IL Sustainability Awards – Page 4

March 1, 2016May 22, 2018

Become an Environmental Champion

ISTC NEWS

Apply for the Illinois Governor’s Sustainability Award Program

Illinois sustainability champions have been recognized every year since 1987 through the Illinois Governor’s Sustainability Awards (IGSA). [In earlier years called the Illinois Governor’s Pollution Preventions Awards]

Applications are now open for the 2016 IGSA, the nation’s longest standing state environmental award program, through which companies, municipalities, and organizations are acknowledged for their efforts for minimizing their environmental impact and having positive economic and societal consequences for their sustainability actions. The award program is a service of the Illinois Sustainable Technology Center, a division of the Prairie Research Institute at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Public and private Illinois organizations statewide are implementing strategies to save money and resources by eliminating wasted energy, water, and material in their manufacturing and other activities. The Illinois Governor’s Sustainability Award is an opportunity to be recognized as a leader in your sector for environmental efficiency and sustainable leadership.

Four recent winners show how they did it in an on-line video profiling Nestle Inc. Jacksonville, Ill; the City of Galena, Ill; a small business, beelove of Chicago; and the City of Arcola.

Applications are available on the IGSA website: http://www.istc.illinois.edu/info/govs_awards.cfm. They will be accepted until 5 p.m. Friday, May 20. Please visit our website, as there are many resources to assist in developing your application, such as case studies, sample applications. Among last year’s winners were Cook County, the Shedd Aquarium, AbbVie Inc., Saratoga Food Specialties, and Western Illinois University. Sponsorship opportunities for the awards ceremony are also available: questions can be referred to istc-govsawards@illinois.edu.

The 2016 Awards Ceremony will be held on Tuesday, Nov. 1, at the Union League Club of Chicago, 65 West Jackson Blvd., Chicago.

February 17, 2016

2014 Illinois Governor’s Sustainability Award Winner: Nestle Jacksonville

In early 2013, Nestlé’s Jacksonville environmental network set a goal to have their factory achieve zero waste to landfill by the end of that year. The network worked with representatives from all four beverage factories – Jacksonville, IL, Freehold, NJ, Waverly, IA, and Anderson, IN – and formed the Nestlé Beverage Environmental Network. As a divisional network they worked collectively on solutions to achieve zero landfill status at all four factories.

The projects pursued by the team resulted in:

1,029 tons of waste diverted from landfill per year; and
$900,000 in annual savings from energy efficient upgrades.

The team also successfully engaged employees at the facility. Half of the efficient installations originated as ideas from factory floor staff.

Read the entire case study here.

January 21, 2016

New case study: 2014 Illinois Governor’s Sustainability Award Winner: City of Arcola

The City of Arcola worked with Tick Tock Energy to reduce the energy consumption associated with the operation of city facilities. They undertook several energy projects, which included:

Replacing incandescent and T12 lighting with CFLs and T8s in the fire department and community center buildings;
Upgrading the wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) aeration blowers with more energy efficient replacements;
Powering the WWTP with wind energy;
Installing a solar array at City Hall.

These projects reduced greenhouse gas emissions and resulted in $25,554 annual savings for taxpayers.

Read the full case study here.

December 24, 2015May 22, 2018

Ten: 10 Days of ISTC; Anniversary Presentation Video

Videos of presentations at ISTC’s anniversary event provide a fascinating look at problems of pollution contamination in Illinois and how the Center contributed to the clean up. Links to the videos will be made available over the next two weeks as they become available.

ISTC Looks Back, and to the Future During Anniversary

VIDEO 10: Mark Ryan After leading the assembly in “Happy Birthday” to ISTC, Ryan shared a brief survey of the history of “sustainability in the modern context.” In 1980, sustainable development was called a global priority in “World Conservation Strategy” published by the International Union for of Conservation of Nature.

The United Nation’s Bruntland Commission defined it in 1987: “Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”

But sustainability in the sense of natural resources goes back thousands of years to so many cultures across the globe that Ryan said he was comfortable labeling it a “universal truth.”

For examples in ancient times he cited, “Deuteronomy’s” caution not to kill female birds with young, forest management practiced in the Han Dynasty, and the Roman latifundium which managed the production of wood and other crops. Ryan noted that when Rome fell, and latifundia disappeared, so did many of the forests in Italy and France.

Ryan continued to offer examples of preserving resources for future use through the centuries, right up to the establishment of the Illinois Sustainable Technology Center in 1985.

ALL VIDEOS and other ISTC 30th Anniversary information is available at this ISTC web page.

December 23, 2015May 22, 2018

Nine: 10 Days of ISTC; Anniversary Celebration Videos

ISTC Looks Back, and to the Future During Anniversary

VIDEO 9: State Senator Scott Bennett’s presentation gave insights on how policies work their way through the state legislature. For 10 years politics, policy and science questions surrounded a proposal to store PCBs and manufactured gas plant waste in a DeWitt County landfill positioned over the Mohamet Aquifer.

He has been active in promoting legislation to protect the aquifer, which is a critical source of drinking water for a large region of central Illinois. Another pending bill to protect the state’s natural infrastructure is a comprehensive program to monitor the quality of air, water, and land resources. Also, a proposed law would allow cities to collect fees from power plants to prepare for the costs of environmental cleanup when the plant eventually closes down.

NEXT UP: Mark Ryan, PRI executive director, “A Brief History of Sustainability.”

December 22, 2015May 22, 2018

Eight: 10 Days of ISTC; Anniversary Presentation Videos

ISTC Looks Back, and to the Future During Anniversary

VIDEO 8: Jerri-Anne Garl represented the federal Environmental Protection Agency during the ISTC Anniversary Celebration. Since EPA’s pollution prevention program started in the early 1990s, ISTC “has been one of our most effective and innovative partners,” Garl said. “ISTC itself has served as a model for other state programs.” She outlined successes of ISTC programs in assisting local communities and small companies, as well as major manufacturers, save money, water, energy, and make their operations more environmentally friendly.

Garl reviewed federal priorities for the EPA: 1) making a visible difference in communities; addressing climate change and improving air quality; launching a new era of state, tribal and local partnerships; and embracing EPA as a high performing organization. She added that the agency has set three emphasis areas for its work: climate change, food manufacturing, and hazardous materials mitigation.

“We believe that the ISTC is really well-positioned with the tools, experience, connections and the innovative spirit, to be a central partner in this effort.

NEXT UP: Scott Bennett, Illinois Senate (52 Dist. D), “Protecting Our Environment.”

December 21, 2015May 22, 2018

Seven: 10 Days of ISTC; Anniversary Presentation Videos

ISTC Looks Back, and to the Future During Anniversary

VIDEO 7: Kevin Greene’s career in the environmental arena spans almost 30 years, including nearly 20 years at the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency. During the early days of the pollution prevention movement, he viewed the reaction against environmental contamination from several perspectives — as an environmental issues consultant, lobbyist, and regulator.

He noted that during the 1970s there was a wave of federal environmental laws which represented a change in the environmental community from public activists for change working from outside institutions to working inside them. Early regulations were also aimed at dealing with managing pollution after it was created.

A second wave of community activism developed in the 1980s over concern about how effectively industrial by-products were being handled, and their potential health impacts, he said. “Specialists or technocrats” continued to be “at the table” in seeking waste management solutions, but public activists were growing less trusting, he recalled.

Activists’ focus shifted away from calls for regulations that manage pollutants to local level activism to halt proposed storage/disposal facilities. Increasingly the questions became “why is waste being generated in the first place” and the response shifted to getting critical information about pending waste projects to affected communities.

NEXT UP: Jerri-Anne Garl, U.S. EPA, “Working with ISTC on Pollution Prevention: Past Accomplishments and Future Opportunities from a Federal Perspective.”

December 20, 2015May 22, 2018

Six: 10 Days of ISTC; Anniversary Presentation Videos

ISTC Looks Back, and to the Future During Anniversary

VIDEO 6: Timothy Lindsey As long-time head of technical assistance at the Center, Timothy Lindsey, helped pioneer more effective technical assistance efforts by applying the principals of innovation diffusion. He recalled he and his colleagues at the Center were frustrated when they made recommendations that would clearly save money and trim waste, yet often they were not adopted.

As part of his doctoral studies, Lindsey began to apply the ideas of Everett M. Rogers in his book “Diffusion of Innovation.” Innovations are initially perceived as uncertain and even risky, Lindsey said. They must be demonstrated in the context of the scale and type of the existing process. Innovations are most likely to be shared among trusted peers and the process can be slow.

Lindsey explained that sustainability in an innovative way of doing business, similar to innovations like the assembly line or electronic commerce. Following innovations in sustainable business, he said, financial performance, environmental performance and social performance must be considered over the long term.

Now Global Director of Sustainable Development at Caterpillar Inc., Lindsey has applied principles of innovation diffusion to the multi-national manufacturer. Sustainability has long been important at Caterpillar, he said. But 2104 was a formative year at the company when sustainability became more than just an important thing they do. “Sustainability became an important part of who we are,” as one of the corporation’s core value, he said.

NEXT UP: Kevin Greene, “Pollution Prevention: Looking Back Towards the Future.”

December 19, 2015May 22, 2018

Five: 10 Days of ISTC; Anniversary Presentation Videos

ISTC Looks Back, and to the Future During Anniversary

VIDEO 5: Jeff Levengood, spoke about the strong collaboration between ISTC and the other four state surveys during its history. The diverse expertise of the scientists at the Prairie Research Institute’s four other surveys — spanning water, geology, natural history, and archaeology — enabled them to examining complex, place-based, legacy environmental contamination and degradation issues.

The work resulted in research reports published by the center, but also in refereed journal articles. He said this work helped communities around Illinois in managing their contamination problems but the collaborations also made significant contributions to the knowledge base in the field.

At Lake Calumet, Waukegan Harbor, Lake DePue and other post-industrial natural habitats, the surveys studied exposure and uptake of pollution by wildlife. They tracked changes in habits including nesting, foraging, reproduction in the birds, fish and the greater ecosystem. The information helped lead to innovative restoration projects at compromised sites in the state.

“I think we have to be proud,” Levengood said, “anybody that was involved in those early studies, because we really kind of kicked this off and helped to show what could be, what was possible.”

He quoted Nicole Kamins Barker, who worked on the Lake Calumet restoration as part of the Chicago Department of Environment, who said “The Surveys’ involvement took our work in the Calumet region to a new level of effectiveness by merging the latest scientific research with natural resource planning and management.”

NEXT UP: Timothy Lindsey, “Incorporating Innovation into Pollution Prevention and Sustainability.”

December 18, 2015May 22, 2018

Four: 10 Days of ISTC; Anniversary Presentation Video

ISTC Looks Back, and to the Future During Anniversary

VIDEO 4: Craig Colten While working at the Center, Craig Colten, conducted pioneering longitudinal analyses of manufacturing techniques in urban manufacturing sites throughout the state. The work accounted for changing hazardous materials produced and changing waste handling practices over more than 100 years.

The research was valuable for understanding not just current threats but residues from long forgotten industrial sites. Building on this data, Colten was able to construct a general historical geographic model in urban areas, as well as a series of tools and applications including a Historical Hazardous Substance Data Base and a Historical Hazards Geographic Information System. These tools helped establish the ground work for Superfund litigation and the ability to support real estate transactions.

Colten and others at the Center became national leaders in sustainability by addressing emerging concerns about brownfields, as well as abandoned, derelict sites, especially sites where the industrial land use changed several times. He established the long-term relationship of industry and environment — adding a time component to our the state of knowledge about what was toxic, how wastes were managed, what was the technology for managing wastes, and what was the regulatory framework then.

Later Colten co-authored “The Road to Love Canal: Managing Industrial Waste before EPA.” Today he is Carl O. Sauer Professor of Geography, Louisiana State University.

NEXT UP: Jeff Levingood, “ISTC and the Other Surveys: Working Together to Solve Illinois’ Legacy Pollution Issues.”