EPA Funds Project to Prevent Pollution from Western New York Food Producers

From EPA:

EPA Funds Project to Prevent Pollution from

Western New York Food Producers

EPA Provides Over a Quarter of a Million Dollars to the Erie County Department of Environment and Planning

Contact: John Martin, (212) 637-3662, martin.johnj@epa.gov

(New York, N.Y. –  December 5, 2016) The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has awarded $259,963 to the Erie County Department of Environment and Planning to provide training and technical assistance to food production and processing companies in western New York. Erie County DEP will host a series of workshops and technical training courses to help area businesses reduce their greenhouse gas emissions and assist in preserving a sustainable future for the next generation.

"The EPA's pollution prevention grants fund programs that reduce or eliminate waste at the source," said EPA Regional Administrator Judith A. Enck. "This grant to Erie County will help local businesses reduce their carbon emissions, saving energy and helping them save money in the process."

Erie County will work with the New York State Pollution Prevention Institute, the Western New York Sustainable Business Roundtable and other organizations to hold 18 workshops over a two-year period. Thirty businesses will also be selected to receive direct technical assistance in strategies to reduce carbon emissions through the use of renewable energy, and various energy conservation measures, with a focus on strategies successfully used by other area businesses. In addition, energy or pollution prevention audits will performed at eight businesses, with at least three of these being food manufacturers. Erie County and its partner organizations will conduct outreach to more than 200 food manufacturers in western New York.

This grant is part of the approximately $5 million in grants the EPA awards each year to prevent pollution across the nation.

For more information on the EPA's pollution prevention program, visit http://www2.epa.gov/p2.

Follow EPA Region 2 on Twitter at http://twitter.com/eparegion2 and visit our Facebook page, http://facebook.com/eparegion2.

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U.S. EPA Recognizes Dublin Supermarket for Reducing Greenhouse Gases

From the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency:

For Immediate Release: September 13, 2016
Media Contact: Michele Huitric, huitric.michele@epa.gov

U.S. EPA Recognizes Dublin Supermarket for Reducing Greenhouse Gases

SAN FRANCISCO – Today the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recognized Whole Foods Market in Dublin with a “Best of the Best” GreenChill award for installing an environmentally friendly refrigeration system. The store uses ammonia as a refrigerant, which can reduce the climate impact of the refrigeration system. Dublin’s Whole Foods is one of just 13 companies nationwide in the supermarket industry being recognized for their achievements reducing emissions of environmentally harmful refrigerants.

Many of the refrigerants used by supermarkets are hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), a class of potent greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change when leaked into the atmosphere. The GreenChill awardees are meeting the goals of the President’s Climate Action Plan by preventing refrigerant leaks, transitioning to climate-friendly refrigerants, and using advanced refrigeration technologies.

“EPA’s GreenChill awardees are meeting the President’s challenge to curb emissions of these potent greenhouse gases head on,” said Janet McCabe, acting assistant administrator for EPA’s Office of Air and Radiation. “This year’s award winners are making the smart choice to act on climate by switching to environmentally friendly refrigerants and innovative technologies.”

EPA’s GreenChill partners own approximately 10,800 stores nationwide, representing 29 percent of the U.S. supermarket industry. If supermarkets nationwide reduced the amount of refrigerant they leak to the current GreenChill partner average, they could avoid $169 million in refrigerant replacement costs while preventing the equivalent of 29 million metric tons of carbon dioxide per year, roughly equal to the annual emissions of about 6 million cars.  

EPA presented the following GreenChill store certification awards:

• Best of the Best Award:  Whole Foods Market (Dublin, Calif.) and Piggly Wiggly (Columbus, Ga.) were honored as the “Best of the Best” for installing refrigeration systems that use ammonia as a refrigerant. Ammonia’s contribution to climate change is several thousand times smaller than many conventional refrigerants.

• Store Certification Excellence Award:  Hillphoenix (Conyers, Ga.) and Sprouts Farmers Market (Phoenix, Ariz.) earned awards for achieving more GreenChill Store Certifications than their peers over the past year.

• Store Re-Certification Award:  Five stores were recognized for achieving GreenChill certification for five consecutive years. Winners include Stater Bros. Markets in Palm Desert, Grand Terrace, Chino, and Lake Elsinore, Calif., and Weis Markets in Bellefonte, Pa.

GreenChill partners were recognized in the following categories:

• Best Corporate Emissions Rate:  Giant Eagle (Pittsburgh, Pa.) earned the Partnership’s most prestigious award for achieving the lowest refrigerant emissions rate among retail chains. Port Townsend Food Co-op (Port Townsend, Wash.) received this award in the small-independent GreenChill partner category for a second time.

• Most Improved Emissions Rate:  Weis Markets (Sunbury, Pa.) was honored with the Most Improved Emissions Rate award for achieving the Partnership’s largest refrigerant leak rate reduction compared to the year it joined the GreenChill Partnership. Dorothy Lane Market (Dayton, Ohio) earned this same recognition for lowering its emissions rate more than any other partner compared to the previous year.

• Goal Achievement:  GreenChill’s five Superior Goal Achievement winners voluntarily set and achieved challenging refrigerant emissions reduction goals. Winners include Buehler's Fresh Foods (Wooster, Ohio), City Market, Onion River Co-Op (Burlington, Vt.), Dorothy Lane Market (Dayton, Ohio), Meijer (Grand Rapids, Mich.), and Weis Markets (Sunbury, Pa.).

• Distinguished Partner:  Target (Minneapolis, Minn.) was honored with the Distinguished Partner award for demonstrating extraordinary leadership and initiative in support of GreenChill’s mission.

Learn more about the GreenChill Partnership and award winner’s achievements: https://www.epa.gov/greenchill.   

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EPA Recognizes Piggly Wiggly in Columbus, Ga. for Environmental Leadership in Reducing Potent Greenhouse Gases

From U.S. Environmental Protection Agency:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 13, 2016  

EPA Recognizes Piggly Wiggly in Columbus, Ga. for Environmental Leadership in Reducing Potent Greenhouse Gases

Supermarkets Across the Country Recognized for their Achievements

Contact Information: Dawn Harris Young, EPA, (404) 562-8421 (Direct), (404) 562-8400 (Main), harris-young.dawn@epa.gov

ATLANTA – Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced today that Piggly Wiggly in Columbus, Ga. won EPA’s GreenChill Best of the Best Award for installing refrigeration systems that use ammonia as refrigerant. Ammonia’s contribution to climate change is several thousand times smaller than many conventional refrigerants.

Nationally, EPA recognized 13 companies in the supermarket industry for their achievements reducing emissions of environmentally harmful refrigerants. Many of the refrigerants used by supermarkets are hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), a class of potent greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change when leaked into the atmosphere. EPA’s awardees are meeting the goals of the President’s Climate Action Plan by preventing refrigerant leaks, transitioning to climate-friendly refrigerants, and using advanced refrigeration technologies.

“EPA’s GreenChill awardees are meeting the President’s challenge to curb emissions of these potent greenhouse gases head on,” said Janet McCabe, acting assistant administrator for EPA’s Office of Air and Radiation. “This year’s award winners are making the smart choice to act on climate by switching to environmentally friendly refrigerants and innovative technologies.”

EPA’s GreenChill partners own approximately 10,800 stores nationwide, representing 29 percent of the U.S. supermarket industry. If supermarkets nationwide reduced the amount of refrigerant they leak to the current GreenChill partner average, they could avoid $169 million in refrigerant replacement costs while preventing the equivalent of 29 million metric tons of carbon dioxide per year, roughly equal to the annual emissions of about 6 million cars.  

GreenChill partners were recognized in the following categories:

Best Corporate Emissions Rate:  Giant Eagle (Pittsburgh, Pa.) earned the Partnership’s most prestigious award for achieving the lowest refrigerant emissions rate among retail chains. Port Townsend Food Co-op (Port Townsend, Wash.) received this award in the small-independent GreenChill partner category for a second time.

Most Improved Emissions Rate:  Weis Markets (Sunbury, Pa.) was honored with the Most Improved Emissions Rate award for achieving the Partnership’s largest refrigerant leak rate reduction compared to the year it joined the GreenChill Partnership. Dorothy Lane Market(Dayton, Ohio) earned this same recognition for lowering its emissions rate more than any other partner compared to the previous year.

Goal Achievement:  GreenChill’s five Superior Goal Achievement winners voluntarily set and achieved challenging refrigerant emissions reduction goals. Winners include Buehler's Fresh Foods (Wooster, Ohio), City Market, Onion River Co-Op (Burlington, Vt.), Dorothy Lane Market (Dayton, Ohio), Meijer (Grand Rapids, Mich.), and Weis Markets (Sunbury, Pa.).

Distinguished Partner:  Target  (Minneapolis, Minn.) was honored with the Distinguished Partner award for demonstrating extraordinary leadership and initiative in support of GreenChill’s mission.

GreenChill’s Store Certification Program recognized certain stores for meeting strict performance criteria that demonstrate their refrigeration systems have minimal impacts on the ozone layer and climate. GreenChill presented the following store certification awards:

Best of the Best Award:  Piggly Wiggly and Whole Foods Market stores in Columbus, Ga., and Dublin, Calif., respectively, were honored as the “Best of the Best” for installing refrigeration systems that use ammonia as refrigerant. Ammonia’s contribution to climate change is several thousand times smaller than many conventional refrigerants.

Store Certification Excellence Award:  Hillphoenix (Conyers, Ga.) and Sprouts Farmers Market (Phoenix, Ariz.) earned awards for achieving more GreenChill Store Certifications than their peers over the past year.

Store Re-Certification Award:  Five stores were recognized for achieving GreenChill certification for five consecutive years. Winners includeStater Bros. Markets in Palm Desert, Grand Terrace, Chino, and Lake Elsinore, Calif., and Weis Markets in Bellefonte, Pa.

More about the GreenChill Partnership and award winner’s achievements: https://www.epa.gov/greenchill

Connect with EPA Region 4 on Facebook: www.facebook.com/eparegion4

And on Twitter: @EPASoutheast

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Carbon Cycle 2.0 Distinguished Speaker: Mary Nichols

Conservation Grant Helps Rice Growers Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions

USDA Blog Post:

Posted by Ciji Taylor, Natural Resources Conservation Service, on April 2, 2014 at 1:00 PM

A California farmer harvests his rice field. Photo by Robert Parkhurst, Environmental Defense Fund (used with permission).

Note: Three projects funded by a USDA Conservation Innovation Grant were recently honored by the American Carbon Registry for innovative approaches to environmental stewardship. The winners included Ducks Unlimited, Delta Institute and Terra Global Capital. Ducks Unlimited’s work aimed to generate a carbon credit system for North Dakota landowners, which not only reduces greenhouse gas emissions but also restores wetlands and grasslands that are crucial to waterfowl. Delta Institute is working with farmers to reduce use of nitrogen – one of the largest sources of greenhouse gas emissions. Finally, Terra Global Capital and many others partners are working on a credit system for rice growers in California and the Midsouth. The below post provides more information on this project.

USDA is helping to provide rice growers in California and the Midsouth with new opportunities to voluntarily execute conservation practices that reduce greenhouse gas emissions while cultivating a new income stream.

The California and Midsouth rice projects are funded by a Conservation Innovation Grant from USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service, which is providing more than $1 million to help identify and develop new conservation methods. The grant also leverages new and emerging ecosystem income for landowners while addressing climate change.

Methane and nitrous oxide are potent greenhouse gases that are given off when rice fields are cultivated and fertilized. Precise water management and conservation-based nitrogen management can reduce greenhouse gas emissions while maximizing water-use nitrogen fertilizer efficiency.

Arkansas and California are the two largest rice growing states in the country, providing them with an opportunity to reduce methane and nitrous oxide emissions while maintaining yields.

This carbon offsets project was under development for many years and is the first of its kind from U.S. rice production. Partners include the Environmental Defense Fund, The American Carbon Registry, Terra Global Capital, California Rice Commission and the White River Irrigation District. NRCS has provided grant funding and technical support for the project.

By employing voluntary management practices, such as dry seeding, precise water management and nutrient management, farmers can reduce greenhouse gas emissions and generate carbon offset credits. These rice carbon offset credits are expected to be available to the California Air Resources Board’s regulatory compliance market later this year.

In order to quantify carbon offsets, the partners developed the “Voluntary Emissions Reductions in Rice Management Systems” quantification methodology that was recently approved by the American Carbon Registry. This will allow producers to quantify and validate their carbon reductions. The credits are then verified by a third party to ensure the integrity of the carbon credits.  Once the carbon credits are verified and approved for sale, the credits can be sold into the carbon market.

The carbon credits generated by farmers are also expected to be the first agricultural credits exchanged in the California regulatory market.   The adoption of the first crop-based agriculture offset methodology also opens the door for other agricultural opportunities.  California’s regulatory market is seen by many people as a gold standard throughout the world.  Since credits can be sold into California’s market from anywhere in the country, this project has a broad scope of rice producers that include Arkansas, Louisiana and other Midsouth states that grow rice.

The conservation techniques applied to reduce greenhouse gas emission can also help farmers manage water more efficiently, manage nitrogen fertilizer more efficiently and maintain yields while maintaining aquatic wildlife habitat.

USDA Updates Multi-year Strategic Sustainability Performance Plan

USDA Blog Post:

Posted by Dean Johnson, USDA Facilities Energy & Water Program Manager, on December 5, 2013 at 10:00 AM

Many of the USDA programs touch almost every American, every day.  And as concerns grow about climate change, greenhouse gases and depleting natural resources, USDA continues creating opportunities for farmers, ranchers, forest landowners, public land managers and families in rural communities. These opportunities help these stakeholders generate prosperity in innovative, sustainable ways while conserving the Nation’s natural resources and preventing pollution.

USDA is committed to leading by example through fostering a clean energy economy, improving the environment by conducting operations in a sustainable and environmentally responsible manner and complying with environmental laws and regulations. To accomplish this, USDA focuses on the future. The Department recognizes the significance of global climate change and utilizes this knowledge to create and maintain conditions under which people and nature can exist in productive harmony.

Building upon past sustainability efforts, USDA released its 2013 Strategic Sustainability Performance Plan, which aligns sustainability goals, greenhouse gas emission reduction targets, and overarching objectives for sustainability with its Strategic Plan. The Sustainability Plan helps USDA meet the targets the President set for agencies in 2009 for reducing energy use, pollution and waste in agency operations, and saving taxpayer dollars as a result.

Moreover, the Sustainability Plan integrates all statutory and policy requirements into a single implementation framework for advancing sustainability goals together with existing Departmental goals. The Plan makes the best use of existing and available resources. It also includes methods for obtaining data needed to measure progress, evaluate results and improve performance. The Department’s 2013 Plan is an annual update to its first edition, which was developed in June 2010.

Specifically, the Sustainability Plan provides a review of past performance, addresses challenges to achieving sustainability, discusses lessons learned and outlines actions planned beyond 2013.  So far, USDA has accomplished the following:

• Purchased and generated enough green power to meet 7.3 percent of the Department’s 2012 electricity use.

• 17.9 percent reduction in indirect greenhouse gas emissions compared to the 2008 base year.

• 5.5 percent reduction in direct greenhouse gas emissions compared to the 2008 base year.

• 21.3 percent reduction in energy intensity compared to the 2003 base year.

• 11.4 percent of buildings meet the Guiding Principles for Federal High Performance and Sustainable Buildings.

• 836.9 percent increase in alternative fuel consumption (for fleet vehicles) compared to the 2005 base year.

• 75 percent of the applicable (also known as covered) light duty vehicles USDA acquired are alternative fuel type.

• 12.6 percent reduction in potable water use compared to the 2007 base year.

More information about USDA’s 2013 Strategic Sustainability Plan is at http://www.dm.usda.gov/emd/sspp.htm.

Our Forests and Climate Change

USDA Blog Post:

Posted by Robert Bonnie, Under Secretary of Agriculture for Natural Resources and the Environment and Anne Castle, Assistant Secretary for Water & Science at the Department of the Interior, on September 12, 2013 at 10:45 AM

Cross posted from the White House Council on Environmental Quality blog:

Americans know the importance of forests to our communities and our economy.  They provide jobs and recreational opportunities, filter our air and water, and make up essential habitat for wildlife and natural resources.  But increasingly, we’re also recognizing that forests play an important role in mitigating climate change.

Recently, President Obama announced a Climate Action Plan to reduce carbon pollution, prepare for the impacts of climate change on our communities and economy, and lead international efforts to combat global climate change. This plan recognizes that America’s forests play a critical role in addressing carbon pollution, absorbing as much as 14 percent of our country’s greenhouse gas emissions each year.  Over the last several decades, forest regrowth on former farm lands, reforestation, and maturing forests have kept our forest growth rates high, helping us absorb even more carbon.

At the same time, development of forest lands is reducing the amount of carbon we can absorb now and in the future.  Carbon pollution is also taking a toll on our forests – heat waves, wildfires, pests and drought are all worsened by climate change, reducing our forests’ ability to sequester carbon.

It is difficult to predict precisely how much these impacts will reduce the potential of our forests to combat climate change – but we do know that we must start now to find new ways to enhance forests’ ability to absorb carbon and become more resilient. As part of the President’s Climate Action Plan, the Administration is bringing Federal agencies together to tackle this challenge.  An interagency Task Force is working to provide more accurate and consistent annual updates of carbon fluxes from forests and other lands.  This will help us ensure that we have up-to-date information on how major disturbances like wildfires, as well as land development trends, impact the capacity of the nation’s forests to absorb carbon. It will also provide the tools we need to make more effective policy decisions, ensuring land managers are able to take into account the carbon sequestration value of our forests.   The Task Force is also developing new approaches to retain and restore our forests and other important landscapes like grasslands and wetlands.

This initiative will build on the significant work the Administration already has underway to ensure healthy, thriving forests. For example, the Department of Agriculture announced this year the creation of seven new regional hubs to provide research and timely information to farmers and forest landowners as we work together to combat climate change. This work will complement research by DOI Climate Science Centers, in areas such as evaluating management options, projecting forest conditions and carbon storage under climate change, evaluating the effects of changing rainfall and snow conditions, and studying the effects of changing forests on particular species and ecosystem services. This information is helping to inform restoration efforts undertaken by the Forest Service and its partners to make our forests more resilient. And DOI and USDA are working together with other Federal agencies, states, tribes, and private landowners to engage in historic, landscape scale conservation projects that will put critical ecosystems on a stronger footing for the future.

Climate change poses a tough new challenge for the forest ecosystems that provide so much for all Americans. Following President Obama’s lead, we’re getting ahead of the game – focusing on new partnerships, strengthening interagency collaboration, and ensuring that the best science is available as we take on climate change in the years to come.

Robert Bonnie is Under Secretary of Agriculture for Natural Resources and the Environment

Anne Castle is Assistant Secretary for Water & Science at the Department of the Interior

COMET-Farm™: Conservation Calculation

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USDA Blog Post:

Posted by Spencer Miller, NRCS, on August 21, 2013 at 11:35 AM

Healthy soil captures and stores carbon. Photo by Ron Nichols, NRCS

USDA’s new online carbon-capture calculator, COMET-Farm™, has nothing to do with comets. This tool is all about farms and their potential to help planet Earth. Since its recent release more than 4,200 visitors have already explored the new online COMET-Farm™ tool to learn how they can become part of the climate change solution.

Record-breaking concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere are accelerating climate change. Agriculture has the unique opportunity to help contribute to a solution, as demonstrated by COMET-Farm™.

“When farmers use conservation practices, they improve soil health,” NRCS air quality scientist Dr. Adam Chambers says. “Healthy soil captures and stores carbon, effectively removing it from the atmosphere.”

Chambers, a lead developer of COMET-Farm™, has spent the past three years improving this tool, which calculates the environmental benefits of conservation.

Here’s how it works: producers enter information about their land and management—including location, soil characteristics, land uses, tillage practices and nutrient use—into the online tool. The tool then estimates the environmental benefits associated with conservation practices for cropland, pasture, rangeland, livestock operations and energy.

NRCS scientists released the first version of CarbOn Management & Emissions Tool (COMET) in 2005. Developed in partnership with Colorado State University, the first version calculated only how much carbon soil could capture. Later versions expanded the scope of the tool to include agroforestry components, energy and livestock.

“As scientists, our greatest challenge in developing COMET-Farm has been knowing when good is good enough,” says Chambers. “We wanted the tool to be as accurate as possible, but we had to find that balance between scientific accuracy and simplicity.”

With environmental markets emerging around the country, COMET-Farm™ will help producers estimate the value of carbon credits they could earn from various conservation practices. Conservation will not only pay indirectly through improved yields, lower energy costs, soil resiliency and other production-related benefits,– but could also be profitable in the environmental marketplace.

COMET-Farm™ is applicable to all agricultural lands in the lower 48 states. The tool is available for use at www.comet-farm.com. Future model releases are planned by NRCS as new methods for calculating greenhouse gas emissions become available.

Since its inception in 1935, the NRCS conservation delivery system has advanced a unique partnership with state and local governments and agricultural producers delivering conservation based on specific, local conservation needs, while accommodating state and national interests.

Follow NRCS on Twitter.

Check out other conservation-related stories on the USDA blog.