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[BusinessGreen.com > News > Recycling/Disposal]
E-Waste becomes a top priority for EPA action
EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson promises to lead crackdown on soaring levels of electronic waste
Matthew Wheeland, GreenBiz, BusinessGreen, 19 Aug 2010
When it comes to international environmental challenges, climate change is among the most commonly cited top priorities. But EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson this week added e-waste and four other issues to the agency's areas of focus.
In a memo from the meeting of the Commission for Environmental Cooperation in Guanajuato, Mexico, Jackson spelled out why e-waste has become a top-level concern for the administration.
"The electronics that provide us with convenience often end up discarded in developing countries where improper disposal can threaten local people and the environment," Jackson wrote. "EPA recognizes this urgent concern and will work with international partners to address the issues of e-waste. In the near-term, EPA will focus on ways to improve the design, production, handling, reuse, recycling, exporting and disposal of electronics."
Vague though Jackson's memo was on concrete steps to address e-waste issues, environmental groups praised the inclusion of e-waste on the list of priorities, and suggested remedies.
"The amounts of e-waste we are creating is staggering, and then the practice of sweeping the techno-trash out the back door to developing countries is shameful," said Jim Puckett, executive director of the Basel Action Network (BAN), who attended the session. Puckett and BAN went on to call for legislation banning the export of toxic electronic waste, and for manufacturers to take quick action to remove toxics from their products.
And in a blog post preceding the Commission's meeting, Allen Hershkowitz of the Natural Resources Defense Council used a recent pictorial feature in the New York Times on e-waste in Ghana to call for US ratification of the Basel Convention, which governs the export of hazardous wastes.
Lisa Jackson's list of priorities comes a week after the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report analyzing options of e-waste recycling that also called for the ratfication of the Basel Convention as a way of addressing the impacts of e-waste on the environment and human health.
Electronics companies are working on a number of fronts to reduce those impacts, notably in terms of phasing out toxics, working to certify responsible recyclers of e-waste and minimizing the export of end-of-life gadgets.
Earlier this year, Acer, Dell, Hewlett-Packard and Sony Ericsson joined in a call for the European Union to ban toxics in electronics, particularly polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and brominated flame retardants (BFRs), which produce highly toxic dioxins when improprerly disposed of or burned. Many developing-world e-waste harvesters burn electronics in open pits to get access to the precious metals inside.
Greenpeace, which releases a quarterly Guide to Greener Electronics, most recently dinged a number of companies for failing to meet deadlines on removing toxics from their products. In an earlier scorecard, Acer earned Greenpeace's praise for removing PVC and BFRs from its laptops.
The news comes in the wake of a report published earlier this year that showed how the developing world is getting buried under a surge of e-waste exported from the US and Europe. To address how exported, unwanted electronics - sometimes exported in the hope that they could be reused to help bridge the digital divide between rich and poor nations - the Basel Action Network and other groups have joined to create a certification for responsible e-waste recycling.
The E-Stewards standard, launched in April 2010 with support from a number of electronics recycling firms and environmental groups, requires companies to eliminate exports of hazardous e-wastes to developing countries; halt the dumping of such wastes in municipal landfills or incinerators; and cease the use of captive prison populations to manage toxic e- wastes.
The remaining five priorities in Lisa Jackson's memo to the EPA today are: building strong environmental institutions and legal structures; combating climate change by limiting pollutants; improving air quality; expanding access to clean water; and reducing exposure to toxic chemicals.
[BusinessGreen.com > News > Legislation]
New CRC standards promise league table boost
But survey finds large numbers of firms are still failing to measure their carbon footprint
BusinessGreen.com Staff, BusinessGreen, 19 Aug 2010
Firms looking to boost their standing in the government's Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC) league table will have a wider range of options to choose from after the Environment Agency yesterday extended the list of standards that qualify as so-called Early Action Metrics under the scheme.
Early Action Metrics are designed to recognise those organisations that have already taken measures to improve their energy efficiency and, as a result, might find it harder to deliver continued percentage cuts in their energy use. Under the rules of the CRC, the Environment Agency takes compliance with Early Action Metrics into account when compiling the league tables detailing participants' energy performance, giving a higher rating to organisations that have already taken measures to enhance their efficiency.
To qualify for an Early Action Metric, organisations are required to voluntarily install automated meter-reading equipment and comply with an approved standard certifying that they have implemented carbon management policies and delivered cuts in emissions.
Initially, the only standard that qualified as an Early Action Metric was the Carbon Trust Standard, which requires firms to demonstrate that they have delivered year-on-year emission reductions.
However, the Carbon Trust Standard's position as the only approved standard prompted protests in some quarters that the government-backed company could dominate what promises to be a lucrative market and, as a result, the Environment Agency has approved a number of rival standards as Early Action Metrics over the past few months.
New carbon management standards from CEMARS and BSI Kitemark have already been approved, while the Environment Agency announced yesterday that the recently launched Carbon Saver Standard has also qualified as an Early Action Metric.
Glenn Wilkinson, managing director of Carbon Saver, welcomed the decision, arguing that it meant organisations now had a "real choice" when looking at the market for approved carbon accreditation schemes.
Andrew Hitchings, CRC project executive at the Environment Agency, urged organisations that have taken steps to improve their energy efficiency in recent years to obtain an approved standard. "The Carbon Trust Standard and equivalent schemes allow organisations who are leading the way in environmental management to be rewarded for their early action," he said. "CRC is an opportunity for organisations to show what they have already achieved in reducing emissions through early action and provides an incentive to achieve the further reductions which are necessary in the future."
The news comes as the Carbon Trust yesterday released the results of a survey of 200 finance directors showing that nearly three quarters work for firms that do not currently measure their carbon footprint.
The survey found that 72 per cent of respondents believe businesses will eventually be legally required to measure their carbon footprint, while 76 per cent reckon they will be made to pay for the carbon they emit.
However, just under half of respondents have a target for reducing carbon emissions, while a further 16 per cent were unsure if their employer had a carbon target or not.
"The debate about whether or not carbon footprinting and payment will become mandatory for business appears to be over as far as finance heads are concerned, " said Harry Morrison, general manager of the Carbon Trust Standard. "Yet only a minority have taken action so far and these early movers have a clear advantage. Building carbon management into the DNA of the business now not only ensures preparedness for future compliance requirements, but also brings immediate cost and efficiency benefits and a competitive edge."
[BusinessGreen.com > News > Recycling/Disposal]
E-Waste becomes a top priority for EPA action
EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson promises to lead crackdown on soaring levels of electronic waste
Matthew Wheeland, GreenBiz, BusinessGreen, 19 Aug 2010
When it comes to international environmental challenges, climate change is among the most commonly cited top priorities. But EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson this week added e-waste and four other issues to the agency's areas of focus.
In a memo from the meeting of the Commission for Environmental Cooperation in Guanajuato, Mexico, Jackson spelled out why e-waste has become a top-level concern for the administration.
"The electronics that provide us with convenience often end up discarded in developing countries where improper disposal can threaten local people and the environment," Jackson wrote. "EPA recognizes this urgent concern and will work with international partners to address the issues of e-waste. In the near-term, EPA will focus on ways to improve the design, production, handling, reuse, recycling, exporting and disposal of electronics."
Vague though Jackson's memo was on concrete steps to address e-waste issues, environmental groups praised the inclusion of e-waste on the list of priorities, and suggested remedies.
"The amounts of e-waste we are creating is staggering, and then the practice of sweeping the techno-trash out the back door to developing countries is shameful," said Jim Puckett, executive director of the Basel Action Network (BAN), who attended the session. Puckett and BAN went on to call for legislation banning the export of toxic electronic waste, and for manufacturers to take quick action to remove toxics from their products.
And in a blog post preceding the Commission's meeting, Allen Hershkowitz of the Natural Resources Defense Council used a recent pictorial feature in the New York Times on e-waste in Ghana to call for US ratification of the Basel Convention, which governs the export of hazardous wastes.
Lisa Jackson's list of priorities comes a week after the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report analyzing options of e-waste recycling that also called for the ratfication of the Basel Convention as a way of addressing the impacts of e-waste on the environment and human health.
Electronics companies are working on a number of fronts to reduce those impacts, notably in terms of phasing out toxics, working to certify responsible recyclers of e-waste and minimizing the export of end-of-life gadgets.
Earlier this year, Acer, Dell, Hewlett-Packard and Sony Ericsson joined in a call for the European Union to ban toxics in electronics, particularly polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and brominated flame retardants (BFRs), which produce highly toxic dioxins when improprerly disposed of or burned. Many developing-world e-waste harvesters burn electronics in open pits to get access to the precious metals inside.
Greenpeace, which releases a quarterly Guide to Greener Electronics, most recently dinged a number of companies for failing to meet deadlines on removing toxics from their products. In an earlier scorecard, Acer earned Greenpeace's praise for removing PVC and BFRs from its laptops.
The news comes in the wake of a report published earlier this year that showed how the developing world is getting buried under a surge of e-waste exported from the US and Europe. To address how exported, unwanted electronics - sometimes exported in the hope that they could be reused to help bridge the digital divide between rich and poor nations - the Basel Action Network and other groups have joined to create a certification for responsible e-waste recycling.
The E-Stewards standard, launched in April 2010 with support from a number of electronics recycling firms and environmental groups, requires companies to eliminate exports of hazardous e-wastes to developing countries; halt the dumping of such wastes in municipal landfills or incinerators; and cease the use of captive prison populations to manage toxic e- wastes.
The remaining five priorities in Lisa Jackson's memo to the EPA today are: building strong environmental institutions and legal structures; combating climate change by limiting pollutants; improving air quality; expanding access to clean water; and reducing exposure to toxic chemicals.
[BusinessGreen.com > News > Legislation]
New CRC standards promise league table boost
But survey finds large numbers of firms are still failing to measure their carbon footprint
BusinessGreen.com Staff, BusinessGreen, 19 Aug 2010
Firms looking to boost their standing in the government's Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC) league table will have a wider range of options to choose from after the Environment Agency yesterday extended the list of standards that qualify as so-called Early Action Metrics under the scheme.
Early Action Metrics are designed to recognise those organisations that have already taken measures to improve their energy efficiency and, as a result, might find it harder to deliver continued percentage cuts in their energy use. Under the rules of the CRC, the Environment Agency takes compliance with Early Action Metrics into account when compiling the league tables detailing participants' energy performance, giving a higher rating to organisations that have already taken measures to enhance their efficiency.
To qualify for an Early Action Metric, organisations are required to voluntarily install automated meter-reading equipment and comply with an approved standard certifying that they have implemented carbon management policies and delivered cuts in emissions.
Initially, the only standard that qualified as an Early Action Metric was the Carbon Trust Standard, which requires firms to demonstrate that they have delivered year-on-year emission reductions.
However, the Carbon Trust Standard's position as the only approved standard prompted protests in some quarters that the government-backed company could dominate what promises to be a lucrative market and, as a result, the Environment Agency has approved a number of rival standards as Early Action Metrics over the past few months.
New carbon management standards from CEMARS and BSI Kitemark have already been approved, while the Environment Agency announced yesterday that the recently launched Carbon Saver Standard has also qualified as an Early Action Metric.
Glenn Wilkinson, managing director of Carbon Saver, welcomed the decision, arguing that it meant organisations now had a "real choice" when looking at the market for approved carbon accreditation schemes.
Andrew Hitchings, CRC project executive at the Environment Agency, urged organisations that have taken steps to improve their energy efficiency in recent years to obtain an approved standard. "The Carbon Trust Standard and equivalent schemes allow organisations who are leading the way in environmental management to be rewarded for their early action," he said. "CRC is an opportunity for organisations to show what they have already achieved in reducing emissions through early action and provides an incentive to achieve the further reductions which are necessary in the future."
The news comes as the Carbon Trust yesterday released the results of a survey of 200 finance directors showing that nearly three quarters work for firms that do not currently measure their carbon footprint.
The survey found that 72 per cent of respondents believe businesses will eventually be legally required to measure their carbon footprint, while 76 per cent reckon they will be made to pay for the carbon they emit.
However, just under half of respondents have a target for reducing carbon emissions, while a further 16 per cent were unsure if their employer had a carbon target or not.
"The debate about whether or not carbon footprinting and payment will become mandatory for business appears to be over as far as finance heads are concerned, " said Harry Morrison, general manager of the Carbon Trust Standard. "Yet only a minority have taken action so far and these early movers have a clear advantage. Building carbon management into the DNA of the business now not only ensures preparedness for future compliance requirements, but also brings immediate cost and efficiency benefits and a competitive edge."
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