Pollution Prevention and Sustainability

By Bruce Taylor
President, Enviro-Stewards Inc.
e-mail: btaylor (at) enviro-stewards.com

A Sustainability and Pollution Prevention (P2) world café recently took place at the Environmental Summit held in San Francisco (May 2009). The objective of the café was to explore actions that can be taken to further P2 and sustainability. The crowd overflowed the venue, which is a clear indication of the recent growth in interest in this topic.

Pollution Prevention and Sustainability Practitioners are often considered to be working in distinct fields. However, the area of sustainability (see diagram below) is common to both disciplines (or more accurately, the area of sustainability is the focus of the single discipline of sustainable P2).

Historically, Pollution Prevention practitioners have tended to underemphasize the social leg of sustainability. Perhaps this was related to:

• A presumed priority of corporate audience’s drivers (dollars, then environment, then social),
• the progressively more difficult process of quantifying economic, environmental and then social benefits, and/or
• the P2 practitioner’s lack of awareness and/or aptitude for identifying environmentally advantageous, economically sound social opportunities.

In 2000, Enviro-Stewards Inc. was founded in order to provide clients services to conserve resources and address environmental liabilities and to provide staff a vehicle to serve people and care for creation. As such Enviro-Stewards tends to attract staff with interests in substantive technical work, environmentally beneficial projects and social improvement.

Initially, our staff accomplished these objectives concurrently with P2 and Energy Efficiency (E2) services in North American and local and international volunteer work (Habitat for Humanity, Out of the Cold, earthquake relief in El Salvador, and constructing an orphanage in Southern Sudan)....[Read more]

Pollution Prevention: Graduating to Competency-Based Training

By Robert B. Pojasek, Ph.D.
Senior Associate, First Environment
e-mail: rpojasek (at) sprynet.com

This copyrighted article is for your personal use only. Any other use is prohibited without the prior written consent of the author or the publisher of the article.

For the past twenty years, new pollution prevention (P2) facilitators have been trained using traditional methods. This training was designed to help them understand what they needed to know. P2 trainers relied on the many excellent databases available on the Internet that contain success stories and anecdotal information. For the most part, these new facilitators learned about material substitutions and P2 technology diffusion.

More recently, P2 trainers seek to include some level of skill development. The US Environmental Protection Agency publication, "An Organizational Guide to Pollution Prevention," presented information about process mapping, the Systems Approach, environmental management systems, and basic problem solving tools including root cause analysis. People have to realize that it takes time and experience to develop skills. The rush to the get the P2 facilitators in the field often is at odds with skill-based training. Traditional P2 training is often ineffective when the goal is to train individuals to perform specific job-related skills...Read more (PDF)

Program Results

OCETA announces Community Go Green Funding for Climate Change Stewardship Project
OCETA is pleased to announce a $93,850 funding grant from Ontario's Community Go Green Fund to deliver a GTA-based Climate Change Stewardship Project. The Project aims to achieve quantifiable greenhouse gas emission reductions by providing the GTA manufacturing community with support for energy efficiency and pollution prevention assessments...[Details]

The Proposed Toxics Reduction Act
Bill 167, the proposed Toxics Reduction Act, introduced in the Ontario Legislature on April 7, 2009, is at the core of Ontario's Toxics Reduction Strategy. The Toxics Reduction Strategy represents a balanced approach to protecting human health and the environment and improving the quality of our lives while supporting the transformation of businesses in Ontario to a green economy...[Details]

New Pollution Prevention Case Studies for TRSP Manufacturing Clients

FTG Circuits, C.J. Graphics and Prokleen Washing Services have recently made their pollution prevention case studies public on the TRSP Web site. These and other TRSP client case studies are available for download on the TRSP Case Studies page.

TRSP Client Award Winners in 2008-09
TRSP clients were once again successful at the 2009 Environmental Printing Awards held February 12th at the Eglinton Grand in Toronto. Colour Innovations took home two golds and a silver, while C.J. Graphics was awarded with two silvers. Last spring, North York General Hospital won a CCME Pollution Prevention Award in recognition of its Overall Pollution Prevention Efforts. Visit the TRSP Awards page for more details.

Increasing the competitiveness of your business through sustainable business practices
The Town of Markham has partnered with OCETA to launch the Markham Manufacturers Sustainability Program (MMSP). The program promotes and encourages sustainable behaviour among businesses and provides small-to-medium sized (SME) manufacturers in Markham with technical and financial assistance to reduce their environmental footprint...[Details]

A one-window eco-efficiency opportunity for businesses: Partners in Project Green Eco-Efficiency Program
OCETA has been working in partnership with TRCA to develop and deliver the Partners in Project Green Eco-Efficiency Program. The Eco-Efficiency Program is a response to the strong interest from the business community in adopting sustainable business practices by integrating their energy, water, and waste priorities to enhance their environmental performance and business bottom line. The result is a one-window outlet that seamlessly connects businesses to eco-efficiency opportunities...[Details]

Sustainability Outreach: Reflecting on Year 1 of the Durham Sustainability Stewardship Program
Now 14 months into the program, OCETA and its program partners have generated significant interest and dialogue on environmental sustainability initiatives in Durham Region, and delivered on several program outreach components...[Details]

Energy Benchmark Study will Benefit Ontario Manufacturers
With over 200 companies signed up, the energy use benchmark study launched by Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters (CME) is well under way. The study, which intends to define potential energy savings in the manufacturing sector and feed into program development for the sector, is open to 300 Ontario-based small, medium and large (more than 500 employees) companies from all manufacturing sectors...[Details]

Voluntary Environmental Leadership Program Offers Incentives to Leading Companies that Go Beyond Compliance
The way we do business is changing and environmental expectations are increasing. Members of Ontario's Environmental Leaders (OEL) Program realize that competitiveness, efficiency and innovations are enhanced by making green choices...[Details]

Greening Your Business Bottom Line and Pollution Prevention Workshop
On January 21st 2009, City of Toronto's Water Division and OCETA presented "Greening Your Business Bottom Line and Pollution Prevention" - a workshop to discuss and share information on how businesses in the City of Toronto can enhance their bottom line, reduce resource consumption and minimize waste through pollution prevention practices. Topics discussed and presentations are available on the workshop web site.

2009 Canadian Pollution Prevention Roundtable and CCME P2 Awards
June 15th & 16th, 2009
Charlottetown, PEI



Now in its 13th year, the Canadian Pollution Prevention Roundtable (CPPR) continues to be a unique opportunity in Canada to coordinate pollution prevention efforts. Recognizing what can be done through a unified effort, practitioners, corporate leaders and senior decision-makers use the CPPR to stimulate further actions that avoid or minimize the creation of pollution and wastes thereby achieving measurable improvements in environmental performance.

For more information, please visit www.c2p2online.com.

Smog Summit 2009
June 3rd, 2009
Toronto, Ontario
Hear about the clean air and climate change actions being undertaken across the GTA. The 2009 Smog Summit will be followed by a Best Practices Exchange on the theme of ReDevelopment - Actions and Plans aimed at enhancing quality of life via economic growth that is based on the renewal of our natural, built and socioeconomic assets...[Details]

Guelph Food Technology Centre Second Annual Sustainability Symposium: Sustainability – The Next Step.....Putting Plans into Action
June 17th & 18th, 2009
Brampton, Ontario
Explore the possibilities of cleaner, more profitable food and beverage production. This symposium will showcase sustainable business practices for the competitive food and beverage industry. Seminars will focus on the advantages of going "green", proven implementation strategies, and challenges and opportunities for integrating sustainable business practices into food and beverage production...[Details]

A CLEAN TECH GATHERING
June 19th, 2009
Markham, Ontario
The Innovation Synergy Centre in Markham (ISCM), in partnership with the Town of Markham and OCETA invite you to network, meet industry peers, participate in panel discussions, and learn from business and government leaders and managers about the growing Clean Technology Business Sector...[Details]

Greening Ontario's Hospitals: A Platform for Action
June 23rd, 2009
Toronto, Ontario
The objective of this conference is to provide hospital leaders with useful strategies and tools for improving the environmental impact of hospitals. One highlight not to be missed includes an introduction to the new Green Hospital Champion Fund...[Details]

Fostering Sustainable Behaviour Workshop
September 28th & 29th, 2009
Toronto, Ontario
This two-day workshop provides a comprehensive introduction to community-based social marketing and how it is being applied throughout the world to foster sustainable behaviour...[Details]