Greenversations

Sometimes I wonder what impact a single person or even a small group can have on preserving the environment. How much am I really contributing to environmental protection by taking public transportation to work, carrying around my own coffee mug, and taking advantage of the great composting and recycling programs we have in San Francisco? While struggling with my own impact on environmental protection, I met Ignacio Cabrera and Angelo Villagomez, representing Friends of the Monument at the EPA Pacific Southwest Regional environmental awards ceremony.

These two men from Saipan described their organization’s goal of preserving and protecting the Marianas Trench in the waters around three islands of the Northern Mariana Islands. The Marianas Trench is the deepest ocean trench with some of the greatest biological diversity in the world. The Friends of the Monument engaged in activities to help educate the community–distributing leaflets, conducting meetings, participating in television and radio public service announcements, and coordinating with teachers for classroom presentations. They took advantage of Web 2.0 and developed a blog, Myspace and Facebook groups, and even have their own YouTube Channel.

Students turning over some of their over 500 letters to President Bush to the rangers at American Memorial National Park.

The Friends of the Monument gathered several thousand signatures in support of the designation of the Monument, including over 500 from school children, and traveled over 8,000 miles to Washington D.C. to meet with White House officials.

The designation of the monument was not politically popular on the islands and at times, the members of the Friends of the Monument were singled out for criticism and targeted by opponents in letters and press releases. The organization helped keep support strong by unity, with strength in numbers, and a positive focus on its goal.

Friends of the Monument’s Ignacio Cabrera, Angelo Villagomez, and Agnes McPhetres pose with Sylvia Earl and Jean Michel Cousteau at the signing of the Marianas Trench Marine National Monument.

As a direct result of the Friends of the Monument’s grassroots efforts, in early 2009, the Marianas Trench Marine National Monument was created. Within the first year after the organization was born, this small group of people were key in creating the largest marine monument and they became leaders in worldwide oceanic protection in the process. I am inspired! Now I know what a monumental impact a few motivated people can have on environmental protection.

I’d love to hear more stories of how the efforts of a few individuals have snowballed into significant environmental progress. Stories like these help spark my imagination about the possibilities to personally impact environmental change.

Sara Jacobs usually can be found in the EPA Region 9 Drinking Water Office. However, she is currently on a detail to the Navajo Nation EPA Superfund Program where she spends much of her time out in the field helping to identify contaminated structures which are a legacy of uranium mining.

I’ve been to a lot of “environmental” conferences over the years, and I’ve seen a lot of not-so-environmental practices. Some convention centers even throw away the floor coverings they use after every trade show. SMG’s giant Moscone Center, in San Francisco, is just one block away from my office, and this bright green convention center was recognized at EPA’s recent Pacific Southwest Environmental Awards Ceremony.

The two million square foot Moscone Center has one of the nation’s largest municipally-owned solar installations. Their 60,000 sq. ft. solar system generates enough energy to power nearly 400 homes and displaces more than 300 tons of carbon dioxide annually! They also did a major lighting retrofit. You can follow their lead by looking for ENERGY STAR lighting fixtures at home and at work.

SMG pioneered a recycling program at the Moscone Center ten years ago and recently added food composting. They now transform kitchen-based food scraps and corn-based serveware and utensils from large catered functions into compost to grow new food. The catering truck is even fueled with biodiesel. SMG also reduces waste by working with vendors to take back bread trays and pastry boxes.
The facility started using Green Seal certified cleaning products in 2008 and buys environmental products like post-consumer recycled paper, janitorial supplies and garbage bags.

SMG really focuses on improving indoor air quality. The Moscone Center takes the following step to achieve this:

• Has a full-time air quality technician who regularly monitors and tests conditions ;
• Requires forklifts to use a propane additive to reduce carbon monoxide emissions ;
• Reduces diesel emissions by requiring trucks operated by service contractors to use filters;
• Minimizes idling by drivers, and
• Strictly enforces the no smoking ordinance.

They’re also improving air quality outside. The Moscone Center is close to nearly 20,000 hotel rooms, making it easy to avoid driving. SMG also promotes the use of public transit in telephone recordings and on the website, as well as encouraging employee participation in the Commuter Check program. The center’s van runs on compressed natural gas and bike racks are installed in front of the facility.

The list of green features at Moscone Center goes on and on, but you get the idea — Moscone Center is truly a model green convention center!

Please share your green conference and convention center information with us.

To learn more about other U.S. EPA Pacific Southwest Environmental Award winners, visit http://www.epa.gov/region09/awards.

About the author: Timonie Hood has worked on EPA Region 9’s Resource Conservation Team for 10 years and is Co-Chair of EPA’s Green Building Workgroup.

About the author: Sara Jacobs recently celebrated her 10th year working at EPA Region 9. She has spent most of her years in the Drinking Water Office, but is currently on a detail to the Superfund Division, working with the Navajo EPA.

My two-bedroom flat in San Francisco was built in 1926 and I don’t think much has happened to the kitchen since. We still have no dishwasher or disposal and no flooring other than the sub floor since we ripped up the old stained and cracked vinyl. As we dream of some day being able to take on a kitchen remodel, we wonder how we could minimize the environmental impact of our project. Yet, we still need to stay on budget, maintain product quality, and still display our own unique style. Is this even possible?

We know that using recycled, locally manufactured, non-toxic materials are all good ideas, but where do we find these products? There is so much information to dig through on the web and as a busy, full-time working mother of two, I am just overwhelmed by the task. That’s why I was so excited when I read that one of the Pacific Southwest Environmental Award winners, Vetrazzo, takes glasses that are not recyclable elsewhere and turns them into beautiful countertops. (I can say beautiful because I saw the samples!)

Vetrazzo uses old glass from traffic lights, windshields, plate glass windows, dinnerware, stemware, laboratory glass, stained glass, and beverage bottles and transforms them into a superior green building material. In 2008, Vetrazzo transformed 650 tons of recycled glass into countertops, table tops, bar tops, fireplace hearths, shower surrounds and flooring.

Vetrazzo is made from glass processed directly from the recycler without melting. Since 2007, creation of 11,600 metric tons of carbon dioxide has been avoided by transforming recycled glass into Vetrazzo instead of new bottles or fiberglass. That is the same amount of energy saved by removing 2,125 passenger vehicles from the road for an entire year.

“Being recognized by the U.S. EPA is a tremendous honor for us,” said James Sheppard, CEO and Co-Founder of Vetrazzo, LLC. “Our product creates a focal point for green building by boldly and visually demonstrating the value of recycling. When an average kitchen counter can contain as many as 1,000 bottles, the impact of using a sustainable surfacing material is undeniable. It gets people talking.”

So now I have a solution for my counter tops. Does anyone have a suggestion for flooring?

Photo credits: ©2008 Joel Puliatti for Vetrazzo

Gary Riley is an environmental engineer at EPA’s Pacific Southwest Regional Office, Superfund Division. He works to investigate and clean up sites on EPA’s National Priorities List of abandoned hazardous waste sites.

Many of us (myself included) see a lot of pavement and very few trees as we commute to work and go about our lives. When I was a kid, heading into the woods and exploring the trails was pretty much my favorite thing to do. That’s not so easy to do for those of us living in cities; we just don’t see very many trees. But trees also do many things that are much less visible: they cool our neighborhoods, clean the air, and reduce stormwater runoff.

That’s why I was excited to hear about Million Trees Los Angeles, one of this year’s Environmental Awards winners chosen by EPA’s Pacific Southwest Regional Office to recognize individuals and groups outside of the EPA who are working to protect public health and the environment. Let’s face it: when I think about Los Angeles, the first things in my mind are the airport, Sunset Boulevard, and the skyline; not a lush cover of green. Million Trees has an ambitious goal to plant one million trees throughout the city and use this to leverage even greater environmental change in the future.

In 2008, Million Trees increased tree planting in Los Angles tenfold, and one of the most important ways it’s doing this is by encouraging children to learn about the benefits of a healthy urban forest. Last year’s “Get Your Green On” Environmental Youth Conference attracted over 5,000 youth participants and their parents, teachers, and others. Anyone can join tree planting efforts in neighborhoods around the city. Lisa Sarno, Executive Director of Million Trees LA, tells me kids might not even notice the trees in their urban environment until they’ve planted one themselves, but then suddenly feel a connection from this simple act.

EPA’s job is to protect human health and the environment, but it’s everyone helping out in their own communities that can really create change. It can even be something as easy as planting a tree! Learn more about planting trees in your community at the Arbor Day Foundation.

About the author: Sara Jacobs recently celebrated her 10th year working at EPA Region 9. She has spent most of her years in the Drinking Water Office, but is currently on a detail to the Superfund Division, working with the Navajo EPA.

When I saw that Lenore Lamb had been chosen as one of the EPA Pacific Southwest Environmental Award Winners, I was thrilled since I know first hand of Lenore’s accomplishments as the Environmental Director for the Pala Band of Mission Indians. I met Lenore in 2001 and three wells, three kids (two were mine), and eight years later, I have seen Lenore grow from a one woman show to managing a staff of 12. She’s gone from a young, eager environmental learner to an expert and leader in her field. Her efficiency and energy amazes me and I get the impression that she does the work of three people. (She tells me it’s due to large quantities of caffeine.)

Here are just some of her contributions:

• Providing safe drinking water and wastewater disposal for both the Pala Band as well as a tribal community in Mexico by securing funding and overseeing infrastructure projects.
• Developing a “Green Team,” with representatives from the Pala Casino Resort and Spa, that has implemented energy and water efficiency programs and diverted 170 tons of solid waste since implementation of their program last year.
• Active involvement in the Upper San Luis Rey Resource Conservation District. Lenore has been instrumental in the clean up of illegal dumpsites along the creek beds within the reservation boundaries.
• Supporting education and outreach programs through annual earth day events, tribal publications, exercises for the Pala Boys and Girls Science Club, and by developing a “Creating and Managing Tribal Transfer Stations” course.
• Securing tribal funding and overseeing design and construction of a transfer station. The facility is open to the public, includes electronic waste collection, a green waste and composting program, a secured hazardous waste collection location, a state certified buy back center for recyclables, and a used oil collection program.

From my own experience working with tribes, I know that tribal environmental managers face enormous challenges. I’m even more impressed by Lenore since her accomplishments are more forward thinking than many non-tribal governments, even in a state like California, which is often on the cutting edge. Lenore has not only made significant contributions to improving the environment at Pala, she has contributed to improving environmental conditions throughout Indian Country.

To learn more about the Pala Band’s environmental programs, go to http://www.palatribe.com/programs/environment/. Look for additional environmental tribal leaders in future posts.

About the author: Timonie Hood has worked on EPA Region 9’s Resource Conservation Team in for 10 years and is Co-Chair of EPA’s Green Building Workgroup.

Water supplies and management have long been a hot topic out west, and the Pacific Institute, an EPA Pacific Southwest Region Environmental Award winner has done incredible work to develop sustainable water policy.

Agriculture accounts for 80% of California Delta water consumption, and in 2008, drought and legally mandated water pumping restrictions resulted in farm losses that were estimated as high as $245 million by mid-summer.

Click on the Report cover above to read the report.

In 2008, a Pacific Institute report, “More with Less: Agricultural Water Conservation and Efficiency in California - A Special Focus on the Delta,” altered the approach to California’s water crisis. The researchers found potential water savings in the agricultural sector can reach 0.6-3.4 million acre feet of water—the equivalent of 3 to 20 new dams–without harming agricultural production or the economy.

This work has been catalytic—creating discussion around non-infrastructure oriented solutions that have long been absent from water policy discussions in California.

The Pacific Institute project team - Heather Cooley, Juliet Christian-Smith, and Peter Gleick -did much more than stimulate discussion, they influenced decision making processes with sound science, met with the California Board of Food and Agriculture and the Governor’s Delta Vision Blue Ribbon Task Force, and briefed more than 60 State legislators and staff.

The Pacific Institute’s leadership has changed the search for water solutions from physical answers—more dams, more reservoirs, and more conveyance—to the better management of the vital resources we do have to ensure a safe, reliable water supply in the face of a growing population, increasing threats of climate change, and environmental degradation.

Read the Report - it’s as refreshing as a cool glass of water!

About the author: Timonie Hood has worked on EPA Region 9’s Resource Conservation Team for 10 years and is Co-Chair of EPA’s Green Building Workgroup.

Links on this page may exit EPA.

Feasting is something I really enjoy, and it’s so much better when the food is produced locally and sustainably! EPA’s Pacific Southwest Region recently recognized these amazing environmental and agricultural community leaders:

Innovative Family Farm Watershed Protection

The Gold Ridge Resource Conservation District’s Voluntary Incentive Based Program on Agricultural Land in coastal Sonoma County is a small grass roots special district, and it is a special district indeed!

By working closely with small coastal family farms in the Estero Americano and Salmon Creek Watersheds they protected watersheds through direct on-farm conservation support.

Here are just a few of the things they did –

• Worked closely with the agricultural community so a whopping 80% of landowners in both watersheds participated in reducing nutrient and sediment loadings,
• Prevented 50,000 cubic years of sediment from entering streams through 25 restoration projects on 12 family farms,
• Upgraded critical roads on 60% of all properties in the Salmon Creek Watershed, and
• Conducted extensive soil, manure and water quality sampling.

This model watershed protection partnership has kept family farms both environmentally and economically sustainable, and I can’t wait to sample the harvest!

Another winner was recognized for developing super-sustainable fruit.

Zeal Brand Sustainable Fruit

Zeal brand was first introduced in the retail market in 2008 to promote sustainable farming practices. All Zeal fruit is certified by Protected Harvest to ensure that Zeal fruit is grown in compliance with the most environmentally and socially sound standards for soil, water, pesticides, and labor.

The Zeal brand is also pushes sustainability through the entire supply chain. All the brand’s packaging and marketing materials are designed to be low impact and sustainably produced. In addition, Zeal advertising materials are printed on paper certified by the Forest Stewardship Council.

I understand the company’s message is dear to every person involved — from field to fork. The production crews are proud to have a direct influence on the protection of the local environment and Zeal consumers are happy to buy fruit that supports growers making a difference.

For those of your with toddlers, I bet you’re thinking of that great tune, “Fruit Salad, Yummy Yummy.” My fork is ready – is yours?

These groups have done amazing sustainable agriculture work in California. Please share your ideas and tips on sustainable agriculture.

To learn more about EPA’s Pacific Southwest Environmental award winners, visit http://www.epa.gov/region09/awards/09.

About the author: Sara Jacobs just celebrated her 10th year working at EPA Region 9. She has worked with both states and tribal governments in the Drinking Water Office.

Why is the Pacific Southwest EPA Region one of the top three places to work in all of the US federal government? Is it the gym and day-care center in our building or the fact that many of us are past Peace Corps volunteers? Actually, the most amazing thing about working for EPA is the fact that virtually every employee in this building is here because we are committed to EPA’s mission to protect public health and the environment. But as we peruse this year’s environmental award winners, we realize that we are just the tip of the environmental protection iceberg.

We simply cannot protect our health and the environment all on our own and need help from every single one of you to conserve water, plant native species, purchase non-toxic consumer products, dispose of household hazardous waste properly, use less energy, recycle, and so much more. So here, in the Pacific Southwest Regional blog series, we are highlighting people like you who have taken it upon themselves to become environmental leaders in their businesses, organizations and communities.

Once again, our senior managers locked themselves in a conference room with hundreds of award nominations to find the most cutting edge, innovative, and inspirational people and groups working towards environmental protection. The award winners are always a diverse group from tribal government employees to students and teachers to people in industry. From protection of the Pacific Islands to the US Mexico Border Region and from inner cities to rural farms, these people are making a huge difference in their communities, and are true environmental heroes! We are so inspired by the incredible work of these people and we hope that you are inspired to make a difference in your community too.

Keep checking back with us over the next ten weeks to learn more about the 2009 award winners, find links to their sites, and find out how you can get involved. For a taste of what is to come in future posts, check out one of our 2008 winners, Captain Charles Moore, who leads research on marine plastic pollution at the Algalita Marine Research Foundation. You can also find more video, photos, and information about our past winners at http://www.epa.gov/region09/awards/pastawards.html.

We look forward to hearing from you!