DCHAS-L Archives, Aug 28, 2009 - Re: Environmental sustainability in labs?

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Subject: Re: Environmental sustainability in labs?

Date: Aug 28, 2009 18:59 UTC

Author: Harry J. Elston <helston**At_Symbol_Here**FGI.NET>

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Subject: Re: Environmental sustainability in labs?

Date: Aug 28, 2009 20:39 UTC

Author: Judy Morgan <JMorgan**At_Symbol_Here**ESCLABSCIENCES.COM>

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Date: Fri, 28 Aug 2009 15:39:14 -0500
Reply-To: Georjean Adams <gla**At_Symbol_Here**EHSSTRATEGIES.COM>
Sender: DCHAS-L Discussion List <DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**LIST.UVM.EDU>
From: Georjean Adams <gla**At_Symbol_Here**EHSSTRATEGIES.COM>
Subject: Re: Environmental sustainability in labs?
Comments: To: "Harry J. Elston"
Comments: cc: Martin Abraham ,
charles.liotta**At_Symbol_Here**carnegie.gatech.edu, darls**At_Symbol_Here**aiche.org,
david.carter**At_Symbol_Here**angelo.edu, hcramsey**At_Symbol_Here**mac.com, kathryn_parker**At_Symbol_Here**nps.gov,
lpkoskan**At_Symbol_Here**comcast.net
In-Reply-To: <4362136.1251487620396.JavaMail.root**At_Symbol_Here**elwamui-ovcar.atl.sa.earthlink.net>

Good question!

We on the Committee for Environmental Improvement (CEI) are trying to figure out what we need to do to come up with a good operational definition for ACS that can work across divisions.

For now, I can point you to the ACS position statement on sustainability.

My spin: Doing whatever ACS members do in sustainable ways means thinking holistically about environmental, health and safety impacts as well as social and economic impacts for everybody (including ecosystems) involved or who could be impacted by our actions (unintended life cycle impacts). I believe the key is life cycle/systems thinking.

The current buzz is around energy/climate change, water use, pollution prevention, natural resource conservation, green chemistry. Labs specifically can do lots of things to avoid waste in materials and energy used and materials released/disposed. But as the flurry of accidents show, we need to be smarter all around about what and how we do things in labs. Blowing up labs and killing lab workers isn't sustainable. I'm going to try to make sure safety isn't forgotten in what is usually an environmentally focused term.

I think there is a wide range of lab sustainability topics for DCHAS dealing with both the physical plant and researcher practices.

As the lead on the subcommittee for communication and outreach in CEI, I'd appreciate suggestions on what kinds of useful guidance you need from us.

Georjean Adams

At 3:27 PM -0400 8/28/09, Harry J. Elston wrote:

This might turn out to be an interesting discussion, but can someone please CONCISELY DEFINE what sustainability really means? It's a nice word and all, but I think we're on the brink of "feel-good" EH&S.
Harry
-----Original Message-----
>From: Ralph Stuart <rstuart**At_Symbol_Here**UVM.EDU>
>Sent: Aug 28, 2009 8:14 AM
>To: DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**LIST.UVM.EDU
>Subject: [DCHAS-L] Environmental sustainability in labs?
>
>I am helping to organize two conference presentations on
>sustainability in laboratories, a local one at UVM in October, the
>other at the ACS national meeting next spring. I have some ideas about
>what to include in the discussion, but would appreciate any ideas, or
>even better, web links to specific lab sustainability programs and
>projects that you're aware of. I was able to attend the Labs-21
>conference last September, so I'm familiar with that resource, but I'm
>sure there are others out there that will be of interest.
>
>Thanks for any help with this.
>
>- Ralph
>
>
>Ralph Stuart, CIH
>Environmental Safety Manager
>University of Vermont
>Environmental Safety Facility
>667 Spear St. Burlington, VT 05405
>
>rstuart**At_Symbol_Here**uvm.edu

Harry J. Elston, Ph.D., CIH
Principal
Midwest Chemical Safety, LLC
www.midwestchemsafety.com
Editor, Journal of Chemical Health & Safety
http://membership.acs.org/c/chas/
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