e.e.r.c.: Highlights and Initiatives: August, 1997

	Energy, Environment and Resources Center The University of Tennessee Highlights and Initiatives
August 1997 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 Pellissippi Research 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/	Conferences. This past June, Research Scientist Alex Kozyr of the EERC's Pellissippi Research Institute participated in the Ocean Carbon Dioxide Advisory Panel at the Baltic Research Institute in Warnemuende, Germany. The panel was convened by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization's (UNESCO) Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission and Joint Global Ocean Flux Study. Panel experts explored ways to coordinate various national efforts to gather and assess data pertaining to carbon-dioxide levels in the world's oceans. In 1995, Kozyr, who compiles and distibutes data on the ocean's contribution to global climate change for the Department of Energy's (DOE) Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center (CDIAC), created a home page that provides access to CDIAC's oceanic research (http://cdiac.esd.ornl.gov/oceans/home.html). This page discusses the data-management support provided by CDIAC for DOE's global survey of carbon dioxide in the oceans. In particular, the page allows users to access data derived from various oceanographic research efforts, and it identifies all the carbon-dioxide sets currently being processed by CDIAC. Publications. Gary Davis, director of the EERC's Center for Clean Products and Clean Technologies (CCPCT); Catherine Wilt, EERC senior research associate; and Jack Barkenbus, EERC executive director, published "Extended Product Responsibility: A New Principle for Sustainable Production and Consumption" in the September 1997 issue of Environment magazine. Extended Product Responsibility (EPR) allows industry considerable flexibility in achieving environmental goals through voluntary product take-back programs, "cleaner" product designs, and efforts to improve environmental performance up and down the manufacturing and supply chain. The article summarizes the results of three EPR reports produced by Davis and Wilt since 1995. EPR has emerged largely in response to problems associated with the command-and-control approach to environmental regulation, which imposes strict standards on industries and affords them little flexibility in devising ways to meet them. Industries that have bought into the concept--which include IBM, Xerox Corporation, Saturn Corporation, and Dow Chemical--often discover that EPR allows them to achieve environmental goals while reducing production and disposal costs and enhancing their operations' profitability. Research Associate Ralph Perhac's article "Comparative Risk Assessment: Where Does the Public Fit in?" will appear in an upcoming issue of Science, Technology, & Human Values. The paper examines different rationales for seeking public participation and the implications of such participation in influencing the process of assessing comparative risks. Assistant Professor Paul Jakus, WMREI Fellowship Recipient Kelly Tiller, and Professor William Park recently published two papers derived from a WMREI-funded study of rural household waste and recycling. "Explaining Rural Household Participation in Recycling," published in the Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics, explains how people who live in areas not served by curbside recycling decide whether to participate in drop-off recycling. "Generation of Recyclables by Rural Households," published in the Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, explains how much these people recycle and why. The study indicates that people's perception of how easy it is to recycle and the amount of time involved are often the deciding factors in whether they will participate. A third paper, "Household Willingness to Pay for Drop-off Recycling," is forthcoming in the Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics. Appointments. Senior Research Scientist David Feldman has been appointed co-editor of the Policy Studies Review, a publication of the Policy Studies Organization specializing in research and technical reports intended to advance basic and applied policy science. He will share editing responsibilities with Allan Rosenbaum of Florida International University. Feldman also currently serves as symposium coordinator for the Policy Studies Journal, another publication of the Policy Studies Organization.

Energy, Environment and Resources Center

The University of Tennessee

Highlights and Initiatives

August 1997

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

Pellissippi Research 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/

Conferences. This past June, Research Scientist Alex Kozyr of the EERC's Pellissippi Research Institute participated in the Ocean Carbon Dioxide Advisory Panel at the Baltic Research Institute in Warnemuende, Germany. The panel was convened by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization's (UNESCO) Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission and Joint Global Ocean Flux Study. Panel experts explored ways to coordinate various national efforts to gather and assess data pertaining to carbon-dioxide levels in the world's oceans. In 1995, Kozyr, who compiles and distibutes data on the ocean's contribution to global climate change for the Department of Energy's (DOE) Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center (CDIAC), created a home page that provides access to CDIAC's oceanic research (http://cdiac.esd.ornl.gov/oceans/home.html). This page discusses the data-management support provided by CDIAC for DOE's global survey of carbon dioxide in the oceans. In particular, the page allows users to access data derived from various oceanographic research efforts, and it identifies all the carbon-dioxide sets currently being processed by CDIAC.

Publications. Gary Davis, director of the EERC's Center for Clean Products and Clean Technologies (CCPCT); Catherine Wilt, EERC senior research associate; and Jack Barkenbus, EERC executive director, published "Extended Product Responsibility: A New Principle for Sustainable Production and Consumption" in the September 1997 issue of Environment magazine. Extended Product Responsibility (EPR) allows industry considerable flexibility in achieving environmental goals through voluntary product take-back programs, "cleaner" product designs, and efforts to improve environmental performance up and down the manufacturing and supply chain. The article summarizes the results of three EPR reports produced by Davis and Wilt since 1995. EPR has emerged largely in response to problems associated with the command-and-control approach to environmental regulation, which imposes strict standards on industries and affords them little flexibility in devising ways to meet them. Industries that have bought into the concept--which include IBM, Xerox Corporation, Saturn Corporation, and Dow Chemical--often discover that EPR allows them to achieve environmental goals while reducing production and disposal costs and enhancing their operations' profitability.

Research Associate Ralph Perhac's article "Comparative Risk Assessment: Where Does the Public Fit in?" will appear in an upcoming issue of Science, Technology, & Human Values. The paper examines different rationales for seeking public participation and the implications of such participation in influencing the process of assessing comparative risks.

Assistant Professor Paul Jakus, WMREI Fellowship Recipient Kelly Tiller, and Professor William Park recently published two papers derived from a WMREI-funded study of rural household waste and recycling. "Explaining Rural Household Participation in Recycling," published in the Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics, explains how people who live in areas not served by curbside recycling decide whether to participate in drop-off recycling. "Generation of Recyclables by Rural Households," published in the Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, explains how much these people recycle and why. The study indicates that people's perception of how easy it is to recycle and the amount of time involved are often the deciding factors in whether they will participate. A third paper, "Household Willingness to Pay for Drop-off Recycling," is forthcoming in the Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics.

Appointments. Senior Research Scientist David Feldman has been appointed co-editor of the Policy Studies Review, a publication of the Policy Studies Organization specializing in research and technical reports intended to advance basic and applied policy science. He will share editing responsibilities with Allan Rosenbaum of Florida International University. Feldman also currently serves as symposium coordinator for the Policy Studies Journal, another publication of the Policy Studies Organization.

The EERC conducts analytical, unbiased, and multidisciplinary research designed to promote real-world solutions to problems in the fields of energy, environment, technology, and economic development.

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