
2) our faces were in the water and the backs of our legs weren’t burnt, so it wasn’t snorkeling.

But we did stand outside in line for breakfast for 45 minutes from 9:30-10:15. Bingo! It’s not only the activities we know will burn us, but being outside here anytime.

So enjoy yourselves outdoors this summer, but follow the SunWise actions steps no matter what you’re doing.

About the author: Lina Younes has been working for EPA since 2002 and chairs EPA’s Multilingual Communications Task Force. Prior to joining EPA, she was the Washington bureau chief for two Puerto Rican newspapers and she has worked for several government agencies.

Lea la versión en español a continuación de esta entrada en inglés.
Some links exit EPA or have Spanish content.

At home, we will soon be looking into buying a new car for our eldest daughter. Her present car needs a replacement. Given the rising gas prices and the long distances she has to drive, we’re definitely looking at cars that get excellent mileage. The good thing is she’s over the stage of purchasing a vehicle just for its looks or because it’s the coolest car on the block. That makes it much easier on us. Nonetheless, we have to study our options carefully in order to spend our money wisely while ensuring fuel efficiency.

Personally, I would love to buy a hybrid. Wish all our cars at home were hybrids, but I don’t think that’s going to happen right now. As a mother, I’m looking at two main concerns. First, how safe is the vehicle. Second, the mileage. There are some good resources on the Web to help us make the right choice. For example, the site www.safercar.gov gives you extensive information on crash test and rollover ratings. You can even compare the different vehicles by class, year, make and model. Now for mileage, we have www.fueleconomy.gov and EPA’s Green Vehicle Guide where you can also explore green options for the cleanest and most fuel-efficient vehicle that meets your needs.

We’re starting to narrow our options. I think we’ll be able to find a car that will be good for the environment and our family budget. My daughter also wants a fuel efficient car because she needs to save money on gas. So far, she’s been flexible during these family negotiations. There is only one non-negotiable requirement on her part: it has to have a good sound system.

We can live with that.

Al comprar un auto nuevo

Sobre la autor: Lina M. F. Younes ha trabajado en la EPA desde el 2002 y está a cargo del Grupo de Trabajo sobre Comunicaciones Multilingües. Como periodista, dirigió la oficina en Washington de dos periódicos puertorriqueños y ha laborado en varias agencias gubernamentales.

En casa, estamos considerando comprar un nuevo automóvil para mi hija mayor. Su carro pronto no dará para más. Dado los precios de petróleo que siguen subiendo y las largas distancias que ella tiene que recorrer, definitivamente estamos interesados en los automóviles que tengan un millaje excelente. Lo bueno es que ya ella ha pasado la etapa de interesarse en la compra de un vehículo simplemente por la apariencia exterior o porque es el último grito de la moda. Eso nos facilita el proceso enormemente. No obstante, estamos estudiando varias opciones para usar el dinero prudentemente mientras aseguramos la eficiencia del combustible.

Personalmente, a mí me encantaría tener un auto híbrido. Quisiera que todos los vehículos en casa fueran así. Obviamente eso no va a ocurrir por ahora. Como madre, tengo dos preocupaciones importantes. Primero, cuán seguro es el vehículo. Segundo, el millaje. Hay buenos recursos cibernéticos que nos ayudarán hacer la selección correcta. Por ejemplo, el sitio www.safecar.gov brinda extensa información sobre las pruebas de choques y probabilidades de volcarse que tiene el vehículo. También puede comparar los diferentes vehículos por clase, año, fabricante, modelo. En cuanto al millaje, tenemos www.fueleconomy.gov y la Guía de Vehículos Verdes de EPA donde también puede explorar opciones verdes para los vehículos más limpios y eficientes energéticamente hablando para cumplir con sus necesidades.

Ahora estamos identificando cuáles son nuestras verdaderas opciones para hacer una selección. Creo que podremos encontrar un automóvil que sea bueno para el medio ambiente y el presupuesto familiar. Mi hija también quiere un auto eficiente porque no quiere gastar tanto dinero para la gasolina. En fin, ha sido bastante flexible durante estas negociaciones familiares. Su única exigencia no-negociable es que el auto tenga un buen sistema de sonido.

Creo que eso es totalmente aceptable.

I’ve worked for decades at one of the government’s largest science agencies, witnessing how information is carefully collected and rigorously used to make truly important decisions about, for example,

• health-based standards (e.g., ambient air standards),
• land and water cleanups (e.g., Allied-Signal’s extensive restoration in Baltimore Harbor), and
• long-term strategic plans.

I’ve had a hand in few, but have learned how important it is to make decisions based on well-chosen data and sound reasoning. So it’s been gratifying to see EPA’s (and especially my regional office’s) sustained interest in developing environmental indicators to guide the agency’s work. EPA defines an environmental indicator as a “numerical value that helps provide insight into the state of the environment or human health … based on quantitative measurements or statistics of environmental condition tracked over time.” Higher order indicators track, ultimately, environmental health, while lesser indicators in a multi-level hierarchy portray changes in ambient conditions and environmental protection actions.

Here are my two favorite, if unconventional, indicators; one has gained 20 years of growing popularity and validity (not mine) and one is new, unknown and possibly shaky (mine).

• Former Maryland State Senator Bernie Fowler leads annual wade-ins in streams of the Chesapeake Bay watershed. He and friends see how deep they can walk and still see their sneakers—as a measure of water clarity, and a great way to connect people to this great but vulnerable natural resource.
• To test how people have started adapting to expensive gas, I began a year ago to track the percent of SUVs and pickups in the parking lot during my weekly supermarket trips. (Does it kill you, too, to see a lone driver use a 6,000 pound SUV to buy groceries?) I know it takes years for the fleet to be replaced, but my year’s “findings,” it seems, are significant and encouraging.

Which low-tech indicators do you use, or propose, that can tell us something interesting about our world’s health?

About the author: Ken Sandler is Co-Chair of EPA’s Green Building Workgroup. He has worked for EPA since 1991 on sustainability issues including green building, recycling and indoor air quality.

At EPA, we strive to help people make the environment part of their everyday decisions. But how can we tell when we’re succeeding?

In truth, we often can’t. But sometimes the evidence of change is hard to miss.

Take green building (Web site or video) – making buildings and their sites better for the environment and health. It’s an issue on which I’ve worked for a decade, and I’m now leading efforts to establish a new EPA strategy on the subject.

Yet for years, I would draw blank stares when mentioning “green building” in conversation. Some people would even ask if it meant painting buildings green.

And then, suddenly, nearly everyone had heard of it. My Dad was sending me articles on green building from Newsweek. I would mention it at a barbecue and people would come up to me and say, yes, we’re looking to green our homes, tell us how!

Green building seems to have reached its tipping point. But how do such things happen? If there’s a formula to make sustainable practices bloom, we’d like to get our hands on it.

In fact, we’ve seen such phenomena before. Take recycling. In 1988, only 1,000 communities in America had curbside recycling. Just 8 years later, that number had leaped to 9,000. Why? One reason was that in 1989, responding to public concern, EPA set a goal for the US to recycle 25% of its municipal waste.

This helped set off a competition among states to set their own recycling goals. In response, systems were established to recycle a variety of materials. The engine of recycling got going – and keeps on humming.

With green building, the story is different. Since the early 1990s, EPA has successfully pushed voluntary programs covering many aspects of the built environment – energy, water, indoor air quality, products, waste, smart growth and more. Other groups began to put these pieces together in holistic, market-based programs.

The U.S. Green Building Council, a leading non-profit, has its own eye-popping numbers on the transformation they helped bring about. From 2000 to the present, their member organizations went from 570 to over 15,000, the number of buildings registering to use their LEED green building rating system from 45 to 21,000.

So does this mean our work is done? Hardly. The green building field has needs that range from research to stronger standards to more public education and partnerships. We plan to work with a wide variety of groups to help tackle all of these challenges.