greening infrastructure: the road ahead

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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

Cochran.Kimberly@epa.gov

www.epa.gov/industrialmaterialswww.epa.gov/cdmaterials

Thank you!