Pollution Prevention and Greenhouse Gas Reduction Projects

[Guest Greenzen]

rom promoting green initiatives at hotels to developing sustainable practices at local colleges and universities, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is making its grant money count across New Jersey and New York. The Agency has awarded close to half a million dollars in grants aimed at projects that prevent pollution in those two states.

 

“Preventing pollution at its source is one of the best ways we can protect our air, water, land and health,” said EPA Regional Administrator Judith Enck. “These grants provide invaluable resources to experts who already have innovative and practical ideas about how to prevent pollution from getting into our environment. EPA is proud to support these amazing projects.”

 

EPA awarded the Buffalo State College Department of Hospitality and Tourism $180,000 to establish a partnership with the Buffalo Niagara Convention and Visitors Bureau, which recently started a green hospitality initiative. Buffalo State will work with the Erie County Department of Environment and Planning to train student interns who will provide technical assistance to 15 local hotels in the areas of heating, and cooling buildings, landscaping and transportation. This project will provide waste reduction and monetary benefits to the hotels, as well as enhance the education of both students and hotel staff.

 

EPA is providing the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, in collaboration with Brookhaven National Laboratory and City University of New York (CUNY), $150,000 to use advanced software tools to determine energy efficiency and power management opportunities in CUNY campus buildings. They will provide recommendations for reducing energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions, and will work closely with the community to apply these tools to various facilities, such as housing projects, hospitals and hotels.

 

EPA granted Kean University, in partnership with the New Jersey Higher Education Partnership for Sustainability, $179,655 to assist area colleges and universities in reducing their energy use and greenhouse gas emissions. Kean and the New Jersey Higher Education Partnership for Sustainability will help the schools apply the latest energy and greenhouse gas emissions management tools; develop and implement training workshops on the use of these tools; create a mechanism to publicly report campus greenhouse gas and energy reductions; and create a protocol so that other colleges can replicate this process for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and energy use on a campus-wide basis.

 

The three grants are part of the approximately $4 million in grants EPA awards each year aimed at preventing pollution across the nation. For more information on EPA Region 2’s pollution prevention program, visit http://www.epa.gov/region02/p2/.