Greening Infrastructure: The Road Ahead
description
Transcript of Greening Infrastructure: The Road Ahead
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
Supporting projects that develop
capacity for green infrastructure
Education and outreach
Measure progress and benefits
Support efforts to green highways
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
17
18www.agc.org/cs/recycling_toolkit
19
Measuring Progress and Benefits
20
EPA’s WaRM Model
• EPA’s WaRM calculates GHG reductions from through recycling
• Currently adding more C&D materials
www.epa.gov/warm
21
BenReMod
• Developed by University of Toledo
• Calculates benefits of utilizing various materials in road construction
http://benremod.eng.utoledo.edu/BenReMod/
22
Supporting Projects that Develop Capacity for Green Infrastructure
23
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
24
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
25
Recycling Less Energy, Less Waste, Lower Life-Cycle Cost
• 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
26
Transit Sustainability Practice Compendium (Draft)
http://www.apta.com/resources/hottopics/Documents/TransitSustainabilityPracticeCompendium.pdf
27
House Deconstruction in EPA Region 1
• House owned by Burlington Regional Airport was deconstructed to make way for new development
28
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.
29
30
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.
31
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.
32
For more information on the EPA-HUD-DOT partnership,
see the Sustainable Communities presentation
tomorrow at 8:30 am
33
Kimberly Cochran (703) 347-8950
www.epa.gov/industrialmaterialswww.epa.gov/cdmaterials
Thank you!