Energy, Environment and Resources Center

Jack Barkenbus, Executive Director

Center For Clean Products and Clean Technologies

Gary A. Davis, Director

Office of Communications and Publications

David Brill, Director

Center for Geography and Environmental Education

Rosalyn McKeown-Ice, Director

Oak Ridge Technology Research and Development Program

Sheila Webster, Director

Systems Development Institute

Donald Alvic, Director

Pro-Dialogue

Mary R. English and David L. Feldman, Directors

Water Resources Research Center

Tim Gangaware, Associate Director

For more information call Gail Farris at 865-974-4251 or write to EERC, 311 Conference Center Building, Knoxville, TN 37996-4134.

Visit our Web site at: http://eerc.ra.utk.edu/

Collaborations.  UT’s Environment and Natural Resource Interdisciplinary Council has awarded a grant to Susan Smith, assistant professor in health and safety sciences; Greg Reed, professor and head of UT’s civil and environmental engineering department (CEE); Wayne Davis, professor in CEE; and Jean Peretz, a research scientist with EERC. The colleagues will examine health effects related to air pollution.

Reed and Peretz—along with Robert Bohm, professor of economics; Rudy Santore, assistant professor in economics; and Donald Bruce, research assistant professor with UT’s Center for Business and Economic Research and assistant economics professor—have recently submitted a project proposal to the Environmental Protection Agency. The two-year project would measure the impact of federal and state environmental policies on corporate hazardous-waste reduction in Tennessee.

Projects.  Over the past two years, EERC’s Center for Clean Products and Clean Technologies (CCPCT) has assisted Green Seal in developing an environmental standard for food packaging. In conjunction with that project, CCPCT helped to evaluate an EarthShell container for Green Seal certification. CCPCT researchers involved in the project included Research Scientist Mary Swanson, who served as principal investigator, CCPCT Director Gary Davis, Senior Research Associate Kerry Kelly, and Research Associate Rajive Dhingra. EarthShell Corporation, which developed its environmentally friendly hinged-lid sandwich container for the food-service industry, is piloting the product at 100 McDonald’s locations across the nation. The container is formulated from limestone and organic materials, including starch reclaimed from the processing of french fries and potato chips.

Appointment.  Rosalyn McKeown, director of EERC’s Center for Geography and Environmental Education, has accepted a one-year appointment as visiting associate professor on the faculty of education at York University in Toronto, Ontario. While on leave from UT, McKeown will continue to serve as secretariat to the UNESCO chair on reorienting teacher education to address sustainability; she will also teach an under-graduate science-methods course and a graduate-level sustainability course. In addition, McKeown will work with the York Seneca Institute for Science, Technology and Education.

Publications.  UT Adjunct Instructor David Brill (Journalism), who serves as EERC’s director of communications, published “Appalachian Trail Reunion” in National Geographic Traveler (September 2000). Brill’s article describes his 20-year reunion hike up Mt. Katahdin with his former trekking buddies. Brill has also released his newest book, A Separate Place: A Family, A Cabin in the Woods, and a Journey of Love and Spirit (Dutton), which details his exodus from a frantic suburban lifestyle to a remote and peaceful retreat.