Day: September 10, 2015

Managing and Transforming Waste Streams — A Tool for Communities

Managing and Transforming Waste Streams – A Tool for Communities, recently launched by U.S. EPA, features a sortable, filterable table of 100 policies and programs that local governments can implement to shift their community’s waste stream away from disposal and towards waste reduction and increased materials reuse, recycling, and composting.

This tool is ideal for cities and counties that are updating their solid waste management plans and wish to consider additional measures, as well as those adopting a zero waste plan or working on sustainability or climate action plans.  By using the sorting and filtering features, planners can generate a list of measures for consideration tailored to their communities’ priorities.  The website also features over 240 examples of policies and programs implemented in communities across the country, along with relevant online resources.

Choosing Greener Materials

Jeremy Faludi has created a series of Instructables for choosing greener design materials. The topics covered include:

Rio’s mayor: We need a ‘total change of paradigm’

Read the full post at GreenBiz.

Looking from his coastal “Marvelous City” to COP21 in the “City of Lights” this winter, Rio de Janeiro Mayor Eduardo Paes aims to push carbon reductions and resilience before the United Nations.

In August, Rio announced that it is the first of 136 cities to meet the requirements of the global Compact of Mayors. In other words, the metropolis of 6.5 million has been keeping track of greenhouse gas emissions and the effects of climate change, and creating an action plan in response to those findings.

“Mayor Paes has turned Rio de Janeiro into a global model for action on climate change,” said former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg in a statement. “The fact that Rio has become the first city in the world to fulfill the requirements of the Compact of Mayors speaks to his commitment to the issue — and his determination to lead from the front.” As the U.N. special envoy for cities and climate change, Bloomberg helped in 2014 to launch the compact, a coalition that includes the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group and ICLEI Local Governments for Sustainability.

Mayor Paes hopes to lead a resilience renaissance in Rio, and has even delivered a TED Talk called “The 4 Commandments of Cities.” Here, he highlights the next steps in this direction.

In the future, the best chemistry practices will be green

Read the full story from The Guardian.

Gathering for a summit on green chemicals, industry leaders and academics discussed how to solve the problems that threaten to stall 20 years of good intentions.

The Campus Wild: How College and University Green Landscapes Provide Havens for Wildlife and “Lands-on” Experiences for Students

Download the document.

This richly detailed guide highlights how colleges and universities are playing a dynamic role in protecting wildlife and restoring habitats in campus green spaces – including on-campus landscapes and natural areas, as well as distant campus-owned lands. It explores how such green places – dedicated to “The Wild” – also can benefit students, faculty, and staff with leadership opportunities, hands-on learning, energy savings, water conservation, and much more. The Campus Wild features efforts from 85 higher education institutions, representing all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

One by one, states are giving consumers the right to know about chemicals in products

Read the full story at Ensia.

From Vermont to Washington, an increasing number of states are requiring companies to report their use of chemicals of concern.

Pollution Prevention (P2) Spotlight: Reducing Dichloromethane Waste

U.S. EPA has added a new addition to their TRI P2 Spotlight Series, which highlights how TRI facilities are reducing their use of toxic chemicals and making significant pollution prevention (P2) progress.

In this month’s publication, they take a look at the use of Dichloromethane (DCM), a toxic solvent with many industrial uses, and considered by EPA to be a probable human carcinogen.

Total industrial releases of DCM reported to the TRI Program have decreased by 58% from 2003 to 2013. Learn how source reduction and other environmentally-friendly practices contributed to this trend, and read about how the Roberts Automatic Products facility in Chanhassen, Minnesota, has significantly reduced its use of DCM.

Cities are finally treating water as a resource, not a nuisance

Read the full story at Ensia.

From Houston to Melbourne, the surprising ways urban areas are dealing with water woes.

 

Scaling up Regreening: Six Steps to Success: A Practical Approach to Forest and Landscape Restoration

Download the document.

Scaling Up Regreening: Six Steps to Success highlights the benefits of “regreening” and its widespread adoption in Senegal, Burkina Faso, Niger, Mali, northern Ethiopia and Malawi, and identifies six steps to scale up regreening practices in Africa and beyond.

Climate Change Storytelling Contest

Write your best climate change story and get an opportunity to join and cover COP21

While climate change is a global phenomenon, it is hitting the world’s poorest regions – and most marginalized communities – the hardest. These changing conditions are impacting human health, economic activity, and are threatening basic human rights including access to water and food security. Climate change is already affecting local communities in low and middle income countries but stories on the negative impacts as well as on the solutions that governments, communities and individuals are implementing often get lost in the global climate change debate.

UNDP story telling contest on climate change aims to contribute to raising public awareness on the negative impacts of climate change on people and communities as well as on the opportunities and solutions seen in actions by individuals and governments in vulnerable developing countries.

The contest provides young journalists in developing countries a unique opportunity to contribute to the global debate on climate change in the run-up to COP21, while building their capacity, and providing recognition for excellence. Authors of the top two stories will be funded to attend and cover COP21.

Target Group

We target journalists 35 years of age and under from developing countries vulnerable to the impact of climate change who:

  • Are already engaged in public writing through an official media outlet
  • Have a strong interest in reporting on climate change as a contribution ­– locally and internationally – towards greater public awareness on this critical global topic
  • Are eager to seize an opportunity to build their journalistic capacity and contribute to COP21

Timeline of the Campaign

The contest was launched on August 27th. The deadline to submit an entry is October 11th 2015, with early submission encouraged. Following selection, different stories will be published every day from 2nd to 29th November. The two winning journalists will cover the climate conference in Paris.

Dissemination

Stories, once screened, scored and published on UNDP’s website, will be disseminated through partners’ channels to ensure maximum outreach and exposure. A common hashtag – #Voices2Paris – will facilitate social media integration by all partners, helping to amplify the dissemination. All materials are creative commons, encouraging further media outlets and people everywhere to make maximum use of the stories told and photos gathered.