InSites is a quarterly newsletter that highlights the personalities and projects of the Waste Management Research and Education Institute (WMREI) of The University of Tennessee. WMREI is an affiliate of the EERC.
WMREI was created in 1985 as a state-funded Center of Excellence. Research areas include solid-, hazardous-, and nuclear-waste management; waste minimization; and pollution prevention.
Biotechnology is the focal point of the institute's technical research, while issues involving public attitudes and federal/state policies related to waste-management issues are the primary concerns of the institute's policy research.
For additional information about InSites, or to be added to our mailing list, please write InSites, WMREI, The University of Tennessee, 311 Conference Building, Knoxville, TN 37996-4134, call 865-974-1156, or fax 865-974-1838. Or, if you prefer, e-mail Constance Griffith cbgriffith@utk.edu.
Table of Contents
Clean
Kong: A multiagency initiative exports the University of
Tennessee’s expertise in environmentalmanagement to Hong Kong. By
Elise LeQuire Fields of Dreams:
The Institute of Agriculture’s new vice president
brings his love of the farm and his vision for a sustainable future to UT’s
agricultural campus. By Laurie Varma Untapped Human
Potential key to Environmental Improvement. By Jack Barkenbus WMREI Publications Honored for Excellence Staff
Citings
A multiagency initiative exports the University of Tennessee’s expertise in environmentalmanagement to Hong Kong.
By Elise LeQuire
Hong Kong is one of the most densely populated urban regions and one of the busiest seaports in the world. But rapid urbanization continues to challenge efforts to clean the air and waters in and around the city, a Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China since 1997.
Part of the problem is the geography, since Hong Kong lies at sea level and is surrounded by hills and mountains. But with a population approaching 7 million people, it’s also overcrowded and highly dependent on diesel-powered vehicles and other fossil fuels, says Catherine Wilt, a senior research associate at the University of Tennessee’s (UT) Energy, Environment and Resources Center (EERC).
“Within 20 years, if something isn’t done, environmental conditions in Hong Kong will continue to deteriorate and dramatically affect the quality of life,” says Wilt, who is co-director of a project to bring voluntary environmental management concepts to young business professionals in Hong Kong.
The current regulatory environment in Hong Kong is similar to that of the United States, Wilt says, where business is suspicious of government regulatory agencies that put up “hoops businesses have to jump through.” But the Hong Kong business community also understands the bottom line: bad air and bad water are bad business.
Hands Across the Oceans
While environmental management systems have been incorporated into most U.S. business schools in the past decade, they are not yet a core of the business curriculum in Hong Kong. But in a global marketplace, a company’s corporate image—as well as its long-term economic success—depends in large measure on its commitment to environmental stewardship, Wilt says.
That’s why researchers and business leaders in Hong Kong
are eager to join the environmental management project, which is supported by a
$106,513 grant from the Council of State Governments through its State
Environmental Initiative to promote environmental management curricula in Hong
Kong institutions of higher learning. Matching grants totaling $213,026 are
provided by partners in the project: UT, the Tennessee Department of Economic
and Community Development, the World Resources Institute, and Hong Kong
Polytechnic University (PolyU).
The Green Team
The UT partners bring to the project exceptional expertise in practical applications of environmental management and are on the cutting edge of environmental policy and management research. UT’s College of Business Administration, for example, was one of the first in the nation to initiate a master’s concentration in environmental management and is ranked in the top seven colleges in environmental management in the United States. Thomas Dean, associate professor in the graduate school of business administration at the University of Colorado-Boulder, brings to the project hands-on experience in the transfer of environmental management content and pedagogy to countries in Central and Eastern Europe. Dean, a former associate professor in UT’s College of Business Administration, co-directs the project with Wilt.
Researchers at UT’s EERC were among the first nationwide
to develop concepts such as life-cycle analysis and extended producer
responsibility. Moreover, they have a proven track record in working with
private industry to implement these concepts in an environmentally and
economically sustainable way. EERC researchers involved in the project include
Wilt, Associate Director Lori Kincaid, and Executive Director Jack Barkenbus.
“Solving Hong Kong’s environmental problems requires a multidisciplinary
approach, involving the best of engineering and business practices,” Barkenbus
notes. “We are particularly interested in transferring what we know about
green product development and associated supply chains.”
New Center
The focus of activities is Hong Kong’s PolyU, where a Center for Environmental Management Education will be established. All of Hong Kong’s business colleges will be invited to participate in the project and encouraged to incorporate environmental management curricula into their existing programs. Since PolyU has a tradition of strong ties with businesses on mainland China, the program will have a long-term regional impact.
In addition, a series of symposia on environmental management and teaching methods will link U.S. faculty and staff with business and education professionals from several business and academic communities in Hong Kong. According to Wilt, enthusiasm for the inaugural symposium in November 1999 is high. “There’s tremendous optimism in our relationship with PolyU for building relationships and partnerships with like-minded businesses, nongovernmental organizations, and government,” she says. Wilt and the rest of the UT project team will travel to Hong Kong for a kickoff conference on November 17 and meetings through November 20.
A crucial component of the project involves introducing future business leaders to the ISO 14000 standards, an international, voluntary certification system that helps companies incorporate environmental guidelines into their operating procedures. While ISO 14000 standards are voluntary, they are increasingly important in the global economy. Japan and other major industrialized nations are leading the way in persuading companies to comply with these voluntary measures.
The new environmental management curricula will help spread awareness in the business community of the many benefits associated with environmental technologies. “There’s a direct translation to better operational efficiency,” Wilt says. “If you are wasting resources, that costs the company.”
Image Boost
In Hong Kong, however, there’s more at stake than just environmental improvement; a “green” image is equally important. Tourism is a mainstay of the district’s economy, and the estimated economic losses, if conditions continue to deteriorate, could rank in the billions of dollars. Moreover, a 1997 study commissioned by the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region estimates the health costs of air pollution alone at more than 4 billion Hong Kong dollars.
While Hong Kong has mandatory environmental regulations, a new commitment is emerging there and across Asia to promote public-private initiatives to foster environmentally sustainable growth. The United States-Asia Environmental Partnership (US-AEP) is taking the lead in Hong Kong and throughout Asia to promote a “clean revolution” using the expertise of U.S. private industry, government agencies, and nongovernmental organizations. US-AEP is an organization of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the federal agency that fosters economic development abroad.
US-AEP representatives approached the Council of State Governments because they felt that federal programs trying to parachute into Asian countries weren’t working, says Karen Marshall, who manages the State Environmental Initiative for the Council. “US-AEP thought that the Council of State Governments could identify the best environmental protection programs and businesses in the states to match Asian demands for environmental solutions,” Marshall says. “The Council’s combination of trusted state agency officials, staff, and faculty—along with the private sector—would assure potential Asian customers that the businesses recommended are reliable and in it for the long haul.” In the past five years, the Council of State Governments, US-AEP, and USAID have sponsored 30 projects linking 23 U.S. states with 11 Asian partners.
States like Tennessee have decades of experience in implementing the elaborate regulations of such federal agencies as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. In a sense, the states, in response to mandates, have “been there and done that.” And public/private partnerships allow more varied and easily adaptable solutions to environmental problems, Marshall says.
Firm Foundations
Rapidly industrializing Asian nations are just now learning to deal with environmental regulations and a competitive international market in which clean technologies can be a marketing strength.
“Asian industries that are adopting pollution prevention and ISO 14000 environmental management systems can see immediate reductions in the discharge of toxins and other wastes, as well as reduce energy and raw materials consumption,” Marshall says. But public image has a lot to do with it as well. “Companies are beginning to realize they need environmental management as a market tool,” she says.
In addition, the partnerships that US-AEP fosters will give states an international market for the clean technologies they’ve already developed. Nationwide, the 30 projects sponsored by the Council for State Governments through the State Environmental Initiative have received $3 million in grant money and resulted in $5 million in confirmed sales. That’s not a record return on investment, but these programs are laying a firm foundation for future cooperation in an increasingly global marketplace.
The quality of the partners involved in this most recent initiative guarantees the environmental management project’s success. “This project pulls together the best of U.S. agencies, academia, and legislators to introduce the latest environmental management tools,” Marshall says.
In the third phase of the 16-month project, researchers will develop teaching materials for use in the classroom. Environmental management case studies will focus on three for-profit Hong Kong companies. In the final phase, 10 Hong Kong professors will visit Tennessee companies that have established sound environmental management techniques in their manufacturing operations.
***
Contact Jack Barkenbus, EERC, The University of Tennessee, 311 Conference Center Building, Knoxville, TN 37996-4134, call 865-974-4251, or email barkenbu@utk.edu.
The Institute of Agriculture’s new vice president brings his love of the farm and his vision for a sustainable future to UT’s agricultural campus.
By Laurie Varma
In more than 30 years of academic and research work, Jack Britt has never left the farm. His efforts have always focused on improving farm practices—to benefit farm animals, people, and the environment.
Britt, who joined the University of Tennessee (UT) in September 1998 as vice president of the Institute of Agriculture, brings a lifelong knowledge of farm operations to bear on the crop and livestock management, environmental protection, and educational efforts that form the foundation of the institute’s programs.
The Institute of Agriculture comprises the College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources, the College of Veterinary Medicine, the Agricultural Experiment
Station, and the Agricultural Extension Service. The institute headquarters is located on UT’s agricultural campus, but it has units in all 95 of the state’s counties and at 11 branch experiment stations.
The College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources’ academic programs encompass several disciplines, ranging from plant and soil sciences to agricultural economics and biosystems engineering. The College of Veterinary Medicine focuses on small, large, and exotic animal science. The experiment station conducts applied research into farm issues, natural resource management, nutrition, and rural development. The extension service educates farmers, students, and the public about farm issues, new research, and effective agricultural practices. It also boasts strong programs in nutrition, resource management, family development, and 4-H. Together, these programs serve communities throughout the state.
Lifelong Vision
Britt grew up on a dairy farm in Bowling Green, Kentucky, which nurtured an abiding interest in agriculture and farming. He studied agriculture and biology as an undergraduate and specialized in livestock fertility and reproduction while working on master’s and doctoral degrees in physiology and biochemistry at North Carolina State University.
Britt served as a research and teaching professor at Michigan State University and North Carolina State University and was associate dean for research and graduate programs for North Carolina State’s College of Veterinary Medicine before moving to Knoxville.
Britt’s vision centers on constructing a research continuum that connects discovery to application and nurtures collaboration among the university’s departments.
According to Britt, research and academic programs should emphasize out-in-the-field use of new technologies. Meanwhile, he contends, linkages among theory-based researchers, applied researchers, and outreach educators should be active and ongoing. Programs should also focus on improving current agricultural practices and remediating any harmful effects of past operations.
“I’m a strong advocate of moving from discovery to
development to application as quickly as possible,” says Britt. “If we are
continually discovering and disseminating new knowledge, we can make our clients
more successful and more competitive in the global market, enhance people’s
standard of living and the well-being of communities, and act as an economic
engine for the state.”
Sustainable Futures
Environmental sustainability is a central theme running through all of the institute’s research programs. To that end, many projects focus on reducing adverse impacts of earlier farm practices. Examples of current work include developing new tillage practices to reduce soil erosion, turning farm animal wastes into value-added products, studying how waste accumulates in soils and water bodies, and altering pest control methods to eliminate surface and groundwater contamination.
Researchers are also working on ways to use buffer zones fashioned of bushes, trees, and grasses along farm property to prevent pesticides and animal waste from entering streams and degrading water quality. (See “The Smell of Sustainability” in the Summer 1999 edition of Insites for information on other challenges involving farm animal waste.)
In addition, the Agriculture Experiment Station is researching ways to use geographic information systems to implement some of the newer technologies in farm management, among them, “precision agriculture practices.” Britt explains that a farmer who operates using the principles of precision agriculture techniques often carries out soil testing, harvesting, and planning with the aid of computers mounted on their tractors, which are hooked up to a satellite that receives crop and field data.
Fields are broken down into two-acre or larger plots and analyzed for soil fertility, yield potential, and amount of pest-control chemicals needed. The farmer then uses these data on an ongoing basis to maximize crop yield and avoid unnecessary use of chemical inputs.
“Farmers are beginning to realize that good environmental practices are profitable,” Britt says. “Say, for example, pesticides are entering farm-side streams. Once the pesticides reach the stream, they are no longer effective in fighting plant pests and represent a waste of resources. Beyond that, they’ve become a pollutant.”
Collaborative Efforts
Britt’s vision for UT’s agricultural programs also stresses the need for researchers and educators to work together to make farm practices sustainable. The institute and its divisions are linked with UT’s Center for Environmental Biotechnology (CEB) and main-campus departments involved in the plant, animal, environmental, and human sciences.
Institute researchers have worked with CEB staff to evaluate the impact of crop systems and manure application on microbial communities in soil. The project demonstrated that soil management practices that boost the carbon content of soil also improve microbial biomass and diversity.
“Most of the issues we deal with in agriculture today are complex enough that it takes a group of people working together in a collegial way to provide the best solutions,” says Britt. “I’d like to explore more opportunities for collaboration in environmental and biotechnology research so that we can continue building a broad portfolio of activities.”
Britt contends that the institute and main campus should work together to identify areas of critical expertise and form teams of scientists and educators who would head teaching, research, and outreach in those areas. Collaboration with other universities in the region and across the nation also seems paramount to UT’s success in meeting today’s agricultural research and education requirements.
“The financial end of this can’t be overemphasized either,” says Britt. “We have to look at the fact that many of the countries we trade with don’t have environmental regulations, so our costs are higher and we’re operating at a disadvantage.”
The challenge facing agriculture today—and Britt, as he guides the institute and its programs—is to protect the environment so that the United States remains self-sufficient while also sustaining the farming industry’s economic viability.
***
Contact Jack Britt, Institute of Agriculture, The University of Tennessee, P.O. Box 1071, Knoxville, TN 37901-1071, or call 865-974-7342.
Untapped Human Potential key to Environmental Improvement
by Jack Barkenbus
Editor’s Note:
The following essay,
by Jack Barkenbus, policy director of the Waste Management Research and
Education Institute at the University of Tennessee, was selected as one of three
finalists for the recently created St. Andrews Prize.
The international
competition, sponsored by St. Andrews University of Scotland and Conoco, sought
innovative solutions to environmental problems. Sponsors received submissions
from 240 scientists, academics, politicians, and others from more than 40
nations. The winning essayist, whose paper explored a plan to reverse urban
environmental damage from mining in South Africa, received a cash award of
$25,000.
The framework or concept of sustainable development has been widely embraced globally, yet no one knows quite how we’re going to achieve it, even if we adopt only the most modest definition of sustainable development—environmental sustainability—as the desired outcome. Powerful forces in society appear to be leading to an unsustainable future. Nevertheless, this essay holds out hope.
This optimism is not based upon current trends or technologies, but, instead, on a fundamental reconceptualization of what constitutes useful technology and an unprecedented mobilization of human and organizational resources at the community level. Sustainable development will need to be achieved from the bottom up rather than today’s top-down orientation.
While we continue to have serious concerns for our diminishing natural resource base, we are curiously overlooking and underutilizing our substantial human resource base. The potential encapsulated within these human resources is remarkably large and dynamic. A strategy to tap this vast potential is long overdue. The underutilized human resources that could be mobilized on behalf of the environment are youth (ranging from elementary school students to first- and second-year university students), seniors (however a society defines its retired workforce population), and university faculty.
By combining these human resources, equipping them with simple technologies, and assigning them the task of monitoring and characterizing community environmental indicators, we can set in motion a process whereby every community can track and improve its environmental health. This proposal seeks to combine what are normally thought of as “community service” and “environmental education” to produce tangible benefits for the community and the participating individuals. The power of this concept resides not in the technologies themselves, but in the citizen learning and political mobilization that accompany use of technology.
Need Meets Opportunity
The expected output from this community mobilization would be a series of brief reports based on youth environmental monitoring that begins to portray the status of each participating community’s environmental health. Surprising as it may seem, most communities have not undertaken comprehensive environmental assessments. Any monitoring that does take place usually emanates from regulatory requirements tied to a restricted set of environmental laws. Monitoring over several years can produce a complete picture of environmental health and reveal important trends. Widespread publication and communication of the results are likely to lead to concerted efforts to improve the environment.
University faculty and staff would design a core of hands-on monitoring activities and serve as project organizers and advisors in each community. The kinds of core activities appropriate to each community will vary; it is expected that once out in the community, youth and seniors will think creatively and identify new monitoring opportunities that go beyond these core activities.
Faculty would work directly with community seniors in “training-the-trainer” sessions. These sessions would familiarize participants with necessary equipment and protocols to ensure monitoring quality. Faculty and interdisciplinary university units would also be involved in administration and evaluation.
Educated and technically oriented seniors are an underutilized community resource. Nearly any community has a cadre of seniors capable of guiding students’ monitoring efforts and willing to contribute time to community betterment. Seniors represent a key link between youth monitors and university faculty. Seniors would organize monitoring activities, provide monitoring instruction to youth, ensure that monitoring results are recorded and compiled, and serve in a quality-control capacity.
The centerpiece of this concept is youth serving as environmental monitors. Their involvement will achieve the community’s goals while contributing to environmental education. Young people could be tasked with specific and quantifiable environmental monitoring responsibilities. Efforts would be made to involve a significant number of young people, but goals of involving a large number of student participants should be secondary to the primary emphasis on the quality of both the learning experience and monitoring efforts.
Water, Soil, Air
Low-cost or no-cost technologies and procedures, designed for relative ease of use and to fit the skills and capabilities of youth monitors, would be preferred. Examples abound of low-cost equipment that can be used for monitoring. A host of commercially available water-quality monitoring kits would fit the capabilities of youth. These kits monitor for phosphates, bacteria, pH, and dissolved oxygen, among other characteristics. Other procedures and equipment can gauge the level of biological activity.
Lead-detection packages are available for indoor air-quality monitoring and can be supplemented by hand-held x-ray fluorescence spectrometers to assess the amount of lead in soils. Kits that detect radon and carbon monoxide are also available for measuring indoor air quality. Simple traps can ascertain the extent of animal diversity in the community. In many cases, observation, using a strict and standard protocol, may be all that is necessary for such things as bird counts, vehicle counts, and energy efficiency audits.
Clearly, these monitoring activities cannot substitute for ongoing regulatory monitoring that might, for example, measure water pollutants in parts per billion. Youth monitoring is intended to provide additional insight into environmental conditions that goes beyond simple regulatory compliance.
The key factors involved in unleashing the potential of these resources are time and rewards. Both could be marshaled in sufficient quantities.
Youth are primarily engaged in education. To the extent we envision education as simply classroom- or textbook-based learning, time may be seen as too precious. There is convincing evidence to show, however, that out-of-classroom experience—especially when it involves individualized, hands-on activities—can present powerful learning experiences.
The educational establishment should, therefore, be open to allocating time to real-world problem solving and student participation in environmental sciences. Even where educational establishments resist, youth could still be utilized through other organizational forms on weekends or after school. Students not only contribute motivation and excitement, they also have a stake in the outcome. After all, because they represent tomorrow’s full-fledged citizens, their environment is at issue. Internally driven rewards, however, may not in all cases be sufficient to mobilize a critical mass of youth to participate. Additional rewards, including peer and community recognition, may ensure adequate participation.
Seniors have perhaps the greatest motivation to participate, assuming that they are in good health and possess a modicum of technical expertise. They have time, by virtue of their withdrawal from the formal work world, and a significant percentage wish to remain engaged in civil society. It would be foolish not to think of ways in which these underutilized resources could contribute, both to satisfy their personal goals and the goals of society. The good news is that demographic trends point to the availability of growing numbers of seniors with skills, good health, and a desire to serve.
University faculty face the most daunting challenges to participation, but large numbers are not required for the tasks envisioned. Currently, rewards for work usually grounded in sophisticated, state-of-the-art research methods consists of publication of results in narrow, disciplinary journals. Community service is frequently a subsidiary goal carrying few if any rewards.
This could be changing over time, however, as universities are increasingly challenged to make their skills and specialized knowledge available to the societies that pay their salaries.
Environmental Commitment
The elements that make up this initiative already exist. They simply need to be merged and implemented in a limited number of communities globally and then communicated to a wider audience.
In the United States, tens of thousands of volunteers are already monitoring water quality through state-based programs or community organizations affiliated with the Adopt-A-Watershed program. Students are actively involved in these efforts, many associated with the Global Rivers Environmental Education Network (GREEN).
Numerous students and schools are also contributing to the Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment (GLOBE) program, an endeavor engaging students in environmental and scientific observations under the guidance of trained teachers.
Seniors are also organizing to work on behalf of the environment. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has applauded and recognized the volunteer work of both the Environmental Alliance for Senior Involvement and the National Senior Service Corps.
Though few universities in the United States have sought to elevate service activities above teaching and research functions, numerous institutes and centers within established universities have done so. The concept of “service universities,” which is now being implemented on a small scale in Scandinavia, may have global resonance in the future.
This proposal to use monitoring to derive environmental indicators builds upon the strong and growing environmental indicator movement taking place on local to global scales. Leaders are seeking to transform the characterization of environmental health from measures of inputs (e.g. dollars spent on environmental programs) to measures of outputs (e.g. performance indicators). This latter approach places increasing priority on sound information, much of which can only be derived from new monitoring initiatives. Communities seeking a performance-based assessment of their environmental health, therefore, could benefit from implementing the concept set forth here.
Rewards
On a community basis, a host of benefits could result from this initiative, including:
• A bridge for youth-senior interaction in a world where such interactions, in a nonfamily context, are all too rare;
• A sense of empowerment among currently underutilized human resources—youth and seniors;
• An innovative and exciting educational opportunity for youth, both to learn through service education and to contribute to community betterment;
• A valuable opportunity that allows the university community to contribute meaningfully to its public-service mission;
• The realization that the conduct of meaningful research need not be an elitist or governmental activity.
The consequences of community-generated reports, at minimum, will be a better-educated public. The impact, however, is not likely to stop there. If undesirable features in the environment are uncovered, the public is likely to ask who is responsible and seek political action to rectify the situation.
Clearly, solutions to all important environmental matters do not reside at the local level. Indeed, widely used technologies having local impacts may have their origins in corporate boardrooms on the other side of the globe. Even in these cases, however, identifying the problem, communicating the findings, and mobilizing the community can, when multiplied across numerous communities, have a significant and disproportionate impact.
Untapped Communities
The enormous challenge of sustainable development requires us to think creatively. Much of the thinking thus far has sought only to advance our technical capabilities in the context of a static societal and institutional milieu. This essay claims that by changing the institutional mix, through drawing on our human resources, we can begin to visualize a desirable path to sustainable development.
It must be acknowledged that this seed of an idea will, initially, grow only in fertile soil. The envisioned community environmental monitoring presumes a strong ethic of voluntary service that is not currently evident in all societies. At present, we seek only a “proof of principle”—that is, evidence that under the right circumstances it can succeed. Having reached that stage, we can begin to think about how it can be disseminated more widely. As the concept is developed and disseminated, it may be altered in creative and progressive ways that we can scarcely imagine today.
Widespread dissemination, over time, is possible because this is a low-cost approach to sustainable development. Most of the labor-intensive monitoring and reporting is voluntary, requiring only that administrative costs be covered. Low-cost or no-cost technologies allow necessary monitoring to proceed at minimum cost. Economic barriers, therefore, do not appear insurmountable in this case.
Finally, while the immediate outcome of monitoring efforts is the production of reports, we hope and anticipate that something far more substantial and long lasting will be taking place. Brian Trelstad, director of the San Francisco-based Center for National Service and the Environment, touched on this when he stated, “The process of building a constituency of young people who understand environmental problems at the community level may turn out to be more important than the scientific advancements that we also need to reverse our present and unsustainable course.”
We owe future generations the opportunity to participate in building the kind of future we all seek.
***
Contact Jack Barkenbus, EERC, 311 Conference Center Building, The University of Tennessee, Knnoxville, TN 37996-4134, or call 865-974-4251.
WMREI Publications Honored for Excellence
Several publications of the Waste Management Research and Education Institute (WMREI) and its affiliate, the Energy, Environment and Resources Center (EERC), have garnered national and international awards for excellence.
InSites, the eight-page quarterly newsletter that highlights WMREI projects and personnel, received a 1998 Apex Award of Excellence for best redesign. InSites targets an international audience of 3,400 waste managers, regulators, scientists, and policymakers. The newsletter is available on-line at http://eerc.ra.utk.edu/insites/.
FORUM for Applied Research and Public Policy, a quarterly policy journal that focuses on energy, the environment, economic development, and science and technology, received Apex Awards for Publication Excellence in 1998 and ’99. The article “The Precautionary Approach,” which addresses the health effects of endocrine disruptors and appears in the fall 1998 edition of the journal, received an Award of Distinction from The Communicator. FORUM is published jointly by the EERC and TVA Rural Studies at the University of Kentucky. FORUM recently introduced an on-line version, which is available at http://forum.ra.utk.edu/.
The EERC’s new 16-page brochure, produced in fall of
1998, received a 1999 Apex Grand Award, top honors in the category Brochures,
Manuals, and Reports. The brochure was one of only 58 Grand Award winners among
a field of 4,900 entries. The brochure also won a 1999 Award of Distinction from
The Communicator.
•PROJECTS. The Center for Clean Products and Clean
Technologies (CCPCT), a subunit of the Energy, Environment and Resources Center
(EERC), has received a $50,000 grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) for an ongoing, cooperative project that promotes cleaner
production and pollution prevention in the automotive supply chain. Associate
Director Lori Kincaid serves as principal investigator for the Design for the
Environment (DfE) project that will (1) define a framework for greening the
automotive supply chain and (2) develop implementation strategies. CCPCT’s
work will be based on the results of a Saturn Corporation survey, which details
barriers to and incentives for cleaner production as well as special needs of
suppliers.
•WORKSHOPS. The Tennessee Water Resources Research Center
(WRRC), in conjunction with UT’s Department of Civil and Environmental
Engineering and the Tennessee Department of Agriculture Nonpoint Source Program,
developed a one-day workshop on stormwater management for local government
officials. WRRC Associate Director Tim Gangaware presented a summary of
stormwater management practices in Tennessee and moderated a question and answer
session.
•PRESENTATIONS. EERC continues its involvement in
smart-growth issues and with growth-policy initiatives in Tennessee. In June,
Executive Director Jack Barkenbus presented “Smart Growth for Tennessee”
before the 60th Annual Tennessee Municipal League Conference in Chattanooga.
Research Scientist Jean Peretz recently presented “Smart Growth Visioning and
Planning” at the annual meeting of the Tennessee chapter of the American
Society of Landscape Architects in Gatlinburg, and Research leader Mary English
presented “Community Involvement in Smart Growth Planning” at Tennessee’s
Technology Summit in Knoxville in June. Discussing regional approaches to
managing water problems, Senior Research Scientist David Feldman presented
“Water Policy Challenges in the Southeast: Science and Policy,” at the
Technology Summit. Feldman also was an invited participant in the Safe Drinking
Water Act Futures Forum: The Future of Drinking Water Source Protection,
sponsored by the U.S. EPA.
•PUBLICATIONS. EERC’s Water Resources Research Center recently published an eight-page special insert in the Knoxville News-Sentinel. The supplement features tips for keeping creeks healthy and illustrates the Earth-friendly methods WRRC and Water Quality Forum partners used to restore stream banks and shorelines in Concord Park. The insert also discusses threats to Knox County watersheds and reviews the county’s Adopt-A-Watershed program.
Rosalyn McKeown-Ice, director of EERC’s Center for Geography and Environmental Education, explores the characteristics and value of “Environmental Literacy” in The Tennessee Conservationist (March/April 1999).
