SSP December 2020

JBS Louisville receives Douglas C. Griffin Environmental Sustainability Award for 2020

JBS Louisville has been selected as a Douglas C. Griffin Environmental Sustainability Award winner for 2020 by the Kentucky Pollution Prevention Center (KPPC). The award recognizes Kentucky entities that have demonstrated a commitment to the principles of sustainability and environmental stewardship and is presented each year in conjunction with National Pollution Prevention Week.

Peter Charboneau, General Manager for JBS Louisville, accepts the ES Award from Lissa McCracken, Executive Director of KPPC.

The JBS Louisville pork processing facility, holding an important role in the Louisville community since the 1960’s, produces fresh quality pork for domestic and international customers. While processing thousands of hogs daily with their over 1200 employees, JBS has also championed initiatives to improve the sustainability performance of its operations. Recently installed energy efficient LED lighting throughout the facility has significantly reduced operating costs while reducing environmental impact. Further improvements in electric demand management and the energy efficiency of production support equipment are being pursued, and new equipment has been installed to reduce water use. With their renewed emphasis on sustainability, JBS Louisville continues to look for ways to reduce environmental impacts and reap associated economic benefits.

Tom Holaway, Expense Control Manager, Pork Division accepted the award at a recent management gathering at their Louisville facility.

“With this being a uniquely challenging year, our team was very happy to hear the good news and we are honored to accept this award for our environmental sustainability achievements. We are truly grateful to the employees of JBS Louisville, for without their dedication and support we would not have accomplished what we have. We look forward to continuing to enhance our sustainability efforts, and we appreciate the assistance that KPPC has provided to help us achieve our goals.”

Find out more about the Douglas C. Griffin Environmental Sustainability Award and past winners.

Scroll to Top

Building Operator Certification (BOC) Level I online training begins March 2, 2021

Another round of the Building Operator Certification training program Level I classes has been scheduled to begin on March 2, 2021.

Building Operator Certification (BOC) is a nationally recognized, competency-based program focusing on energy-efficient building operations and preventive maintenance procedures. The program will train facility personnel to understand how their building systems work together, and how to bring them to their most efficient level of operation.

BOC online training includes live, instructor-led lecture and project work (7.4 CEUs) in building systems operation and maintenance. Each course in the series is completed in consecutive two-day online training sessions. To graduate from the series, participants must pass a test at the end of each training session and complete five assigned projects, both of which are to be submitted online.

KPPC will provide coaching to training participants for assistance with course assignments and facility-level operations to enhance the training effectiveness and increase implementation rates.

This statewide BOC series will be offered online in consecutive two-day training sessions, with instructor-led lectures. Online sessions will be held from 9:00 am to 12:00 pm EST.

Tuition: $1,350.00. The registration fee of $1,350 covers online access to all class materials & handbooks, instructor-led online lectures, and a certificate upon completion of the training series.

Find out more about the Building Operator Certification training and how to register for classes beginning March 2, 2021.

Scroll to Top

New pollution prevention (P2) resources available from KY EXCEL

Do you need help coming up with new KY EXCEL projects or ways to help prevent pollution? From short videos to best management practice guides,  KY EXCEL staff, in the Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet’s Division of Compliance Assistance (DCA), have diligently been working on developing resources to assist KY EXCEL members implement energy related projects and more.

Pollution prevention (P2) is any practice that reduces, eliminates, or prevents pollution at its source, also known as “source reduction”. Source reduction is fundamentally different and more desirable than recycling, treatment, and disposal. Whether you are an individual who is just looking for some energy or water efficiency ideas, a business seeking ways to save money or a KY EXCEL member identifying possible project ideas, these resources can assist with achieving P2 success. Topics covered include benchmarking, sustainable value stream mapping, energy management, and baselining.

These resources can help you in your effort to reduce the amount of water and energy you use and the amount of waste you produce.

Check out these new resources and tools to assist with preventing pollution on the DCA website.

Scroll to Top

EPA announces 2020 Safer Choice Partner of the Year Award winners

In September, EPA recognized 18 Safer Choice Partner of the Year award winners across 10 states and the District of Columbia for achievements in the design, manufacture, selection, and use of products with safer chemicals which furthers outstanding or innovative source reduction. The Safer Choice program helps consumers and purchasers for facilities, such as schools and office buildings, find products that perform and are safer for human health and the environment.

The organizations listed below are the Safer Choice 2020 Partner of the Year award winners, and represent a variety of different types of businesses, including woman-owned, and small- and medium-sized; federal and local government; and associations.

Apple – Cupertino, Calif.
BASF Home Care and I & I Cleaning Solutions – Florham Park, N.J.
Berkley Green – Uniontown, Pa.
The Clorox Company – Oakland, Calif.
Defunkify – Eugene, Ore.
DuPont Nutrition & Biosciences – Palo Alto, Calif.
ECOS – Cypress, Calif.
Grove Collaborative – San Francisco, Calif.
Hazardous Waste Management Program – King County, Wash.
Household & Commercial Products Association – Washington, D.C.
Jelmar, LLC – Skokie, Ill.
Lemi Shine – Austin, Texas
Naval Supply Systems Command Weapons System Support – Mechanicsburg, Pa.
PROSOCO – Lawrence, Kan.
PurposeBuilt Brands – Gurnee, Ill.
Sea Mar Community Health Centers – Seattle, Wash.
Seventh Generation – Burlington, Vt.
Wegmans Food Markets – Rochester, N.Y.

Read more about the 2020 Safer Choice Partner of the Year award winners as well as summaries of the their accomplishments.
Scroll to Top

KPPC offices closed for the holidays

The Shelby Campus and remote offices of KPPC will be closed during the University of Louisville’s scheduled winter break beginning on Monday, December 21, 2020. You can leave us a voice mail message at (502) 852-0965 or use the “Contact KPPC” form on our website to send an email message.

KPPC staff will be available to assist with your sustainability initiatives starting on Monday, January 4, 2021. Have a safe and happy holiday!

Scroll to Top

GreenBiz – Sustainability news and resources

GreenBiz advances the opportunities at the intersection of business, technology and sustainability. Through its websites, events, peer-to-peer network and research, GreenBiz promotes the potential to drive transformation and accelerate progress — within companies, industries and in the very nature of business. Since 1991, GreenBiz has chronicled and been a catalyst for thought leadership in aligning environmental responsibility with profitable business practices.

Currently on the GreenBiz website by Joel Makower:

Why investors are betting on biodiversity

Those of you whose memories still stretch all the way back to the beforetime — January and February — may recall that 2020 was to be a “super year” for biodiversity. Plans called for several global events focusing on the role of nature in mitigating the climate crisis, protecting us against the next pandemic, ensuring adequate food and water, promoting sustainable development and, in essence, maintaining the global economy.

Of course, things didn’t quite work out that way. Those mega-events largely have been canceled or postponed, but the focus on biodiversity, including its role in the world’s economic system, continues to grow, adapt and evolve, much like natural systems themselves.

It won’t be long until biodiversity becomes yet another mainstay of shareholder proposals during annual meeting season.

Case in point: The past year has brought a burgeoning interest among mainstream investors about the role of biodiversity in mitigating corporate risk.

Why, you ask? There’s an extinction crisis in progress, and it stands to negatively affect firms across a range of sectors. Companies, after all, rely on countless species, genes and ecosystem services as critical inputs. They also rely on healthy ecosystems to treat and dissipate waste, maintain fertile soil and ensure water and air quality, as well as the health and well-being of their employees, suppliers, customers and communities.

Trillions, with a T

Investors get this. They understand that biodiversity is a fundamental component of long-term business success.

And we’re talking real money — and real material outcomes. A 2020 report from the Global Futures initiative — a partnership of WWF, the Global Trade Analysis Project and the Natural Capital Project — found that “unless we reverse nature loss, trillions of dollars will be wiped off the world’s economies, industries will be disrupted and the lives of millions will be affected.”

That research looked at the benefits nature provides nations and industries through ecosystem services such as crop pollination, coastal protection, wildfire mitigation, freshwater supply, timber production, marine fisheries and carbon storage. It assessed how the natural assets that provide these services — forests, soils, wetlands, coral reefs, fish stocks and all the rest — would change under various future development scenarios and, in turn, how consequent changes in ecosystem services would negatively affect such economic outcomes as GDP, trade, industrial production and commodity prices.

The price tag: Under a business-as-usual scenario, the total cumulative loss would be $9.87 trillion between 2011 and 2050. And while that may average out to only about $250 billion annually over a 40-year span — a mere blip amid the $80 trillion annual global GDP — those costs likely would be more heavily exacted in the later years.

But the impact could be much greater than that. According to the World Economic Forum (WEF), more than half of the world’s total gross domestic product, or $44 trillion, involves activities that are moderately or highly dependent on nature, including around half of pharmaceutical products.

Perhaps more dramatically, a Swiss Re report issued in September revealed that a fifth of nations worldwide are at risk from ecosystem collapse due to a decline in biodiversity. As more than one academic study has revealed, ecosystem collapse could have existential consequences for humanity. While largely theoretical, it’s not a theory we want to test.

And that’s all before one calculates the role of biodiversity in preventing the next pandemic.

As an aside, none of this is taught in economics classes. A review of “Principles of Economics,” said to be the world’s most widely used economics textbook and a prototype for many others, found no mention of 11 key terms, including “biosphere,” “climate change,” “ecosystem” or “greenhouse gas.”

Follow the money

Still, financial professionals are beginning to take note. In January, four asset managers — AXA Investment Managers, BNP Paribas Asset Management, Sycomore Asset Management and Mirova — asked investors to increase their focus on biodiversity preservation. To date, most environmental ESG data has focused largely on climate change. They believe that’s too narrow of a view. The asset managers said they seek ways to measure the impact of companies on biodiversity — and vice versa — and to incorporate this into corporate ESG data.

Measuring the impact of companies on biodiversity has long vexed investors and others. Unlike climate change, for which there are such cross-sectoral metrics as “CO2 equivalent,” there’s no standard measurement for biodiversity. Several have been proposed — species abundance per square kilometer, for example — but none has yet enabled consistently comparing companies’ impacts, let alone across sectors and borders.

Read the full article on the GreenBiz website for additional insight about the financial considerations of biodiversity.

Find the latest articles, videos and resources on the GreenBiz website.

Scroll to Top

Upcoming Webinar Training and Events

• Food, Packaging & Sustainability Summit
  The Summit’s theme, Safe. Secure. Sustainable., depicts the goal of optimizing the food value chain to protect food and the environment. You are invited to join the conversation as the need for collaborations and innovative approaches has never been greater.
  February 24-26, 2021 – Online by Clemson University
  Find out more and register for the online virtual sessions.

• BOC Level I Training – Kentucky Online Series
  BOC online training includes live, instructor-led lecture and project work (7.4 CEUs) in building systems operation and maintenance. Each course in the series is completed in consecutive two-day online training sessions. To graduate from the series, participants must pass a test at the end of each training session and complete five assigned projects, both of which are to be submitted online.
  March 2, 2021 through June 2, 2021
  Find out more about the BOC online training series and register today.

EPA ENERGY STAR webinars:

• A Beginner’s Guide to Using Portfolio Manager for Benchmarking Law Compliance
  This webinar will serve as a beginner’s guide to Portfolio Manager and provide you with all the essential “how-to” information you need to start benchmarking and reporting your building data to your local or state government. Topics covered will include understanding how state and local jurisdictions use EPA’s Portfolio Manager tool to facilitate reporting, setting up your Portfolio Manager account and properties, entering energy data, and reporting or sharing data with your jurisdiction.
  January 26, 2021 at 1:00 p.m. EST

• How to Track Waste and Materials in Portfolio Manager
  In addition to benchmarking energy and water use in Portfolio Manager, you can measure and track waste & materials generated by your building. Upgrade from the cumbersome spreadsheet you have been using, or get started for the first time, and learn how to use the waste tracking feature.
  January 28, 2021 3:00 p.m. EST

• Using Benchmarking Results to Understand your Building’s Performance
  This webinar will address how you can take things to the next level with more insights into your building’s performance metrics, and use your data to identify actionable energy and cost saving opportunities!
  February 24, 2021 at 1:00 p.m. EST

• How to Benefit from Benchmarking Compliance with Strategies for Improving your Energy Performance
  In this session, you’ll learn about low-and-no-cost improvements that can help you reduce energy consumption and save money without significant capital investments. You’ll also learn about a variety of free ENERGY STAR resources that are available to help you improve your energy performance. Finally, you’ll learn how to connect with service provider organizations that can help you achieve your energy efficiency goals and earn ENERGY STAR certification for your building.
  March 30, 2021 at 1:00 p.m. EST

Portfolio Manager Series

• 101 – January 13, 2021 at 2:00 p.m. EST – Attendees will learn how to: navigate the Portfolio Manager; add a property and enter details about it; enter energy and water consumption data; share properties; generate performance reports to assess progress; and respond to data requests.

• 201 – January 20, 2021 at 1:00 p.m. EST – Learn more advanced functionalities such as: managing and tracking changes to your property uses over time; using spreadsheet templates to update property data; setting goals and targets to plan energy improvements for properties; generating and using custom reports; and using the Sustainable Buildings Checklist.

• 301 – January 27, 2021 at 2:00 p.m. EST – Learn about some advanced features, including: using spreadsheet upload templates to update property data; setting goals and targets to plan energy improvements for properties; creating custom reports; and using the Sustainable Buildings Checklist.

View these plus more ENERGY STAR training opportunities and register today.

To view these and other sustainability-related events, please visit the KPPC Events Calendar.

Scroll to Top

View past issues of SSP