Day: January 17, 2018

Awards & contests, Green chemistry

AkzoNobel Casts a Wide Net in Search of Innovation

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Read the full story at HAPPI.

Not-invented-here mentalities were tossed in the dustbin years ago by forward-thinking companies in the global household and personal products industry. But how many companies take the time to scour the globe in search of innovative ideas and then welcome them to their door? AkzoNobel Chemicals did just that a year ago with its Imagine Chemistry Startup Challenge which invited startups to collaborate with the multinational chemical manufacturer to bring new ideas to a host of markets including household and personal care.

The 2018 edition calls for solutions within the following six areas:

Environmental justice

Expressway seen as symbol of racial inequity, health problems

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Read the full story from WBFO.

The scent of exhaust fumes fill the air on a mid-January afternoon. Cars, trucks and buses zip back and forth from downtown Buffalo on the Kensington Expressway, also known as the Martin Luther King Jr. Expressway.

This section of Route 33 was built in the early ’60s, wiping out a tree-lined parkway designed by Frederick Law Olmsted.  Today, the sunken, six-lane expressway cuts straight through an African-American community.

Environmental law

Surfrider Sues U.S. Steel for Lake Michigan Pollution

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Read the full story from the Surfrider Foundation.

As the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM) have yet to take enforcement action against U.S. Steel within the 60-day notice period, the Surfrider Foundation has followed through on its Notice of Intent to Sue the U.S. Steel Corporation for the company’s repeated pollution of Lake Michigan.

Circular economy

This mall in Sweden sells only recycled stuff

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Read the full story in Mother Nature Network.

You’ve probably heard about how Sweden is running out of garbage. And it’s true: The country of just shy of 10 million people sends less than 1 percent of its household waste to landfills. What waste is generated is burned to create electricity and energy to heat homes.

The flip side of that is Swedish citizens have a real zest for recycling, too. Almost everything that can be recycled, is. It’s both these aspects of the Swedish waste system that have led to their reputation of generating so little waste.

Recycling is such a part of the culture that there’s even a mall — the ReTuna Återbruksgalleria — that contains only up-cycled and repaired stuff. The mall is located about 60 miles outside Stockholm in the town of Eskilstuna (the ‘tuna’ is short for the town’s name). There are 14 stores, a restaurant (see below), an exhibition area and an educational program so that interested Swedes can learn how to recycle even more.

Government

Nearly all members of National Park Service advisory panel resign over frustration with Zinke

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Read the full story in the Chicago Tribune.

Three-quarters of the members of a federally chartered board advising the National Park Service abruptly quit Monday night out of frustration that Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke had refused to meet with them or convene a single meeting last year.

Colleges and universities, Cultural institutions, Funding, K-12, Libraries, Museums, Zoos

Environmental Education Local Grants Program RFP now available

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Proposals are due by March 15, 2018.

Under the 2018 EE Local Grant Program, 10 Requests for Proposals are being issued nationally, one in each of EPA’s ten Regions.  EPA expects to award three or four grants from each of the EPA’s 10 Regional Offices for a total of approximately 30 to 35 grants nationwide.

The purpose of this grant program is to support locally-focused environmental education projects that increase public awareness and knowledge about environmental and conservation issues and provide the skills that particpants in its funded projects need to make informed decisions and take responsible actions toward the environment.

 

Department of Defense, Funding

Funding available for environmental and installation energy technology demonstrations

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The Department of Defense (DoD), through the Environmental Security Technology Certification Program (ESTCP), supports the demonstration of technologies that address priority DoD environmental and installation energy requirements.  The goal of ESTCP is to promote the transfer of innovative technologies through demonstrations that collect the data needed for regulatory and DoD end-user acceptance.  Projects conduct formal demonstrations at DoD facilities and sites in operational settings to document and validate improved performance and cost savings.

ESTCP is seeking proposals for demonstrations of innovative environmental and installation energy technologies as candidates for funding beginning in FY 2019.  The solicitation requests pre-proposals via Calls for Proposals to Federal organizations and via a Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) for Private Sector organizations.  Pre-proposals are due March 8, 2018 by 2 p.m. ET.

Detailed instructions are on the ESTCP website under Funding Opportunities.

DoD organizations (Service and Defense Agencies) may submit pre-proposals for demonstrations of innovative technologies in the following topic areas:

  • Environmental Restoration
  • Munitions Response Underwater
  • Resource Conservation and Resiliency
  • Weapons Systems and Platforms
  • Energy Efficiency Technology Demonstrations Integrated with Utility Energy Services Contracts (UESC)
  • Effective Use of Utility and Facility Data to Improve the Management, Operation and Maintenance of Facilities
  • Large Scale Energy Storage and Microgrids

The Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) and Call for Proposals (CFP) for Federal Organizations Outside DoD are seeking pre-proposals for technologies in the following topic areas:

  • Innovative Technology Transfer Approaches
  • Long Term Management of Contaminated Aquatic Sediments
  • Management of Contaminated Groundwater
  • Detection, Classification, and Remediation of Military Munitions in Underwater Environments
  • Department of Defense (DoD) Installation Infrastructure Risk Exposure and Resilience Decision Support Tools
  • Demonstration/Validation of Fluorine-Free Aqueous Film Forming Foam
  • Energy Efficiency Technology Demonstrations Integrated with Utility Energy Services Contracts (UESC)
  • Effective Use of Utility and Facility Data to Improve the Management, Operation and Maintenance of Facilities
  • Large Scale Energy Storage and Microgrids

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