Join SCS Engineers as a Platinum Sponsor at the 40th Annual Environmental Training Symposium & Conference, held in-person at the San Diego Convention Center. This conference includes 25 educational sessions on three tracks running simultaneously over two days, May 13th-14th. The conference hosts a robust Exhibit Hall, an Awards Luncheon, and a San Diego Bay Yacht Cruise. Panels will cover topics including air, hazardous materials, health & safety, sustainability, and water quality, with expert speakers from Southern California.
Register today!
Join SCS Engineers at the 39th Annual Northwest Regional Symposium!
The Beaver Chapter of SWANA is happy to announce the return of the 39th Annual Northwest Regional Symposium, taking place May 1st – May 3rd, 2024, at the historic McMenamins Edgefield in Troutdale, Oregon. This years theme is Innovation: Shaping the Future of Materials Management.
Throughout the Symposium, participants will be able to engage in discussions, collaborative sessions, and hands-on workshops aimed at driving positive change and fostering innovation in the field of materials management. From exploring emerging technologies to addressing environmental challenges, the Symposium provides a holistic perspective on the evolving landscape of waste management and sustainability.
Whether you’re a seasoned veteran or new to the field, this symposium offers invaluable insights, resources, and opportunities to stay ahead of the curve. Don’t miss this opportunity to be part of a transformative experience in materials management!
Click here for more information and registration details.
In the pursuit of a sustainable future, organizations increasingly use competitions to showcase their commitment to environmental responsibility. For example, the United States Department of Energy (DOE) Better Climate Challenge drives energy efficiency, reduces pollution, and fosters financial savings for participating companies. Today’s blog explores how competitions like the Better Climate Challenge catalyze organizations to raise awareness, implement sustainable practices, and make significant strides towards a greener future.
The Better Climate Challenge sets ambitious goals for participating organizations. Companies then partner with the DOE to substantially reduce their portfolio-wide greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (scope 1 & 2) by at least 50% within the next decade. This challenge spotlights environmental stewardship and aligns with global efforts to combat climate change. To illustrate the impact of such competitions, let’s use the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Better Buildings Challenge, a precursor to the Better Climate Challenge, as a case study.
Achieving Energy Reduction
Working with a major national pharmaceutical store chain while participating in the Better Buildings Challenge required developing comprehensive energy strategies, including demand-side energy conservation measures such as HVAC upgrades, optimization, and controls; high-efficiency lighting and controls; Variable Frequency Drives (VFDs) for Rooftop Units (RTUs); chiller plant and thermal energy storage; Retro-Commissioning (RCx); and automatic demand response (ADR).
The pharmaceutical chain’s commitment to energy efficiency delivered an impressive overall energy reduction across all buildings of 17.5%, with some buildings reducing energy use by up to 30%. Together, these measures delivered substantial savings of 30 million kWh/yr of electricity and over 100,000 therms/yr of natural gas—eliminating over 21,500 metric tons of CO2 equivalent each year.
Beyond the environmental benefits, these initiatives save the company over $3 million annually with a payback of less than two years. Utility incentives and rebates also helped achieve this impressive return.
Partnering for Efficiencies
Participating in energy efficiency challenges fights climate change and saves money by creating win-win scenarios for industry and the environment. SCS Engineers works with clients similarly, creating wins from plan development and project execution to advance sustainability that meets financial and social goals and closing gaps between plans and actual achievements toward carbon reduction goals.
Join SCS Engineers at Green Technology’s Sustainable Facilities Forum on May 9 at the Scottish Rite Masonic Center in Sacramento, CA.
The conference will highlight strategies, best practices and technologies behind successful public sector facility projects. The event includes access to education sessions, live keynote, annual leadership awards presentations and to the sustainable products and services displays.
The concurrent sessions offer insights from the experts and practitioners at the leading edge of green progress, in fields ranging from transportation and energy to funding, architecture and green schools. Stroll through the exhibit space and discover dozens of green products and services all in one place. Find out what’s new and get an intensive, hands-on education that’s not available anywhere else!
The Forum is designed for public and private sector professionals engaged in facility project design, decarbonization, water conservation, electric vehicle and electric vehicle infrastructure.
Check the conference site for more details and information.
Speak with SCS Engineers solid waste experts and SCS Engineers field services professionals at Waste Expo, May 6-9, in the Las Vegas Convention Center. Come visit us at BOOTH 2907.
SCS Engineers expert, Tom Rappolt, will lead a compelling session titled “Private Equity, Friend or Foe? Battling Odor Class Action Lawsuits. Delve into the intricate dynamics of private equity involvement in waste management and the legal complexities surrounding odor-related class action lawsuits.
Session Name: Private Equity, Friend or Foe? Battling Odor Class Action Lawsuits
Session Date and Time: Tuesday, May 7, 2024 4:00 pm – 5:00 pm
Presenter and Panelist: Tom Rappolt
Unveiling the Soil Revolution: Navigating Permitting Challenges, Embracing Technologies, and Integrating AD in Composting. Join SCS Engineers, expert Pat Sullivan as he explores the forefront of composting innovation and the intricacies of regulatory hurdles.
Session Name: Composting: Permitting Challenges, Technologies, Integrating AD
Session Date and Time: Monday, May 06, 2024, 1:30 PM – 3:15 PM
Session Location: Room: W222-223
Presenter and Panelist: Pat Sullivan
Dive into the realm of organic waste management with Jeff Phillips from SCS Engineers as he sheds light on ‘Stakeholder Strategic Planning for Organics Management in Iowa.’
Session Name: Stakeholder Strategic Planning for Organics Management in Iowa
Session Date and Time: Tuesday, May 7, 2024
Session Location: Track 2, Room: W223, 8:00 – 9:30 am
Presenter and Panelist: Jeff Phillips
At Waste Expo, you can connect with 13,000 of your peers and over 600 exhibitors. This is one event that pays dividends all year long. Preview the latest vehicles, tune in to the latest technology, and learn the latest curriculum to improve the environment. For over 50 years, WasteExpo has provided an outstanding event experience in the solid waste, recycling and organics industry.
Numerous summits will be co-located with Waste Expo, including the Food Recovery Forum & Organics Recycling program, where you can interact with SCS Engineers Organics Management and Food Recovery experts. You can also speak to our experts at Sustainability Talks and several other exciting programs.
Click here for more conference details and registration information.
We hope to see you there!
Welcome to Sustainable Council, SCS’s newest blog series focusing on proven solutions to get you down the road to sustainability. Private and public entities are working to become truly sustainable and responsible in their operations and public works, meeting ESG and economic goals, but often identify a gap between their planned goals and accomplishments. Every project with SCS moves you closer to those goals and can help inform your planning. We’ll publish tools, best practices, and regulatory alerts from our deep bench of experts and proven solutions to support your plans. Let’s kick off Sustainable Council with air monitoring advice from Jeff Leadford; take it away, Jeff.
SCS Engineers performs air dispersion modeling for industries and manufacturing throughout the United States. Still, there continues to be a strong focus on emission sources from the solid waste and energy industries, especially from the legal community. Air dispersion modeling is required by regulators when criteria pollutants’ potential to emit (PTE) reach certain thresholds or when toxic pollutants reach high enough emissions to require health risk assessments (HRA), among other more specific reasons. Common emission sources that are modeled at landfills, for example, include:
Submitting air dispersion modeling that shows compliance with criteria pollutant ambient air quality standards (AAQS) or HRA thresholds is essential for these operations to remain compliant.
Emission Sources Case Study
A large landfill in the San Diego area recently submitted its annual toxic pollutant emissions to the San Diego Air Pollution and Control District (SDAPCD), and this emission level triggered HRA reporting. SCS obtained all needed site information from the landfill on emission source parameters and ran the EPA-preferred air dispersion model “AERMOD” to understand where these toxic pollutants were landing outside the property boundary and at what concentrations. AERMOD takes in source parameters such as exhaust velocity and stack height from a flare and combines that with the local terrain and meteorological data to determine these concentrations at ground level. Meteorological data from a recent 1-5 year period is generally required. Next, the output of AERMOD was run in “HARP2”, the Air Dispersion Modeling and Risk Tool created by the California Air Resource Board. HARP2 can take these ground-level concentrations and turn them into a number that describes the health risk (cancer, noncancer chronic, and acute) to a population living and working in the region.
All modeling was performed and submitted to SDAPCD, focusing on specific residences, businesses, and sensitive receptors such as schools and hospitals close to the landfill. The results showed that the landfill operations demonstrated negligible risk on the closest residences, businesses, and sensitive receptors. All required modeling files were submitted to SDAPCD, and a full HRA report with figures. The report was given SDAPCD approval after the SCS team satisfied all questions and correspondence with the agency.
The experience SCS has in air dispersion modeling, health risk assessment, and industry helps simplify this process for our landfill client. SCS performs numerous assessments of emission sources and, with our in-the-field experience, has streamlined the process to be as efficient as possible, saving time and money for our clients. For additional information, please reach out to Jeff Leadford, PE, or one of SCS’s nationwide offices.
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Setting up a school zero waste program takes time, patience, excellent collaboration and communication, and a team that wants to achieve the same goal of zero waste. Tracie Bills recommends a realistic approach in her article. She provides examples and describes how a consulting firms, such as SCS Engineers, assist schools without materials management programs to launch zero waste programs.
Building a successful program does not happen overnight, but you can do it!
Tracie Onstad Bills is SCS Engineers Northern California Director of Sustainable Materials Management. She has over 20 years of materials management experience, including working for a hauler, a county government, and a nonprofit, and over 12 years of experience with materials management consulting firms. She has provided commercial sector materials flow assessments; organics processing research and analysis; waste characterization studies; and recycling, organics, and waste management technical assistance to government agencies, schools, multi-family dwellings, and businesses. Ms. Bills has an environmental science degree from San Jose State and is an instructor for the SWANA Zero Waste certification program.
Everyone knows about recycling, especially if you work at SCS. Many times, there are different ways that you can reuse those items for something else before, or instead of, getting rid of them. Today, we are sharing easy zero waste tips to repurpose items you have around your house, rather than just tossing them in the recycle bin:
Author: Jennifer Mancini
Caroline Larose was awarded the Robert P. Stearns – SCS Engineers Master’s Scholar this year. Her project, “Material Flows: Strategies to Reduce Ann Arbor’s Municipal Solid Waste and Improve Diversion,” consists of a comprehensive benchmarking analysis of urban waste programs and a review of city stakeholders to distill a set of MSW management, education, and awareness best practices. Following her research, Caroline plans to draft recommendations for the City, which will include updated MSW goals and an action plan to improve diversion and reduce waste creation.
About Caroline Larose
Caroline chose to go back to school to further her pursuit of making cities more sustainable. She identified solid waste as her primary research focus and has worked towards her idea of eliminating waste as a concept. Caroline is now in her third year as a dual MBA/MS student at the Erb Institute for Global Sustainable Enterprise at the University of Michigan.
Caroline works to promote waste reduction and diversion on campus and throughout the Ann Arbor community by advising the implementation of campus-wide composting and uniform bin signage, as well as by organizing events such as the first Ross School of Business Waste Audit & Education Day and annual clothing swaps. Caroline, a member of the University-wide Student Sustainability Initiative board, has served as the VP of Sustainability for the Ross Net Impact chapter for 2-years. As a result of her leadership on campus, Caroline was selected to join the Ann Arbor Resource Management Team, advising the City of Ann Arbor on how to reduce its solid waste and improve diversion.
By Michelle Leonard, Solid Waste Planning and Recycling; Sustainability
National Expert
The term describes the desired end-state and a call-to-action rethinking what we regard as trash as potentially valuable resources. The overall goal of zero waste planning is to establish the goal of diverting at least 90 percent of the waste generated by all sources from a landfill.
Zero Waste is to:
Communities across North America have embraced the concept of Zero Waste, some by adopting a Zero Waste goal or policy, and others by completing a Zero Waste Plan. The plan includes implementing zero waste programs and infrastructure in a manner most sustainable for the community. Many communities establish a long-term goal of Zero Waste by setting interim goals to achieve and benchmark measuring progress. Goals may be quantified over years, by percentages, or by environmental factors relevant to your community.
There are several factors critical to sustainable Zero Waste programs.
Phasing in programs encourages acceptance of new policies, programs, and facilities, and the behavior modifications that come with them. Instead of continuing to focus on results at the end of the process, we find ways to fulfill the equation “waste = resource” within our industrial and societal systems. This mindset change helps to lead us to more systems that eliminate wastes to the environment, avoiding systematic deterioration of the environment. These systems are modeled by nature as the most efficient, less costly, and most profitable ways to move toward Zero Waste.
Programs that contribute to Zero Waste include upstream policies and programs. Over 71% of the waste generated happens before products and materials enter our homes, offices, schools and institutions. Upstream policies and programs aim to reduce the volume and toxicity of discarded products and materials and promote low-impact or reduced consumption lifestyles.
Producer Responsibility is an upstream activity, including advocacy at the state level and implementation of local ordinances for hard to handle materials, such as pharmaceuticals, sharps, batteries, CFLs. Local jurisdictions can support state legislation for Extended Producer Responsibility for materials such as carpet paint, etc.
Downstream programs aim to ensure the highest and best use of products and packaging at the end of their useful lives. They establish a hierarchy of:
Managing these materials will most likely require a combination of facilities which may include:
The issue of how Waste to Energy fits into a Zero Waste system has been a hotly debated topic at many Zero Waste conferences, workshops, and planning sessions. The Zero Waste International Alliance includes in its definition “no burning or burying”. However, even the most aggressive, advanced Zero Waste system will still have some residual materials, and these materials will need to be managed. Some cities that have adopted Zero Waste plans and/or policies include waste to energy in their strategic plans. These cities recognize that Zero Waste policies and programs will achieve a high diversion rate, but they also acknowledge that a portion of the waste stream residuals will need to be disposed or processed. For these cities, waste to energy, or another alternative technology facility will fill that need, and will further reduce the use of landfill disposal.
Learn more about Sustainable Materials Management
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