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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
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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
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New Executive Order 13514Federal 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”
– 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.
– Construction Waste Management
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EPA ORCR Supports Green Infrastructure in Four Ways
Supporting projects that develop
capacity for green infrastructure
Education and outreach
Measure progress and benefits
Support efforts to green highways
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Supporting efforts to green highways
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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
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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:
• Now in the pilot project phase.– Call for pilot projects went out in November– Submit any pilot project ideas you have by
February 15th.
www.sustainablesites.org
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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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18www.agc.org/cs/recycling_toolkit
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Measuring Progress and Benefits
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EPA’s WaRM Model
• EPA’s WaRM calculates GHG reductions from through recycling
• Currently adding more C&D materials
www.epa.gov/warm
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BenReMod
• Developed by University of Toledo
• Calculates benefits of utilizing various materials in road construction
http://benremod.eng.utoledo.edu/BenReMod/
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Supporting Projects that Develop Capacity for Green Infrastructure
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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
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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.• CO2 Reduction 130,108/yr• Cost $12,226/Return on Investment 1.8 yrs.
• Required in Facility Specification for new construction
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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
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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
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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 CO2 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
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Kimberly Cochran (703) 347-8950
www.epa.gov/industrialmaterialswww.epa.gov/cdmaterials
Thank you!
