Greenversations

Each week we write about the science behind environmental protection. Previous Science Wednesdays.

For each month in 2009, the Year of Science—we will pose a question related to science. Please let us know your thoughts as comments, and feel free to respond to earlier comments, or post new ideas.

The Year of Science theme for May is Sustainability and the Environment.

One of the most widely-cited definitions of sustainability is “meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”

What does sustainability mean to you, and what are you doing to achieve it?

Each week we write about the science behind environmental protection. Previous Science Wednesdays.

About the author: Alan D. Hecht is the Director for Sustainable Development in EPA’s Office of Research and Development. He has also served as the Associate Director for Sustainable Development, White House Council on Environmental Quality (2002-2003), and the Director of International Environmental Affairs for the National Security Council (2001-2002).

Charles Perrings, a professor of Environmental Economics at the Global Institute for Sustainability at Arizona State University, recently argued that the development of discipline-based science, while the source of nearly all the scientific advances of the past century, has limited the ability of science to address problems that span more than one discipline.

Sustainability science is a new discipline of a different kind: it draws upon many existing disciplines to forge a systems approach to environmental management. Its fundamental contribution is to solve problems.

Today, few of the world’s environmental problems can simply be addressed as an issue basically restricted to air, water, or chemicals. Sustainability science is the integration of all of these disciplines to better understand how humans and society interact as a system.

Sustainability science is asking the right questions:

• Why aim merely to reduce toxic waste when we can eliminate it with new chemicals and processes?
• Why handle and dispose of growing amounts of waste when we can more efficiently manage materials that eliminate, reduce, or recycle waste?

When EPA was created in 1970, its focus of attention was on reducing obvious sources of pollution to the environment. When the oil slick and debris in the Cuyahoga River near Cleveland, Ohio, caught fire in June 1969, it drew attention to other environmental problems across the country and helped to spur the environmental movement that led to the Clean Water Act of 1972.

Since its creation in 1970, EPA has been largely successful in addressing many of the most obvious and pressing environmental issues of that time, such as the quality of air and water. But new approaches are now needed to deal with emerging and newly recognized problems:

• the expanding population and economy and their demand for energy and materials;
• the changing rates of urban sprawl and loss of biodiversity;
• nonpoint, trans-boundary, and trans-media sources of pollutants such as storm water runoff;
• genetically modified organisms;
• the potentially harmful effects of these products as well as endocrine disruptors and nanoparticles; and
• the cumulative impacts of all these factors on the environment and public health.

Addressing these and other environmental issues in an integrated manner will demand a greater focus on sustainability and the vital need to develop sustainability science. We will need to apply what we learn to foster policies and best practices that can help people coexist with the planet.

The development and achievements of sustainability science deserve the increasing recognitions that it is receiving great deal of credit for this progress. Among this recognition is the May 2009 celebration of the month of Sustainability and the Environment as part of the Year of Science.

Each week we write about the science behind environmental protection. Previous Science Wednesdays.

About the author: Cynthia Nolt-Helms is the Manager of EPA’s P3 - People, Prosperity and the Planet - Program

On vacation last week visiting my husband’s family in Florida, I had to answer a flood of work-related emails and phone calls. By the second day, everyone around me was puzzled and a bit annoyed about what was so important that I couldn’t take even a few days break from my job.

“I’m planning the National Sustainable Design Expo which is part of EPA’s P3 Award Competition,” I told them all proudly.

“That’s nice dear, but what’s that and why don’t they leave you alone,” my mother-in-law asked politely.

I explained to her that the Expo is the culmination of a year’s hard work. The program I manage, EPA’s People, Prosperity and the Planet Program (“P3” for short) gives me the opportunity to meet and interact with some of the movers and shakers of the next generation. EPA awards grants of $10,000 in the fall to universities for teams of students to design and research ideas for ways to live more sustainably on the planet.

The teams work on their projects and then come to Washington, DC in the spring to the National Sustainable Design Expo to exhibit and compete for an EPA P3 Award and additional funds. The students are bright and passionate about the environment, and their projects demonstrate great creativity and ingenuity. As a long-time federal employee who has worked most of her career for EPA in Washington, DC, I am exhilarated every year by the students’ optimism and idealism. They give me hope for the future.

At this year’s Expo — running this coming Saturday through Monday — we expect to see some amazing ideas: a solar powered water heater, wetlands for cleaning up dairy wastewater, solar panels to remove salt from water, even a method for using the sun to disinfect water.

Hmmm, now that I think about it, we need to plan for sunny weather!

But these are just a few of the 48 team projects and 35 exhibitors from nonprofit and government organizations that will be under the Expo tent on the National Mall between 3rd and 4th Streets, NW in DC. If you live in the area, or are visiting DC this coming weekend, I hope you can join us on the Mall to “See the future today!” I know you will be glad you did.

The 2009 National Sustainable Design Expo featuring EPA’s P3 Award is cosponsored by EPA and Beyond Benign, a nonprofit focused on sustainability and green chemistry.

Expo Hours: Saturday, April 18th – Noon – 5:00 pm; Sunday, April 19th – 9:00 am to 5:00 pm; Monday, April 20 – 9:00 am – 3:00 pm

Each week we write about the science behind environmental protection. Previous Science Wednesdays.

About the author: Alan D. Hecht is the Director for Sustainable Development in EPA’s Office of Research and Development. He has also served as the Associate Director for Sustainable Development, White House Council on Environmental Quality (2002-2003), and the Director of International Environmental Affairs for the National Security Council (2001-2002).

Three Star Clusters Shine in the Night Sky

The brightest one is “Academiasta,” a cluster of colleges and university committed to running their institutions and educating their students on sustainability principles and practices. Not very distant from Academiasta is “Industrina”, a growing group of energy and manufacturing companies working to turn their landscapes green. Further away is “Neuvo Federalvo,” a cluster of dim stars, flickering on and off in the night sky.

In the Neuvo Federalvo cluster sits one sleeping giant whose internal energy has been growing and who is now ready to shower the night sky with a new light. All eyes are on EPA watching for a super nova sustainability explosion in the days ahead.

EPA and the Office of Research and Development (ORD) showed remarkable foresight and leadership in developed a Sustainable Research Strategy (2007) emphasizing a systems approach to dealing with environmental issues. The Strategy has been influential in affecting the direction of a number of EPA policy and research programs:

• our Office of Policy, Economics and Innovation’s Sector Reports on Energy and Manufacturing include sustainability measures
• the Office of Prevention, Pesticides, and Toxic Substances’ Pollution Prevention Program is reassessing its long-term goals bases on the Sustainability Strategy
• an interoffice Vision 2020 working group is currently revising the Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response’s RCRA 2020 report with a major focus on shifting from waste to materials management
• the Office of Water has developed a strategy for Sustainable Water Infrastructure.

The need to focus on sustainable outcomes and implement sustainable management practices is more urgent today than ever before.

ORD created a sustainability Web site to advance EPA as a GoTo Agency on sustainability. The site is a onestop source for hundreds of EPA sustainability and research programs.

The site has just been updated and new sections have been added in four cross-cutting EPA program areas: urban sustainability and green building, water and ecosystem services, energy, climate and biofuels, and materials, toxics and human health.

The three clusters in the sky—Academiasta, Industrina and Neuvo Federalvo—could create a new constellation larger and more impressions than anything that has been seen before. In this constellation, EPA can be one of the brightest stars.

All astronomers are welcome to navigate the EPA cluster.

Each week we write about the science behind environmental protection. Previous Science Wednesdays.

About the author: Alan D. Hecht is the Director for Sustainable Development in EPA’s Office of Research and Development. He has also served as the Associate Director for Sustainable Development, White House Council on Environmental Quality (2002-2003), and the Director of International Environmental Affairs for the National Security Council (2001-2002).

On October 9, 2007—the same day the stock market soared above 14,000 points—New York Times reporter Michael Grynbaum declared that Federal Reserve officials saw a cloudy economic forecast for months ahead. We all know what happened next. Financial warning signs were everywhere, but appropriate actions were not taken.

What does the financial crisis have to do with environmental sustainability? The clearest link is a critical lesson about the consequences of not paying attention to warning signs. Today nearly all ecosystems in the world are under serious stress:

• Approximately 60 percent (15 of 24) of the ecosystem services examined by the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment are being degraded or used unsustainably.
• The quantity of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere is continuing to rise.
• Signs of water scarcity—rivers running dry, wells going dry, and lakes disappearing—have become commonplace over the last half-century. Reports from WHO, the UN and other sources suggest water scarcity may be the least recognized resource issue facing the world today.

Like the financial world, the environmental world is threatened by collapse. It is time to examine basic principles and take corrective actions, such as making our industrial and energy systems as sustainable as possible. Three things are needed to make sustainability operational: advances in science and technology, implementation of appropriate government regulations and policies, and green business practices.

Regulatory and science agencies like EPA need to follow a broader mandate to undertake core research leading to a better understanding of the interactions among the economy, society, and the environment. EPA core research must expand basic knowledge of the environment, provide practical solutions to problems, and motivate actions. EPA’s Sustainability Research Strategy is a starting point. Its measure of success must be to develop tools, models, and approaches that inform public debate and help businesses make better decisions.

As in all previous financial crises, the stock market will recover. Unfortunately it may be far more difficult to respond as quickly to current and pending environmental crises. The time is clearly at hand to launch corrective actions.

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.

About the author: While Karen Reshkin of our Chicago office enjoys her vacation, she’s sending along environmentally relevant thoughts and pictures.

On Monhegan Island, Maine, everyone is quite aware of sustainability. They need to balance out the vastly different summer and winter populations. Only about sixty people live there year round. They’re very serious about water conservation, since they have well water and must be careful not to exceed its withdrawal capacity. They are similarly careful about energy conservation, since there is one fuel-powered generator station on the island. No street lights. To preserve the forested areas from erosion, no mountain bikes nor trail strollers are allowed. No one seems unhappy with this more limited way of life. The year-rounders understand that this is the way to preserve their way of life.

About the author: Viccy Salazar joined EPA in 1995. She works in our Seattle office on waste reduction, resource conservation and stewardship issues.

Everyday, I try to teach my kids not to waste, to share, to do unto others, to pick up after themselves, to take only what they really need… you get the picture. The great thing about kids is that they really want to do those things and they want to be nice and fair about how they interact with their friends. As I was thinking on Earth Day, I was thinking how these are the exact same lessons that we need for environmental protection. We can protect the earth if we just obey the basic rules we all learned when we were 3 years old. Here are the rules as I see them:

Share. We need to share the resources and not hoard for ourselves. The resources available to us need to be allocated among many communities and species. I think, in particular, of water and food distribution where some have so much and others have so little. We don’t have a choice but to share the earth so we must learn to share the earth’s resources so all of us can survive together.

Don’t waste. Don’t waste means to make the best use of the resources we have. It obviously relates to things like recycling and turning off lights but was I was thinking about it, I realized it also means don’t use resources if you don’t have to. Take a bus, buy a smaller house, have a high gas mileage car, don’t buy things you don’t need, borrow instead of buy. I find I need to remind myself of this lesson a lot.

Pick up after yourself. To me this mean don’t pollute. When we pollute, we are leaving our mess for someone else. Our environmental laws like RCRA, the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act are all basically trying to say, if you make the mess, clean it up or only make a little mess. Then I think, but if all of us make just a little mess, it turns into a really big mess which isn’t sustainable. So, we are looking into new solutions like Product Stewardship. Product Stewardship requires companies taking responsibility for the end-of-life management of the products they make and sell. The same lesson we teach our children, you are responsible for your own messes. Don’t put it on anyone else. We still have a long way to go.

I know there are a few more rules but I need to go and practice the rules at home. I’ll check back next week. While I’m gone, let’s all think about how the rules apply to us and our daily activities.

I invite you to leave a comment with your own rules and share them with others in your life to spread the environmental word.