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Greening Infrastructure: The Road Ahead

Greening Infrastructure: The Road Ahead. Kimberly Cochran, PhD U.S. EPA Office of Resource Conservation and Recovery IRWA Federal Agency Update January 26, 2010 Las Vegas, Nevada. EPA Office of Resource Conservation and Recovery. Promotes sustainable materials management

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Greening Infrastructure: The Road Ahead

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  1. Greening Infrastructure: The Road Ahead Kimberly Cochran, PhD U.S. EPA Office of Resource Conservation and Recovery IRWA Federal Agency Update January 26, 2010 Las Vegas, Nevada

  2. EPA Office of Resource Conservation and Recovery • Promotes sustainable materials management • What kinds of recycled materials? • Concrete • Asphalt shingles • Foundry sands • Tires • Asphalt pavement

  3. Why use recycled materials? • Environmental Benefits • Avoided impacts from processing of virgin materials (e.g. GHG emissions) • Economic Benefits • Reduced costs associated with disposal • Cost savings from use instead of more costly materials • Performance Benefits • Perform as well as or better than traditional materials • Increased strength, improved workability, resistance to chemical attack; longer life

  4. New Executive Order 13514Federal Leadership in Environmental, Energy, and Economic Performance • Sets sustainability goals for Federal agencies and focuses on making improvements in their environmental, energy and economic performance • Divert 50% of nonhazardous solid waste from landfills • Divert 50% of construction and demolition (C&D) materials from landfills • “ensuring that all new construction, major renovation, or repair and alteration of Federal buildings complies with the Guiding Principles for Federal Leadership in High Performance and Sustainable Buildings” • Recycled Content. For EPA-designated products, use products meeting or exceeding EPA’s recycled content recommendations. For other products, use materials with recycled content such that the sum of post-consumer recycled content plus one-half of the pre-consumer content constitutes at least 10% (based on cost) of the total value of the materials in the project. • Construction Waste Management

  5. EPA ORCR Supports Green Infrastructure in Four Ways Education and outreach Support efforts to green highways Supporting projects that develop capacity for green infrastructure Measure progress and benefits

  6. Supporting efforts to green highways

  7. Support Efforts to Green Highways • Collaborative effort between government, industry, and other groups to green highways www.greenhighways.org

  8. Example Green Highways Efforts Specification Harmonization: - State environmental and transportation officials working together to eliminate barriers to “green” highway efforts.

  9. Example Green Highways Efforts Reward Program: Rewards contractors for including “green” attributes in highways

  10. Example Green Highways Efforts Asphalt Shingle Spec: Encouraging multiple states to adopt specifications for tear-off asphalt shingles.

  11. Green Road Certification Programs • GreenLITES • Leadership In Transportation Environmental Sustainability • Developed by NYSDOT • Self-certification • www.nysdot.gov/programs/greenlites • Greenroads Sustainability Performance Metric • Developed by the University of Washington • Third-party certification • www.greenroads.us

  12. Green standards and guidelines for landscapes • EPA provides technical assistance • Standards and guidelines debuted November 2009 at: • Now in the pilot project phase. • Call for pilot projects went out in November • Submit any pilot project ideas you have by February 15th. www.sustainablesites.org

  13. Education and Outreach

  14. Tools and Resources: Publications Available on our website: www.epa.gov/industrialmaterials

  15. Publication highlights benefits, provides resources and references, such as ASTM specifications

  16. www.agc.org/cs/recycling_toolkit

  17. Measuring Progress and Benefits

  18. EPA’s WaRM Model • EPA’s WaRM calculates GHG reductions from through recycling • Currently adding more C&D materials www.epa.gov/warm

  19. BenReMod • Developed by University of Toledo • Calculates benefits of utilizing various materials in road construction http://benremod.eng.utoledo.edu/BenReMod/

  20. Supporting Projects that Develop Capacity for Green Infrastructure

  21. EPA/BART Sustainable Transit Leadership Pilot • 2002 IWG Pilot - $45,000 grant • Focus on Greening Transit: • Energy Efficiency Pilot • Facility Standards/Specifications • Construction & Demolition Materials • Recycling • Environmentally Preferable Purchasing • +6,000 page Facility Standard “Greening” • Saved $711,000

  22. Energy Efficiency Pilot • BART is one of the largest parking garage owners in CA • Lighting Control Power Reduction System • Dual metered parking garage • Transformer with centrally controls to reduce voltage and current • Sustained 25% reduction in energy use • Kwh Savings: 97,090/yr. • CO2 Reduction 130,108/yr • Cost $12,226/Return on Investment 1.8 yrs. • Required in Facility Specification for new construction

  23. Utilized recycled plastic rail ties Last twice as long & can be recycled BART replaced 400 wooden railroad ties with recycled ties (1.1 million grocery bags, 246,400 plastic bottles and 1200 tires) Old wood ties used to make electricity (state-of-the-art air quality controls) Construction and demolition materials Recycled all concrete and steel 50% of all other construction materials were diverted RecyclingLess Energy, Less Waste, Lower Life-Cycle Cost

  24. Transit Sustainability Practice Compendium (Draft) http://www.apta.com/resources/hottopics/Documents/TransitSustainabilityPracticeCompendium.pdf

  25. House Deconstruction in EPA Region 1 • House owned by Burlington Regional Airport was deconstructed to make way for new development

  26. Deconstruction • The systematic dismantling of structures in an effort to maximize reuse and recycling. • Provides low cost building materials to the community. • Reduces greenhouse gases. • Provides green jobs. • Conserves resources. • Reduces need for landfill space.

  27. House Deconstruction • Approx. 12 tons of material was reused or recycled in the community • 55% recovery rate • Saved 8 metric tons of CO2 eq. • The airport is planning to deconstruct more homes in the future.

  28. Summary • Many efforts regarding sustainable transportation happening around the country. • There are tools and other resources to help develop such efforts. • We can help you start greening your infrastructure project.

  29. For more information on the EPA-HUD-DOT partnership, see the Sustainable Communities presentation tomorrow at 8:30 am

  30. Thank you! Kimberly Cochran (703) 347-8950 Cochran.Kimberly@epa.gov www.epa.gov/industrialmaterials www.epa.gov/cdmaterials

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