VI. Pollution Prevention
Over the last year, the University has undertaken a Sustainability Initiative that has begun to focus the campus community's attention on important issues. Some of these issues include recycling, green procurement and pollution prevention. Coupled with this effort, throughout the XL Project pilot period, we will institute a number of programs raise the awareness of sustainability issues on campus. The CHP Committee will be responsible for implementing the overall Pollution Prevention activities associated with the XL Project. The following are those programs that will be developed over the first year of the XL Project pilot:
* Chemical Reuse/Redistribution - to reduce the overall amount of hazardous material purchased, as well as the overall amount of hazardous waste generated.
* Environmental Awareness Training - During our CH/EM Plan training, pollution prevention will be discussed. Trainees will be encouraged to identify and implement pollution prevention measures such as source reduction or substitution. Environmental awareness training will be evaluated based on training records and results of an annual Environmental Awareness Survey.
* Toxics Reduction - we will encourage researchers to develop protocols to run their experiments to the least toxic endpoint thereby reducing toxicity or non-hazardous laboratory waste. We will try and track changes to methods as a performance measurement.
* Pollution Prevention Survey - a survey will be developed for laboratories that have regular waste streams. The survey will allow EH&S to analyze waste streams and search for alternatives in collaboration with the Principal Investigator.
Objectives and Methodology
Quantify laboratory waste generation
-the laboratory workers are responsible for monitoring waste amounts
Quantify hazardous materials reuse and redistribution
-EH&S is responsible for reuse and redistribution
Identify, evaluate and implement pollution prevention opportunities
Raise environmental awareness
Targets
10% reduction over the life of the pilot.
20% increase over baseline over the life of the pilot.
Conduct one complete evaluation per year.
Increase performance on Environmental Awareness Survey over the life of the pilot.
Annually the Pollution Prevention program will be reviewed, modified and/or changed by the CHP Committee depending on the status of the program and projected needs. Evaluation of Pollution Prevention activities will be reported annually.
