Day: April 12, 2017

Spurring Innovation Through Zero Waste: A Q&A with Lawrence Black

Read the full interview in Environmental Leader.

Lawrence Black sees the circular economy finally moving from theory and high-level strategy to practical applications in design, engineering, and marketing. He has a clear view of these changes as senior advisor to the Waste Management-McDonough Sustainable Innovation Collaborative, a partnership formed in 2013 to improve the recyclability of packaging and products.

Black, who also advises Fortune 200 companies on how to create waste and recycling strategies, will be discussing the business case for circular economies at the 2017 Environmental Leader Conference in June. We caught up with him to get his perspective on how this tool can be a driver for innovation.

Webinar: Highly Fluorinated Chemicals: A Sticky Issue

Wednesday, April 19, 2017 at 11:00 AM Pacific / 2:00 PM Eastern
Register at http://greensciencepolicy.org/webinar-highly-fluorinated-chemicals-a-sticky-issue/

Learn about highly fluorinated stain and water repellant chemicals in this one-hour webinar: the products and materials in which they are used, why they can be harmful, and what can be done about it. Leaders in the field will share their expertise on this persistent and potentially toxic class of chemicals. These engaging talks were presented at February 2017 Green Science Policy meetings.

Salt from icy roads is contaminating North America’s lakes

Read the full story in the Washington Post.

In the 1940s, Americans found a new way to love salt. Not simply for sprinkling on food — we’d acquired a taste for the mineral long before that — but for spreading on roads and sidewalks. Salt became a go-to method to de-ice frozen pavement.

During the past half-century, annual U.S. sales of road salt grew from 160,000 tons to about 20 million tons, as a group of environmental scientists pointed out in a study published Monday in the Proceedings of the Natural Academy of the Sciences. NaCl kept roads free from slippery ice, but it also changed the nature of North America’s freshwater lakes. Of 371 lakes reviewed in the new study, 44 percent showed signs of long-term salinization.

Integrated Science Assessment (ISA) for Oxides of Nitrogen, Oxides of Sulfur and Particulate Matter – Ecological Criteria

EPA announces the availability of the first external review draft of the Integrated Science Assessment (ISA) for Oxides of Nitrogen, Oxides of Sulfur and Particulate Matter – Ecological Criteria for public comment and review in a March 30, 2017 Federal Register Notice. The deadline for comments is May 24, 2017.

Top Scientists Revamp Standards To Foster Integrity In Research

Read the full story at NPR.

It’s been 25 years since the National Academy of Sciences set its standards for appropriate scientific conduct, and the world of science has changed dramatically in that time. So now the academies of science, engineering and medicine have updated their standards.

The report published Tuesday, “Fostering Integrity in Research,” shines a spotlight on how the research enterprise as a whole creates incentives that can be detrimental to good research.