Measuring Sustainability: Measuring Sustainability: The Industrial Footprint Project The Industrial Footprint Project

Washington State Department of Washington State Department of

Ecology, and Boise Inc.’s Footprint Ecology, and Boise Inc.’s Footprint Presentation for EPA Performance Presentation for EPA Performance

Track Meeting October 2008Track Meeting October 2008

Project GoalsProject Goals

• Complete a comprehensive analysis of an industrial facility’s impact on its community

• Develop an analysis for the industry sector• Complete a carbon challenge• Evaluate transferability to another industrial

sector• Complete waste stream reduction research that

specifically identifies opportunities to reduce wastes

• Write a final report that assess the success of the tool and identify next steps

Carbon Footprint ChallengeCarbon Footprint Challenge(using International Council of Forest (using International Council of Forest

Products Association/World Resources Products Association/World Resources Institute GHG tool)Institute GHG tool)

• Most of Pulp and Paper industry was using primarily carbon neutral (biomass) fuels

• Measuring purchased fuel and electric power consumption

Indicator DefinitionIndicator Definition

An indicator is a quantitative measure of a specific condition or circumstance that affects the overall impact of an industrial facility within the economy, society, and environment.

18 Social Indicators18 Social Indicators

5 Sets• Community Involvement• Environmental Nuisance• Health and Safety• Human Rights• Employee Relations• Lots of discussion between the mills and the

consultants on what indicators to measure and paring it down.

30 Environmental Indicators30 Environmental Indicators

9 Sets-can be challenging to collect historical data• Air Quality• Energy Consumption• Environmental Management• Raw Materials• Regulatory Compliance• Waste Disposal• Water Intensity• Water Quality• Biodiversity Conservation

12 Economic Indicators12 Economic Indicators

4 Sets• Economic Impact-Mills sensitive to

disclosing financial data.• Community Involvement-Little historical

data, also in kind (paper donation) hard to quantify.

• Jobs• Customer Satisfaction-Sensitive

information, not disclosed

Footprint Project-Industry Footprint Project-Industry ProspectiveProspective

• Initially, involvement not supported by trade association. Fear footprint data would be misinterpreted like the TRI data has been.

• Mill responded to a personal invitation from Carol Kraege, Industrial Section Manager at the time.

• Mill’s perspective was that the winds were blowing towards an interest in footprinting, and it was better to help shape it as a team, then complain about it later.

The Footprint ProjectThe Footprint Project

Mills wanted to ensure tool not used to compare one facility to another, but rather used to compare how the facility’s footprint

changes over time.

Why mills cannot be compared:

Bleached vs unbleached, purchased pulp, fillers, number of machines, market pulp vs finished paper, cogen vs no power generated etc.

Participating TeamParticipating Team

• Boise Incorporated, Wallula• Simpson Tacoma Kraft• Grays Harbor Paper, Hoquiam• Nippon Paper Industries U.S.A, Port Angeles• Port Townsend Paper Company• Carol Kraege, Marc Crooks, Angie Fritz- Dept of

Ecology

Team cont.Team cont.

• James Pittman, Earth Economics

• John Talberth, Redefining Progress and Center for Sustainable Economies

• David Batker, Earth Economics

Objectives- EcologyObjectives- Ecology

• Develop and apply a tool that measures progress toward economic, social, and environmental sustainability for industrial facilities.

• Develop and apply a stakeholder involvement process that allows communities a voice in establishing indicators.

Objectives- Boise IncObjectives- Boise Inc

• Develop and apply a tool that measures progress toward economic, social, and environmental sustainability for industrial facilities. That can be used to guide environmentally responsible decisions.

• Normally, social issues are not considered by the facility or ecology, only media and pollutants

Objectives- Boise IncObjectives- Boise Inc

• Examples: Used oil-Better to produce PAH’s or stop the use,

which in turn, reduces demand, which results in reduced collection of used oil-where would this oil go?

Tire Derived Fuel-Better to allow tires to be landfilled/stockpiled and breed West Nile mosquitoes, or burn them, reduce fossil fuel use but discharge lead and zinc into air and water? Same lead and zinc are sent to landfill.

Lessons LearnedLessons Learned

• The biggest positive impact of the program on our facility was the positive PR, and improved working relationship with Ecology. This is the biggest bang for the buck for others looking at starting these types of programs.

• This proved to be a major reason for another facility joining.

• Public wanted the ability for input, but did not attend the public meeting.

• Much interest in the local community, including the Mid-Columbian Sustainability Network.

What will this project get us?What will this project get us?

• Identify beyond compliance opportunities• Measure improvements • Base decisions on comprehensive data• Identify unintended consequences• Develop Ecology staff priorities- and work

together on them• Objective basis for incentives (for example, in the

Ecology proposed legislation for Pollution Prevention for the next legislative session, participation in the Industrial Footprint Project will be included as an option to doing Pollution Prevention Planning,

such as having an Environmental Management System in place)

The future of footprintingThe future of footprinting

• Footprinting, like Performance track, will allow for government and industry to work on geographically sensitive projects where wholesale regulation changes to address issues is not practical.

• Footprint/PT programs allow the facilities to avoid the mismanagement of resources and funds.

• Footprint/PT programs allow both sides to understand barriers and the logic behind regulatory issues.

• Odor vs Thermal Loading.

Web PageWeb Page

http://www.ecy.wa.gov/programs/swfa/industrial/IndFootprint.html

• Background information• Most recent Quarterly Report to EPA• Full milestone chart

Questions?Questions?