Environment News
EPA Offers First Look at Greenhouse Gas Reporting System Data
EPA recently announced the availability of the first wave of data from its new greenhouse gas (GHG) reporting system. Communities can access the 2010 GHG data from more than 6,700 facilities to identify nearby sources of GHGs, help businesses compare and track emissions and inform policy for state and local governments...
Top 10 Endangered Places in the Southeast
The Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC), the largest environmental advocacy organization dedicated to protecting the Southeast, announced its fourth annual list of the top 10 places in the South that face immediate, potentially irreparable threats in 2012....
Start the New Year Right By Going Green
Most New Year's resolutions surround losing weight, quitting smoking or developing healthier eating habits. But have you considered using the new year as a motive for making choices that will affect not only your own health, but the health of the planet? ...
Forget Having a White Christmas – Make This Holiday Season Green Instead
Let's face it: Christmas often comes with waste. Whether it’s food, gifts, wrapping paper, packaging or gallons of gas burned during travel, the holiday season can be enough to make any eco-conscious person a little uneasy. But rather than giving in to the guilt, try going green this year instead...
Tips for Environmentally Friendly Gifts this Holiday Season
EPA is playing Santa Claus this year, offering tips on holiday gift-giving for all the good boys and girls in your life. Energy Star, Design for the Environment and WaterSense labels can be found on thousands of products across the country, making it easy to choose gifts that can help anyone on your list save energy and protect the environment...
"Green" Construction Workers May Face Additional Safety Risks
It's not easy being green – and it might not necessarily be safer for construction crews building environmentally friendly projects, either. According to new research, these workers suffer more falls than workers on traditional projects; are exposed to new, high-risk tasks; incur more lacerations, strains and sprains; and more...
With Women at the Helm, CSR Initiatives Increase
When more women are represented in senior leadership roles, their companies tend to exhibit greater – and higher quality – corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives, a new study has found...
Clean Energy Offers Economic Opportunities for Entrepreneurs
As small business owners know, clean energy is the wave of the future, and they want to capitalize on opportunities and ensure their businesses are part of the burgeoning clean energy economy...
Green Initiatives Can Create a Healthier, More Productive Work Force
Companies that incorporate eco-friendly initiatives aren’t just helping save the Earth – they also can create a healthier, more productive work environment for their employees...
OSHA Breezes Into Alliance with Wind Energy Association
Green jobs and wind energy might be good for the environment, but that doesn’t mean worker safety has to take a backseat to saving the planet. In an effort to protect workers from possible hazards involved in the wind energy industry, OSHA joined an alliance with the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) on Aug. 8...
New EPA Rule Aims to Strengthen Chemical Reporting
In an effort to better identify risks to public health and the environment, EPA recently published the Chemical Data Reporting (CDR) Rule that will require chemical manufacturers to report more information about their chemicals...
Budget Cuts and Environmental Career Trends
Just as in the United States, cuts to the UK’s Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs make headlines, Vicky Kenrick explores how these cutbacks actually increase the value of environmental professionals with occupational health and safety experience and skills...
Managing Compliance: Taking the Heat out of Fire Code Classification
Do you have an accurate, up-to-date inventory of the hazardous materials and chemicals within your organization? And are all of those materials properly classified? More specifically, are these materials classified for fire code?...
NRDC Reveals the 20 States that Face the Most Air Pollution from Power Plants
If you live in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Florida or Kentucky, your state has a dubious claim to fame: It contains some of the nation’s worst air pollution caused by power plants...
Safety Board Says Hanford Site Has ‘Atmosphere Adverse’ to Safety
The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB), following an investigation triggered by whistleblower Dr. Walter Tamosaitis, has released a report, Safety Culture at the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant, analyzing the failures in the safety culture at the Department of Energy’s waste treatment plant (WTP) at the Hanford site in southeast Washington state...
TMW Corp. Faces $100,000 in EPA Fines for Violating Toxic Waste Regulations
TMW Corp. faces $100,000 in EPA fines for violating hazardous waste regulations at its Van Nuys, Calif.-based metal plating facility...
Contamination from Coal Ash at Some Sites High Enough to Trigger ‘Open Dumping’ RCRA Provisions
A new report from the Environmental Integrity Project (EIP) claims 33 coal ash dump sites in 19 states are contaminating groundwater with arsenic, lead and other toxins. According to EIP, these sites may be violating a federal ban on open dumping...
Safety 2011: Incorporating Safety Into Sustainability
Only a day after the Center for Safety and Health Sustainability was launched at Safety 2011 in Chicago, ASSE VP of Professional Affairs Thomas F. Cecich told conference attendees that safety should play a much bigger role in the sustainability movement...
Study: Bacteria May Not Have Battled the Methane Released in BP Explosion
A new study suggests that bacteria may not, in fact, have consumed the methane released by the BP Deepwater Horizon explosion in 2010 – a finding that could have implications not only for the Gulf of Mexico’s ecosystem, but also for how scientists predict global warming effects...
The Business Case for Sustainability
The chief sustainability officer for the Dow Chemical Co. believes that in order to drive economic value and societal change, sustainability must be seen as a platform to greater innovation and business growth...
Managing Compliance: Going Beyond ‘Be Prepared’
The recent earthquake and subsequent tsunami in Japan have prompted companies around the globe to re-examine their emergency response strategies...
AIHce: The Industrial Hygienist’s Role in Green Chemistry and Chemical Reform
Keynote speaker Michael P. Wilson, Ph.D., told attendees at the May 17 AIHce opening session that while they might be unsure how green chemistry relates to their profession, it is nonetheless “immediately applicable to the practice of industrial hygiene” by encouraging safer engineering, design and chemistry...
AIHce: Green Construction and Safety Don’t Always Go Hand in Hand
Does green construction equal safer construction? According to experts who participated in a roundtable discussion at AIHce in Portland, Oregon, May 17 – not necessarily...
AIHce: What You Don’t Know Can Kill You!
There is one poisoning every 14 seconds in the United States. The largest percentage of these poisonings are from cleaning products, says Tony Uliano, and independent EHS consultant and adjunct professor at Portland State University School of Public Health in Portland, Ore. Uliano shared a brief overview of consumer product toxicology at the American Industrial Hygiene Conference and Expo in Portland on May 16...
AIHce 2011: Innovate, Integrate and Inspire
The American Industrial Hygiene Conference and Expo (AIHce), held this year in Portland, Oregon, May 14-18, features a theme of “Innovate, Integrate, Inspire.”...
