Category: Events

Webinar: Understanding Your City’s Heat Island: Considerations and Approaches

Thu, Sep 7, 2017 1:00 PM – 2:30 PM CDT
Register at https://register.gotowebinar.com/register/9214186001952973571

How can you tell if your city is an urban heat island? Where are the “hot spots” and cooler areas within the city? Do vulnerable populations, such as older adults or low-income individuals, tend to live in warmer neighborhoods? More and more communities across the United States are asking these questions—and wondering how to answer them.

This 90-minute webcast will explore approaches for conducting a heat island assessment, starting with overarching considerations to guide the study design and finishing with case studies of two cities that have used different methods to characterize their heat islands

2017 Ohio Sustainability Conference

Date: October 3, 2017
Location: Columbus, OH
For more information and to register: http://epa.ohio.gov/sustainability_conference.aspx

Ohio EPA recognizes that many businesses, communities and other organizations are moving beyond compliance and incorporating sustainable environmental practices into their daily operations. To help you become more sustainable, on Oct. 3, 2017, Ohio EPA will host its first sustainability conference. This conference will show attendees how to leverage sustainable practices and resources to strengthen Ohio communities and businesses.

A large part of the conference is targeted to businesses and communities that are moving beyond basic environmental requirements into cost-effective sustainable strategies to improve environmental performance and save valuable resources. The agenda focuses on ways to become a part of the circular economy, how sustainability can improve communities, how our water resources can benefit from sustainable approaches, and the resources and incentives that can help your sustainability efforts. During the event, you will hear from business and community leaders eager to share their insight as to how they’ve gone above and beyond to implement sustainable practices.

The general agenda for the day-long conference covers a variety of sustainability-related topics including:

  • Becoming a part of the Circular Economy
  • Green Chemistry
  • Promoting Recycling at Big Venues
  • Integrating Sustainable Practices within your Community
  • Innovative Approaches to Protecting or Restoring a Community’s Water Bodies
  • Jump-starting Your Recycling Efforts
  • Save Money by Saving Energy
  • Funding Resources to Help You Install/Retrofit for Cleaner Air
  • Funding Assistance for Ohio Businesses and Communities to Grow, Create Jobs and Protect the Environment

Lead Workshop for Communities

Date: Tuesday, September 26, 2017, from 9:30 am to 5:00 pm
Location: Metcalfe Federal Building, 77 W. Jackson Blvd. Chicago, IL
For more information and to register: https://www.epa.gov/publicnotices/forms/lead-workshop-communities

EPA Region 5 is hosting an introductory workshop for communities and their partners about lead poisoning prevention. The workshop will cover a range of tools, strategies, and resources to help eliminate lead poisoning. Speakers are expected to include federal, state, and local governments, community leaders, and non-governmental partners with experience in working to eliminate lead poisoning. The workshop will also include time for dialogue and networking to foster the exchange of ideas and support a growing community of practice in this important area of environmental and public health protection.

Revitalizing Plastics Recycling Symposium and Annual Meeting

September 12, 2017
I-Hotel & Conference Center, Champaign, IL
Register here.

Recycling experts will share their expertise and highlight the potential for making a difference in the future of the recycling industry.

Speakers include:

  • Brian Plotner, University of Illinois Student Majoring in Public Health
    Research Study on Plastics Recycling in Illinois
  • Max Babits, Project Analyst, RRS
    Materials Recovery for the Future
  • Ken Santowski, President, Chicago Logistic Service
    Recovering Polystyrene (Styrofoam)
  • Tanner Smith, Corporate Development Analyst, Delta Plastics
    Agricultural Plastics Recycling
  • BK Sharma, Senior Research Scientist, Illinois Sustainable Technology Center, division of Prairie Research Institute, University of Illinois at Champaign (UIUC).

Two Live Demonstrations

On-site pyrolysis tour

While some recycled plastics have a high value, others merely end up in a landfill.  However this can be avoided.  With plastics to oil technology even the most brittle, hard-to-recycle plastics could become a valued commodity.  Plastics to oil converts plastic back to the oil where it originated and can be sold to refineries to produce gasoline or diesel.  This demonstration with pyrolysis equipment on-site will show you how you can participate in making a difference in the future of plastics recycling.

Optional expanded polystyrene densifier tour

Recycling of expanded polystyrene is possible with a densifier.  See this technology in action.  Take a tour of Dart Container Urbana Plant’s expanded polystyrene recycling operation & densifier.  Facility has a 24/7 drop-off so bring your recyclable Styrofoam.

A variety of recycling gurus will share their expertise and highlight the potential for making a difference in the future of the recycling industry.

Webinar: Making a Big Impact in Sustainability Science with Big Data

Thu, Sep 21, 2017 12:15 PM – 1:15 PM CDT
Register at https://register.gotowebinar.com/register/641458766809039361

Issues in sustainability science are increasingly being addressed using “big data” and data analytics.  Data rich modeling techniques can assist in improving systems thinking to integrate business operations, people, ecosystems and climate. The result can be improved decision making, greener supply chains and optimization of business operations — all leading to increased corporate profits and important social benefits.  The ultimate goal of big data science is to foster economic development, improve social livelihoods, and enhance environmental quality.

Join SSF and leaders from Chatmine Technologies and Boston University in a free webinar demonstrating the application of computational modelling of natural and social processes to identify patterns, trends, and associations that can inform sustainability decision making. The webinar will be organized around five case studies focused on integrating multi-scale and multi-source data and applying spatial statistical techniques, artificial Intelligence algorithms, and systems modeling to derive business insights and strategies.  The presentations will be appropriate for a non-technical audience and include:

  • Behavioral Correlations: Are hybrid or electric car drivers more likely to solarize their roofs? This project explores behavior and attitudinal data of some consumers in Massachusetts.
  • Analyzing Flood Risk: Flood insurance is increasingly important for residential and commercial property owners. Flood risk is still mapped using USGS 100 year flood maps. These maps have to be completely updated and revised using new satellite data that can be analyzed to provide better risk probability profiles based on International panel on Climate Change (IPCC) models. This example reports on work for a commercial insurance company.
  • Forensic Environmental Investigations Using Neural Networks: Urban sustainability includes protecting urban trees and forests. Panelists applied unsupervised neural networks to examine the impact of natural gas leaks caused by aging infrastructure that resulted in tree mortality in Boston
  • Predicting Malaria Hot Spots: Increasing temperatures in the highland regions of East Shoa in Ethiopia have led to increased incidence of malaria. Spatial statistical analysis, shown in this example, predicted the clusters or hot spots of malaria.
  • Municipal Resilience Snapshots: Designing and implementing sustainability metrics for a neighborhood or town can provide a quick snapshot of its current or future social and natural resiliency, as illustrated in this example.

Webinar: EPA’s Water Finance Clearinghouse

August 14, 2017 — 1-2 pm CDT
August 18, 2017 — 1-2 pm CDT
August 24, 2017 — 1-2 pm CDT
August 31, 2017 — 1-2 pm CDT
Register for any of these identical sessions at https://register.gotowebinar.com/rt/4533646364837520386

Learn how to navigate EPA’s Water Finance Clearinghouse, an easily navigable web-based portal, to help communities locate information and resources that will assist then in making informed decisions for their drinking water, wastewater, and stormwater infrastructure needs.

The Water Finance Clearinghouse features two searchable data sets: one focused on available Federal, State, and local Funding Sources for water infrastructure and the second will contain Resources, such as reports, tools, webinars etc. on financing mechanisms and approaches.

The Water Finance Clearinghouse is managed by EPA’s Water Infrastructure and Resiliency Finance Center – an information and technical assistance center, helping federal. State, and community stakeholders understand their financing options, improve the effectiveness of federal funding, and support local-decision making for resilient water investments

Webinar: Land Use, Environmental Stressors, and Water Resources: Degradation to Restoration

Wed, Aug 30, 2017 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM CDT
Register at https://register.gotowebinar.com/register/4319992565037855234

EPA’s Safe and Sustainable Water Resources research program provides the science and innovative technologies that the Agency and the nation need to maintain drinking water resources and systems, as well as to protect the chemical, physical and biological integrity of the nation’s waters. It uses an integrated, systems approach to support the availability of the clean, adequate, and equitable  water supplies necessary for human well-being and resilient aquatic ecosystems. Safe and Sustainable Water Resources Strategic Research Action Plan: http://www2.epa.gov/research/safe-and-sustainable-water-resources-strategic-research-action-plan-2016-2019.