Greening Infrastructure: The Road Ahead

Kimberly Cochran, PhD U.S. EPA Office of Resource Conservation and Recovery

IRWA Federal Agency Update January 26, 2010 Las Vegas, Nevada

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EPA Office of Resource Conservation and Recovery • Promotes sustainable materials management • What kinds of recycled materials?

– Concrete – Asphalt shingles – Foundry sands – Tires – Asphalt pavement 2

Why use recycled materials?

• Environmental Benefits – Avoided impacts from processing of virgin materials (e.g. GHG emissions) • Economic Benefits – Reduced costs associated with disposal – Cost savings from use instead of more costly materials • Performance Benefits – Perform as well as or better than traditional materials • Increased strength, improved workability, resistance to chemical attack; longer life 3

New Executive Order 13514 Federal Leadership in Environmental, Energy, and Economic Performance • Sets sustainability goals for Federal agencies and focuses on making improvements in their environmental, energy and economic performance • Divert 50% of nonhazardous solid waste from landfills • Divert 50% of construction and demolition (C&D) materials from landfills •

“ensuring that all new construction, major renovation, or repair and alteration of Federal buildings complies with the Guiding Principles for Federal Leadership in High Performance and Sustainable Buildings ”

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Recycled Content.

For EPA-designated products, use products meeting or exceeding EPA’s recycled content recommendations. For other products, use materials with recycled content such that the sum of post-consumer recycled content plus one-half of the pre-consumer content constitutes at least 10% (based on cost) of the total value of the materials in the project.

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Construction Waste Management

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EPA ORCR Supports Green Infrastructure in Four Ways Support efforts to green highways Education and outreach Supporting projects that develop capacity for green infrastructure Measure progress and benefits 5

Supporting efforts to green highways 6

Support Efforts to Green Highways • Collaborative effort between government, industry, and other groups to green highways www.greenhighways.org

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Example Green Highways Efforts Specification Harmonization: - State environmental and transportation officials working together to eliminate barriers to “green” highway efforts.

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Example Green Highways Efforts Reward Program: Rewards contractors for including “green” attributes in highways 9

Example Green Highways Efforts Asphalt Shingle Spec: Encouraging multiple states to adopt specifications for tear-off asphalt shingles.

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Green Road Certification Programs • GreenLITES – Leadership In Transportation Environmental Sustainability – Developed by NYSDOT – Self-certification – www.nysdot.gov/programs/greenlites • Greenroads Sustainability Performance Metric – Developed by the University of Washington – Third-party certification – www.greenroads.us

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• Green standards and guidelines for landscapes • EPA provides technical assistance • Standards and guidelines debuted November 2009 at: www.sustainablesites.org

• Now in the pilot project phase.

– Call for pilot projects went out in November – Submit any pilot project ideas you have by

February 15 th .

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Education and Outreach

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Tools and Resources: Publications

Available on our website: www.epa.gov/industrialmaterials

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Publication highlights benefits, provides resources and references, such as ASTM specifications

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www.agc.org/cs/recycling_toolkit 18

Measuring Progress and Benefits 19

EPA’s WaRM Model

• EPA’s WaRM calculates GHG reductions from through recycling • Currently adding more C&D materials www.epa.gov/warm 20

BenReMod

• Developed by University of Toledo • Calculates benefits of utilizing various materials in road construction http://benremod.eng.utoledo.edu/ BenReMod/ 21

Supporting Projects that Develop Capacity for Green Infrastructure 22

EPA/BART Sustainable Transit Leadership Pilot

• 2002 IWG Pilot - $45,000 grant • Focus on Greening Transit: – Energy Efficiency Pilot – Facility Standards/Specifications • Construction & Demolition Materials • Recycling • Environmentally Preferable Purchasing – +6,000 page Facility Standard “Greening” • Saved $711,000 23

Energy Efficiency Pilot

• BART is one of the largest parking garage owners in CA • Lighting Control Power Reduction System – Dual metered parking garage – Transformer with centrally controls to reduce voltage and current –

Sustained 25% reduction in energy use

• Kwh Savings: 97,090/yr.

• CO 2 Reduction 130,108/yr • Cost $12,226/Return on Investment 1.8 yrs.

• Required in Facility Specification for new construction 24

Recycling

Less Energy, Less Waste, Lower Life-Cycle Cost • Utilized recycled plastic rail ties – Last twice as long & can be recycled –

BART replaced 400 wooden railroad ties with recycled ties (1.1 million grocery bags, 246,400 plastic bottles and 1200 tires)

– Old wood ties used to make electricity (state-of the-art air quality controls) • Construction and demolition materials – Recycled all concrete and steel – 50% of all other construction materials were diverted 25

Transit Sustainability Practice Compendium (Draft) http://www.apta.com/resources/hottopics/Documents/ TransitSustainabilityPracticeCompendium.pdf

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House Deconstruction in EPA Region 1 • House owned by Burlington Regional Airport was deconstructed to make way for new development 27

Deconstruction

• The systematic dismantling of structures in an effort to maximize reuse and recycling.

• Provides low cost building materials to the community.

• Reduces greenhouse gases.

• Provides green jobs.

• Conserves resources.

• Reduces need for landfill space.

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House Deconstruction

• Approx. 12 tons of material was reused or recycled in the community • 55% recovery rate • Saved 8 metric tons of CO 2 eq.

• The airport is planning to deconstruct more homes in the future.

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Summary

• Many efforts regarding sustainable transportation happening around the country.

• There are tools and other resources to help develop such efforts.

• We can help you start greening your infrastructure project.

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For more information on the EPA HUD-DOT partnership, see the Sustainable Communities presentation tomorrow at 8:30 am 32

Thank you!

Kimberly Cochran (703) 347-8950 [email protected]

www.epa.gov/industrialmaterials www.epa.gov/cdmaterials

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