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Financial Times, 13 February 2009 – In the wake of the deepening economic crisis, many commentators are warning of the demise of corporate sustainability, the practice of balancing profit with the social and environmental impact of doing business. Companies obsessed with their own short-term survival, they suggest, cannot possibly support long-term, “feel-good” initiatives to protect the environment or invest in community development.

We see things differently. The downturn will produce more integrated, strategic and value-creating sustainability efforts in many companies. While traditional corporate responsibility and philanthropic initiatives may suffer, core elements of the sustainability agenda will survive or even thrive in a re-ordered economy.

One aspect of sustainability that is alive and kicking, perhaps more so because of the economic crisis, is concern with corporate governance. Public perception and trust of large corporations have been seriously damaged. The downturn will keep pressure on companies and executives to rebuild that trust and they must show a renewed commitment to do business in ways that go far beyond adherence to legal requirements, incorporating decision-making and reporting procedures that respect all stakeholders. Companies that fail to show such commitment will find themselves at risk when the economic conditions improve.

Concern with corporate governance is a fairly recent addition to a broader array of sustainability issues. Companies have been balancing economic, social and environmental objectives for much longer. In the 1970s, the earliest corporate sustainability efforts were developed to respond to new regulations in the US and Europe, and focused primarily on regulatory compliance and risk management. Environmental and social departments were designed as buffers, managing legal and regulatory obligations so the rest of the organisation could focus on making a profit. Many of the more successful companies have developed philanthropic programmes that direct a portion of corporate profits towards worthy causes, often through a corporate foundation created to support projects in communities where the company operates.

But this philanthropic approach is bound to suffer in the current downturn. For example, the three big US automakers have historically subsidised a broad array of social and economic initiatives, especially in the Detroit area. However, in the light of the automakers’ dismal economic prospects, local charities and non-profits expect corporate contributions to drop as much as 30 per cent in 2009.

Eco-efficiency

As companies have built sustainability capabilities and systems, generally under the broad title of “eco-efficiency”, it has become clear that sustainability management can contribute substantially to the bottom line by driving more efficient use of resources and reducing waste. For example, 3M’s “3P” programme, which started in 1975 to identify specific efficiency projects, has led to about $1bn in cumulative savings.

In the current business environment, however, there are obvious reasons why companies might want to reduce their levels of investment in eco-efficiency. First, the economic crisis has dampened demand for many resources and, thus, reduced the costs of energy, raw materials and other natural resources. This has made the business case for investing in energy efficiency more difficult to make. Second, eco-efficiency efforts vary widely in the amount of upfront capital required. While most companies have significant opportunities to reduce resource use through better operational practices, opportunities that are more significant typically require greater investment. For cash-strapped companies, it may become difficult to justify immediate outlays in anticipation of savings in the long term.

So, the outlook for eco-efficiency is decidedly mixed, continuing in most companies, but focusing on lower-key and lower-cost measures.

Consumers, retailers and supply chains

Consumers continue to demand green products, and in some cases demand is growing. According to a study by the Fresh Ideas Group, a public relations firm, consumers in 2009 will be more conscious of product impacts but also more value-conscious. The best positioned products will produce immediate savings, such as efficient lighting, or yield multiple benefits, such as local food that is perceived to be both greener and healthier. Big-ticket items, such as hybrid cars, or products with hefty premiums for an environmental benefit, such as organic bedsheets, may be more difficult to shift off shelves.

Retailers with strong and growing sustainability ambitions should flourish. Perhaps the most visible example is Wal-Mart, the world’s biggest retailer, which has announced several goals in the past few years, including zero waste, 100 per cent renewable energy use, “sustainable products” and, most recently, new standards for the environmental and social performance of its suppliers. For the supplier, this could be a burden but it could also be seen as an opportunity.

Tesco, the UK retailer, has also raised the bar for its suppliers, most notably requiring certain products to provide labelling information about the product’s carbon footprint.

Big retailers such as Wal-Mart and Tesco play important roles in educating consumers about the importance of sustainability and providing more affordable options in the marketplace. While we are still early in this process, there are encouraging signs that the retailer sustainability effect is real and is here to stay.

Sustainability as strategy

Changing economic and regulatory environments will lead more companies to adopt corporate strategies that include sustainability as a core issue. In their simplest form, such strategies will focus on helping a company’s customers to cope with their own sustainability issues.

General Electric’s Ecomagination programme is a good example. By developing and marketing products ranging from compact fluorescent light bulbs for homeowners to more efficient gas turbines for power-generating utilities, GE profits by providing ways for its customers to reduce their own operational costs.

The current economic crisis adds tension – customers with less cash to spend may reduce demand for such products. However, this appears to be primarily a financing issue. The companies that succeed may well be those that can help their customers finance purchases so the timing of cash outlays and operational savings are brought closer together.

Establishing sustainability as a core element of strategy is a much deeper problem. Companies will have to broaden their understanding of the system within which they operate, which includes a broad range of impinging factors, trends, forces and interactions. Developing this understanding will involve more than a conventional economic analysis.

In The Necessary Revolution: How Individuals and Organisations Are Working Together to Create a Sustainable World, Peter Senge of the Sloan School of Management, MIT reveals that companies will need a deep systems-based understanding of how the global economy, environment, society and geopolitics interact and affect the organisation. His work predates the current economic crisis, but it only strengthens his argument. Retailers and manufacturers must consider the possibility of severe upstream disruptions in supply and distributions chains, and at the same time grasp how economic and political conditions across the world will affect them. Add in volatility in energy and natural resources markets and potential disruptions in resource supply, and the importance of large-scale system-based comprehension becomes crucial for companies to succeed or, in some cases, simply survive.

Companies that are able to adapt will see that problems previously considered to be outside their sphere of influence actually fall within their purview. A good example is how Coca-Cola has dealt with water sustainability challenges. As water resources have become increasingly stressed and scarce in many parts of the world, Coca-Cola has begun to experience more conflicts with communities and other water users, most notably in India. Beginning in 2002, the company launched a thorough evaluation of its water use and associated risks, and developed a water sustainability programme that goes well beyond the traditional narrow focus on legal compliance and efficiency alone. As this work has evolved, Coca-Cola has increased its involvement in community efforts to ensure access to clean drinking water, watershed protection projects, especially in water-stressed regions, and efforts to mobilise the international community to anticipate and deal with ever more severe water crises worldwide. Coca-Cola’s approach is not philanthropic, but rather based on a realistic assessment of what is required to continue to operate a beverage company in an increasingly water-stressed world.

Conclusion

Ultimately, sustainability in the 21st century will require companies to “go deep, go wide, go local”.

“Going deep” means institutionalising sustainability into the company’s DNA to the extent that it becomes part and parcel of strategy. “Going wide” implies a full understanding of how sustainability impinges on every aspect of the organisation’s value chain. Finally, “going local” paradoxically goes hand-in-hand with globalisation, forcing companies to examine their global operations in order to identify and ameliorate specific local issues that affect the company’s operations, customers, competitive position, brand image, political standing or any aspect of its ability to do business.

Adopting a phrase from John Ehrenfeld’s Sustainability by Design , we see sustainability as flourishing within limits. Companies that are able to grasp the system within which they operate and the limits and requirements the system imposes will be the ones to flourish in the future business environment.

Daniel Vermeer is executive director at the Corporate Sustainability Initiative at the Fuqua School of Business, Duke University dv24@duke.edu

Robert Clemen is professor and faculty director of the Corporate Sustainability Initiative at the Fuqua School of Business, Duke University clemen@duke.edu

This article is reproduced with kind permission of The Financial Times

environmental Strategist, between the line: The EPA ECHO web site is a great source to generate new business leads. I can assure you companies and municipalities that are listed on the EPA ECHO web site will want to talk to you about pollution liability insurance.

If you go to http://www.epa-echo.gov/echo/ you will be able to find lists of companies facing EPA or state environmental enforcement. Besides water violations this site list violators for air, hazardous waste, and much more.

To gather more knowledge regarding enforcement and who is impacted you can go to: http://www.epa.gov/compliance/data/results/performance/cwa/index.html

Water Enforcement Data Now Available
Posted: July 6, 2009

The EPA announced in a press release dated Monday, July 06, 2009, that it has made available comprehensive reports and data on water enforcement in all 50 states.

In a memorandum issued last Thursday, Administrator Jackson directed the EPA’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance (OECA) to develop an action plan to enhance public transparency regarding clean water enforcement. In the memo, she called for stronger enforcement performance at federal and state levels and a transformation of the agency’s water quality and compliance information systems.

The administrator’s memo directed the agency to take several actions, including:

• Improve and enhance the information available on the EPA website on compliance and enforcement activities in each state, showing connections to local water quality where possible;
• Provide information in a user-friendly format form that is easily understood and useable by the public;
• Raise the bar for clean water enforcement performance and ensure enforcement is taken against serious violations that threaten water quality; and
• Improve EPA’s enforcement performance in states where EPA directly implements the clean water program.

In keeping with this directive, the EPA has posted detailed information on the current state of clean water compliance and enforcement in each state, and copies of the latest clean water enforcement and compliance performance reports for each state to the agency’s Web site. The EPA also launched new Web-based tools to help the public search, assess and analyze the data the agency used to help prepare those reports.

Administrator Jackson directed OECA to work with EPA’s Office of Water and to consult closely with EPA’s 10 regional offices and the states on the action plan. After obtaining input from other stakeholders, the assistant administrator of OECA, Cynthia Giles, will report back to Administrator Jackson in 90 days with recommendations.

by Ron Fonger | The Flint Journal
Thursday September 03, 2009

FLINT — The city says vandalism appears to be behind a 14,000-gallon sewage spill into Swartz Creek Monday.

Dawn Jones, a spokeswoman for Flint Mayor Dayne Walling, said today that city utility officials believe a person or persons took off a manhole cover from the area and dropped four large chunks of asphalt in.

The asphalt plugged the city sewer, resulting in spills of 10,000 gallons of raw sewage on the ground and 4,000 more into Swartz Creek, according to a report by the city to the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality.

The city’s report said the spill was discovered at 11 a.m. Monday and continued until 6:30 p.m. that same day in the area east of Hammerburg Road, south of Miller Road and north of I-69.

Jones said the relatively small amount of asphalt in the sewer led officials to believe it was not dumped by a construction company looking to dispose of waste.

Police are not investigating the incident, Jones said.

Source: MapCruzin
Published Apr. 13, 2009

In 1997 MapCruzin.com created the first interactive maps for Environmental Defense’s Scorecard project. Since then Michael Meuser, founder of MapCruzin, has done many other map-based environmental projects on the internet. After the 911 terrorist attacks and the beginning of the War on Terror, many map-based sites like these became hard to find or totally unavailable to the public. MapCruzin believes that the risk is NOT the information itself, but rather, is the amount of onsite toxic chemicals. The publicly available EPA Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) has proven to be effective in reducing the amount of onsite chemicals over time. ToxicRisk.com will increase public awareness, encouraging dialogue between citizens, local government and toxic facilities, resulting in reduced risk to those who live, work and play nearby.

ToxicRisk.com was launched today by MapCruzin.com, a firm with a long history of dedication to Community Right-To-Know. ToxicRisk.com allows people in the U.S. and her territories to locate potentially risky toxic facilities in their communities where they live,
work and play.

Using publicly available Toxic Release Inventory data released by EPA on March 19, 2009 ToxicRisk.com launched on April 13, 2009. They were encouraged by the present presidential administration emphasis on transparency and openness and EPA adiminstration’s emphasis on Right-To-Know.

Visitors to ToxicRisk.com learn more about toxic chemicals in their neighborhoods. They may search by city, state, zipcode or place or drill down through the maps with the Google zoom and pan controls.

The base maps are served by Google Maps with the MapCruzin toxic facility overlay. Once a facility is located a click brings them to
comprehensive reports from RTKNet.org. MapCruzin.com has also made available Google Earth maps of Toxic Release inventory facility
sites.

MapCruzin.com was founded by Michael Meuser in 1996. Michael and his son, Aran Deltac, developed ToxicRisk.com. Meuser is an environmental sociologist who has been doing online GIS development and environmental justice and toxic chemical research since the early 1990s. He holds undergraduate and graduate degrees from the University of California. Aran Deltac has been developing web sites and programming since 1994 and has been the technical guru powering MapCruzin since its inception.

MapCruzin created the very first U.S. based online interactive toxic maps – their Santa Cruz Toxic Release Inventory. They went on to develop the interactive maps for Environmenal Defense’s Scorecard project in 1997. Scorecard was an immediate success in bringing toxic chemical information to the masses.

In the future ToxicRisk.com will expand to add several other EPA databases including hazardous waste, water pollution, criteria pollutants, superfund and risk management plans as well as demographics. This is the first in their new series of Community Right- To-Know Toxic Inventory using Google Maps. Caliper Corporations Maptitude GIS was used to create the required geospatial data files from the raw EPA data.

BY BLAKE MORRISON AND BRAD HEATH
USA TODAY

Outside 15 schools in eight states, government regulators have found elevated levels of a substance that — in a more potent form — was also used as a chemical weapon during .

Those findings, based on samples collected for the , mark the first time the agency has expressed concern about the chemicals it detected as part of an ongoing effort to check for toxic chemicals in the air outside 63 schools nationwide.

The monitoring is part of a $2.25-million program that began in response to a USA TODAY investigation that identified hundreds of schools where chemicals from nearby industries appear to saturate the air. The preliminary results are meant to help determine only whether students face any immediate dangers from toxic chemicals. The EPA will use additional tests to evaluate long-term .

The chemical that once was weaponized, acrolein, can exacerbate asthma and irritate the eyes and throat. It is a byproduct of burning gasoline, wood and cigarettes, and its presence at so many sites was not explained. EPA spokesman Brendan Gilfillan said the initial readings show “more must be done to reduce the amount of acrolein the American people, especially children, are exposed to.”

At the 15 schools — in Alabama, California, Kentucky, Michigan, Mississippi, New York, Ohio and South Carolina — regulators found average acrolein levels at least 100 times higher than what the government considers safe for long-term exposure.

The highest level was recorded in August at Spain Elementary School in Detroit. Today, the 830 students at Spain were paying homage to the late Michael Jackson when Principal Ronald Alexander heard about the monitoring results. “We’ve had a very marvelous day today, but this is a concern,” he said of the acrolein levels.

Alexander said he sometimes sends asthmatic students across the street to the Children’s Hospital of Michigan. Despite 13 years as principal, Alexander said “we didn’t really know anything about (the air quality) . . . until they started this monitoring.” The findings trouble him, he said, and he has called “a parent meeting to talk about what to do.”

By LESLIE KAUFMAN

Three manufacturers of a commonly used fire retardant have voluntarily agreed to phase out its production within three years in a pact with the Environmental Protection Agency.

Environmentalists have long advocated a ban on the retardant decabromodiphenyl ether, or DecaBDE, which is used widely in consumer electronics, furniture and textiles, among other items. It has been found to be a potential carcinogen and to be toxic to the nervous system.

The agreement, with the manufacturers Chemtura, Albemarle and ICL Industrial Products, would end the production, importation and use of the chemical in all consumer products by December 2012. A full ban would take effect one year later.

No accord has been reached with a Japanese manufacturer that exports products with the substance to the United States.

The chemical “persists in the environment, potentially causes cancer and may impact brain function,” Steve Owens, the E.P.A.’s top toxics official, said in announcing the deal late Thursday. Mr. Owens said it could also degrade into more toxic chemicals hazardous to wildlife.

Some states have already passed legislation prohibiting the product’s manufacture or use in certain products, and others are weighing similar laws.

Alex Formuzis, a spokesman for the Environmental Working Group, a nonprofit environmental research and advocacy organization, welcomed the accord but said more federal action was needed. “We still want a legislative ban,” Mr. Formuzis said, “or else it might be reintroduced in the future.”

By Blake Morrison and Brad Heath, USA TODAY

NATRONA HEIGHTS, Pa. — On crisp fall mornings in the Allegheny River valley, the fog that hangs over Highlands High School usually burns off by the first bell. What remains in the air is the question.

ACROSS THE NATION: Controversies brew over possible toxic emissions

Almost a year after tests by USA TODAY found significant levels of two potentially toxic metals in the air outside the school, local health officials expanded their own monitoring efforts here. The reason: Air samples taken by the county earlier this year showed even higher levels of the metals than what USA TODAY found — on two days, at least nine times more.

Highlands, flanked by two metals plants, is among scores of schools where regulators — local, state or federal — are monitoring outdoor air for toxic chemicals, many that pose unique dangers to kids. The monitoring is not required by law but came in response to the USA TODAY investigation that identified hundreds of schools where chemicals from nearby industries may permeate the air.

Since Allegheny County health officials here found high levels of chromium and manganese in monitoring during January and February, they have urged patience. Air samples gathered in the past few months seem to offer some reassurance. Health officials say the most recent samples, made available to USA TODAY last week, indicate lower levels of the most dangerous type of chromium than their earlier estimates. That news is likely to come as a relief to parents who have children at Highlands, a school of about 950.

Even so, questions remain about dangers from long-term exposures to the other metal found: manganese, which may affect brain development, behavior and the ability to learn, especially in children.

“We don’t know enough to say it’s a problem, but we don’t know enough to say it’s not a problem,” says Keeve Nachman, an environmental toxicologist with Johns Hopkins University who examined the county’s findings for USA TODAY. He says the county’s findings reflect “potentially concerning exposures.”

Such unanswered questions have prompted action across the nation. Residents in Indiana and South Carolina have filed lawsuits against industries in their communities. Activists in Pennsylvania, Texas and Ohio continue to fight construction of facilities they believe would threaten the health of children in the area.

The government also has responded. In an unprecedented step, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency launched a $2.25 million program to examine air quality outside 63 schools in 22 states. In addition, EPA administrator Lisa Jackson appointed a new director for the agency’s Office of Children’s Health Protection soon after the Obama administration took office. Ruth McCully, the former director, told USA TODAY last year that examining air quality outside schools was “not my responsibility.”

To date, the EPA has begun monitoring at 60 of the 63 locations. As at Highlands, officials stress that the first samples are intended to discern whether students face any immediate dangers from toxic chemicals, not to evaluate chronic health risks, which often requires longer monitoring periods.

At a few schools, preliminary results indicate chemicals at levels that generally are considered safe for short-term exposures. At other locations, monitoring continues. At Stevens Creek Elementary in Cupertino, Calif., for example, regulators plan to monitor for at least a year because a nearby cement kiln wasn’t operating when the first samples were taken in July. Such facilities typically release chromium.

“This is a really important effort. We see this first and foremost as an effort to help us understand the broader issues we might be dealing with,” says Peter Grevatt, who replaced McCully as the director of the EPA’s children’s health office.

“By no means do we think that the focus is just on these” 63 schools. “It’s really an effort to try to understand broadly the scope of the issues we might be looking at nationwide.”

‘We’re concerned’

At Highlands, local officials took the lead in monitoring. What they found in this small town outside Pittsburgh offers an example of how complicated and frustrating the process can be.

In January and February, regulators with the county health department found elevated concentrations of chromium and manganese during about 10 days of testing. On Feb. 6, health department documents show levels of manganese at seven times above the federal government’s safety threshold for long-term exposure.

Precisely what danger students at Highlands and three nearby schools might face from the metals is far less clear.

Airborne chromium can take two forms. The more dangerous form, known as hexavalent chromium or chromium 6, can cause cancer. It can be released during steelmaking and cement production. The other, chromium 3, is relatively harmless.

Results from the recent samples indicate most of the chromium is of the benign variety, health department spokesman Guillermo Cole said Friday. “Parents should have no concerns about chromium 6 levels posing any significant cancer risk,” he says.

The high levels of manganese appear more troubling. The EPA has not determined whether manganese causes cancer, but high exposures can cause mental disabilities and emotional problems. Children — who breathe more air in proportion to their weight than adults do — may be more vulnerable.

Philip Landrigan, a pediatrician who leads a unit on children and the environment at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, says manganese acts as a neurotoxin. Exposures early in life, he says, can cause “loss of IQ, dulling of intelligence — basically the same types of effects as lead.” Moreover, Landrigan says, children may be at least 10 times more susceptible than adults.

Cole acknowledges that manganese levels were above what the EPA considers safe for long-term exposure. “Fortunately,” Cole says, “the children spend most of their time inside the school and the levels found there earlier this year were well below” safety thresholds.

Officials need to know more before they can pronounce the air safe, says Hopkins toxicologist Nachman. In part, that’s because the readings changed dramatically from one sample to the next, and the highest level was more than seven times above the EPA’s long-term safety threshold. Those thresholds generally are based on studies of adults. Nachman says officials need to understand how often — and why — that happens before they can assess long-term health risks that children here face.

Meantime, the school has taken steps of its own. Besides working with the county to monitor the air outside and in the school’s library, Highlands principal Tom Shirey says the school replaced “every door and window in this building since this summer. This place is sealed up tighter than a snare drum.”

Shirey says “there’s no readily apparent sign” of pollution from the two plants near the school, each within a mile.

The largest of the two, a steel mill operated by Allegheny Ludlum Corp., reported to the EPA that it released at least 1,280 pounds of chromium and 2,602 pounds of manganese into the air last year. Reporting laws do not require that the company differentiate between the types of chromium, but company spokesman Dan Greenfield says the emissions aren’t harmful.

“Let’s not go through this scaring people again by calling something dangerous which isn’t dangerous,” Greenfield says.

Greenfield also took issue with USA TODAY’s findings late last year, when the newspaper recorded elevated levels of chromium outside a school in nearby Midland, Pa. An Allegheny Ludlum mill there was one of three industrial facilities nearby that reported releasing chromium into the air. Greenfield said that the chromium there was not the carcinogenic form.

The superintendent of Midland’s schools immediately asked the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection to begin monitoring there. Department spokeswoman Teresa Candori says air samples taken over six months in Midland — and over shorter periods outside six other schools in the state — “did not detect any hazardous levels of pollution.”

Because of the recession, the steel mill in Midland was not operating during most of the state’s monitoring; it was last year, when USA TODAY found elevated chromium levels.

Battles continue

Battles about the impact of pollution and the dangers residents might face continue across the nation. In some cases, concerned parents have asked courts to intervene. In at least one case, the government has reached a settlement with a polluter. Among the controversies:

• In South Carolina, a group of Georgetown residents is suing International Paper, claiming its emissions were to blame for birth defects and other health problems. Tests in past years have found elevated dioxin levels in several homes around the plant, says J. Edward Bell, a Georgetown lawyer who represents the residents. “I’m amazed at what we found,” Bell says. “It affects everyone in this community, our families and our friends.” A spokeswoman for International Paper, Kathleen Bark, says that the mill has “a longstanding commitment to operating in a safe and environmentally responsible manner” but that she could not comment on the specifics of the suit.
• In Ohio, the current and former owners of a plastics plant outside Cincinnati agreed to pay a $3.1 million civil penalty for violating several environmental laws. In 2005, pollution from the plant — then owned by Lanxess Corp. — prompted school officials to close a school across the street. The closure of Meredith Hitchens Elementary came after seven months of air monitoring by the Ohio EPA. The agency found such high levels of carcinogens that it concluded the risk of getting cancer there was 50 times higher than what the state considers acceptable. INEOS, which currently operates the plant in Addyston, Ohio, also agreed to spend up to $2 million to improve environmental controls. The agreement among the company, Justice Department and EPA became final this month.
• In Indiana, a group of parents in Gary filed suit against 11 area companies, alleging that their emissions of toxic chemicals and other substances could put children at risk. Lawmakers there also passed a measure this year that allows the state health department to investigate complaints from parents and teachers about air quality inside schools. But legislators shelved a second measure that would have recommended school officials in the state test the outdoor air and water for pollution before they start construction on any school buildings. “We wanted to make sure that we didn’t locate new schools in areas that have poor air quality,” state Rep. John Barnes says.

The EPA’s Grevatt says the agency continues to work on guidelines to help school districts determine what to consider when identifying sites for new schools. Although Congress had ordered the agency to finish by June, Grevatt says the guidelines likely won’t be completed until late this year or early next.

The EPA also says it likely will offer guidance about whether certain industries should be sited near existing schools, an issue that continues to trouble activists in Erie, Pa.; Corpus Christi, Texas; and Middletown, Ohio, where industries that release toxic chemicals want to build near
schools.

‘Not panicked’

In Natrona Heights and adjacent Natrona, the metal industry’s role in shaping the town is apparent — especially at Highlands, the school where the county continues to monitor the air. There, Jamee Bonnett teaches science. She’s also the mother of a student, senior Zach, and the wife of an Allegheny Ludlum employee, David.

Years back, her stepfather worked at the steel mill. So did her grandfather. And her uncles. “I even worked there two summers to get through college,” she says. Now, at 41, she tries to help students sort through the USA TODAY investigation, the county’s subsequent air monitoring — and their own suspicions. Among the most skeptical: her 17-year-old son.

Zach says he and his friends believe school officials “try to hide” how bad the air is. “It feels like they don’t care,” he says during a study hall this month. “They’re worried about metal detectors and mesh bags but not the air we breathe.”

His mother listens patiently. She strongly disagrees with her son’s perspective, as do her science students, she says. “We all concluded that until more extensive study was done, we were comfortable leaving the classroom not panicked,” she says.

Still, she says, she welcomes more monitoring. “It’s nice to be proactive,” she says, “and if everything is fine, great.”

By GreenerBuildings Staff

WASHINGTON, DC — Green Seal’s certification standard for restaurants and foodservice operations has been approved by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI), making the guidelines the first of their kind to be nationally recognized, Green Seal said today.

The GS-46 Environmental Standard for Restaurants and Foodservices, released in May, is also the first Green Seal specification to be approved as an American National Standard.

Green Seal, a third-party certifier whose ecolabel can be found on goods and facilities ranging from green cleaning products to lodgings, was accredited as a standards developer by the institute in September 2008.

The standard for restaurants and foodservice establishments provides a framework for the facilities to reduce their environmental impacts.

The standard addresses food purchasing and waste reduction, which present the greatest opportunities for restaurateurs and foodservice operators to shrink their facilities’ environmental footprint. Resource efficiency and water and energy management are among the other key issues covered.

Three certification levels — bronze, silver and gold — are available under the standard, which applies to full-service, limited service, non-commercial and catering operations .

GS-46 was developed with input from more than 100 trade groups, operators in the industry, suppliers, educators and environmental and health organizations.

The Green Seal Web site: http://www.greenseal.org/index.cfm

By Thomas Frank, USA TODAY WASHINGTON — Railroad companies are pressing federal regulators to cut back on trains carrying hazardous materials through urban areas, saying they fear a catastrophic release of toxic chemicals in a large city.

The companies also fear billions in legal claims if toxic materials spill during a derailment or act of sabotage. Rail industry associations are petitioning to allow railroads for the first time to refuse to carry chemicals such as chlorine over long distances.

Federal law requires railroads to transport such materials, which are used in manufacturing, agriculture and water treatment.

The companies’ move is opposed by the Obama administration and others who say railroads are the safest way to move toxic materials. If trucks end up carrying materials that railroads reject, “that would pose a much greater danger,” said Patricia Abbate of Citizens for Rail Safety, a Massachusetts advocacy group.

The railroad petition is the latest effort to address the danger posed by the 110,000 carloads of toxic chemicals rail companies carry each year. Navy researchers have said an attack on a chemical-carrying train could kill 100,000 people.

“We prefer not to ship this material at all,” said Patricia Reilly of the Association of American Railroads. Rail companies have pressed Congress for liability protection. The government has deemed rails as the safest way to move chemicals, Reilly said.

This year, Union Pacific refused to carry chlorine from a plant in Utah to Texas and Louisiana. Rail cars would pass through Salt Lake City, Kansas City and Fort Worth, exposing millions of people to “remote but deadly risks,” the railroad said in a February petition filed with the Surface Transportation Board, which regulates railroads.

Union Pacific said the Texas and Louisiana plants could get chlorine from nearby suppliers. Other railroads and rail associations have urged the board to grant Union Pacific’s request to reject hazardous shipments if the materials are available from closer sources.

The railroad effort is opposed by chemical and fertilizer companies and associations, the Transportation Security Administration and the Transportation Department, which say new rules have improved rail safety. The TSA said shorter rail routes are not automatically safer than longer routes.

American Chemistry Council spokesman Scott Jensen said railroads “would effectively control the supply and demand” of materials if they could refuse to carry certain shipments. “That simply cannot be tolerated.” Environmental Risk Managers Notes: The rail industry is stating they are a dangerous way to ship hazardous materials. Government is saying rail is less dangerous than over the road. Bottom line, companies dealing with hazardous materials must have an environmental strategy in how they ship and receive hazardous materials.

How do companies working with Hazardous materials purchase them? Do they buy them FOB point of shipment or FOB point of delivery? The vast majority purchase their hazardous raw materials FOB point of shipment because it’s cheaper.

Companies purchasing hazardous materials FOB point of shipment own those materials once they leave the shipping facility. What’s your strategy should an accident occur involving hazardous materials you purchased FOB point of shipment? The rail companies fear a loss could put them out of business.

I suggest purchasing transportation pollution liability insurance that protects the insured for first and / or third party transportation pollution liability.

The New York Times reported that their reporters found over 500,000 violations of the Clean Water Act by various industries. Reporters filed Freedom of Information Act requests in every state to build a data base for permit reports. The study revealed that permits had been violated and in many cases, no action had been taken by regulators.

The newspaper reported that EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson said water issues were at the top of her agenda and enforcement should be increasing.

Some states seemed to be more lax than others. The federal agency has authority to step in if they think a state is not able to properly provide oversight of water permit issues.

According the newspaper article 19.5 million people fall ill each year in the United States from drinking water that is contaminated with bacteria, parasites, and viruses. There were also a number of examples of reports that people have suffered due to high metals and other toxins found in drinking water.

Environmental Risk Managers Facts and Figures On Water

• Each year hospitals dispose of 250 million pounds of pharmaceuticals in sewer systems.
• Each year there are 240,000 water main breaks in the United States.
• Cities loose any where from 10 to 40% of their drinking water to leakage.
• Water leakage can create or exacerbate an existing environmental problem. Sewer back ups, vapor intrusion, structural deterioration….
• 71% of the earths surface is covered by water.
• Only 2.5% of the earth’s water is fresh water. 66% of the fresh water is locked up in glaciers, snow, permafrost or is contaminated leaving only 1% readily available for human consumption. 20% of that fresh water lies in the Great Lakes basin.
• 1.2 billion or 1 in 6 people on earth have no access to clean water. 1.3 million children under the age of 5 die each year of water born diseases. 1 child dies every second – equal to 18 fully loaded jumbo jets crashing every day.
• Water is life! 60% of the human body, 75% of the brain and 82% of our blood is water.