Author: Shula Neuman

From Industrial Waste to Raw Materials

  • A Conesville, OH smokestack. The Cuyahoga Valley Initiative has found a way to turn potential pollutants into money. (Photo by Kenn Kiser)

The Rust Belt regions of the United States are looking at new ways to make industrial prosperity and environmental recovery work hand-in-hand. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Shula Neuman reports on an effort that could be a model for industrial areas throughout the nation:

Transcript

The Rust Belt regions of the United States are looking at new ways to make industrial
prosperity and environmental recovery work hand-in-hand. The Great Lakes Radio
Consortium’s Shula Neuman reports on an effort that could be a model for industrial
areas throughout the nation:


(sound of birds)


This area of Cleveland near the Cuyahoga River is where John D. Rockefeller first set up
his Standard Oil empire. The Cuyahoga is infamous for being the river that caught fire in
1969 and it became a symbol of the nation’s pollution problem.


Cleveland businesses and industries still live with that legacy. But through a new effort
called the Cuyahoga Valley Initiative, they’re trying to overcome it – although on the
surface it doesn’t look like there’s much happening.
Today, smoke stacks from steel plants still tower above head … below, like a jumble of
twisted licorice sticks, railroad tracks run through the meadows alongside the Cuyahoga.
Silos and old brick buildings line the banks of the river.


For Paul Alsenas, it’s an amazing place — not so much for what it has now, but for what it
can become. Alsensas is the director of planning for Cuyahoga County, the lead
organizer of the Cuyahoga Valley Initiative. The idea of the initiative is not to abandon
industry, he says, but to incorporate environmental and social principals into industry,
which could attract new businesses.


One of the more progressive aspects of the Initiative is something called “industrial
symbiosis.” Alsenas says industrial symbiosis works like natural ecology…


“An ecology of industry where nutrients flow from one form of life to another and make
it tremendously efficient and so therefore we have a competitive advantage. The
Cuyahoga Valley Initiative is not just about sustainability; it’s also whole systems
thinking, it’s also competitive strategy.”


Here’s how it works: waste from one company—a chemical by-product perhaps—is
used by a neighboring company to create its product. And that company’s product is then
sold to another company within the valley—and so on.


Alsenas says it’s already started: some companies located in the Cuyahoga Valley have
been sniffing out opportunities for sharing resources before anyone heard of the
Cuyahoga Valley Initiative. Joe Turgeon, CEO and co-owner of Zaclon, a chemical
manufacturer in the valley, says the Initiative sped things up.


“We pull all the members together and say, ‘OK, this is what I’ve got, this is what you’ve
got; here are some of the materials I need, here are some of the assets I have.’ And an
asset can be anything from a truck scale to a rail siding to by-product energy to
chemicals.”


Zaclon and its neighbor General Environmental Management have already begun their
symbiotic relationship. GEM now buys a Zaclon by-product, sulfuric acid, and in turn
Zaclon purchases a GEM byproduct. GEM president Eric Loftquist says the benefits go
beyond simply saving his company money.


“You know, we do business all over the country… but when you look around you see that
for every dollar you keep in this county, that generates taxes, generates jobs and the
benefits just keep rolling down. So you always want to look within.”


Loftquist says the Cuyahoga Valley Initiative encourages that effort. He says it’s
remarkable that it’s all coming together at the right time and with the right stakeholders.
It brings businesses together with government and area non-profits—including some
environmental groups—in a way not thought possible by industry and environmentalists
in the past.


Catherine Greener is with the Rocky Mountain Institute, a non-profit think tank that
studied the Cuyahoga Valley and is helping to get the initiative off the ground. She says
this area of the river—known as the regenerative zone could put Cleveland on the world’s
radar as a new business model.


“Cleveland has been known for being one of the seats of the industrial revolution and
what we’re seeing is a new industrial model that can emerge. How can you create
manufacturing jobs, industry jobs without jeopardizing the health and welfare of all the
people involved and also, to overuse a word, to ‘green’ the area around it?”


Greener says industrial symbiosis is a workable, practical solution because it makes
business sense… not just environmental sense…


“Sometimes I think about it as finding money in your pocket after you’ve washed your
pants. It’s always a bonus and you’ve always had it. And the resources that you have
here you’re just reinvesting in them and finding them and looking at them differently.”


The participants agree that “industrial symbiosis” won’t solve all the waste problems, but
it’s one part of a movement that’s making industrial cities re-think their relationship with
business and the environment.


For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Shula Neuman.

Related Links

Building Demand for Green Construction

To the environmentalist, “green” refers to something environmentally friendly. When manufacturers refer to green, they usually mean money. But with an increase in the demand for environmentally sound buildings, manufacturers have the opportunity to combine the two definitions. For those who see the possibility, retooling to meet the demand for green construction could mean a large payoff in a burgeoning industry. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Shula Neuman reports:

Transcript

To the environmentalist, “green” refers to something environmentally friendly. When
manufacturers refer to green, they usually mean money. But with an increase in the demand for
environmentally sound buildings, manufacturers have the opportunity to combine the two
definitions. For those who see the possibility, retooling to meet the demand for green
construction could mean a large payoff in a burgeoning industry. The Great Lakes Radio
Consortium’s Shula Neuman filed this report:


There’s an 86-year old abandoned building in a Cleveland neighborhood that was left for dead a
few decades ago. It’s a shame because inside the building are 26-foot high ceilings with ornate
molding, original Tennessee marble walls and wood trim. But recently, the building, which was
once the Cleveland Trust Bank, was identified by a coalition of local environmental groups as the
ideal spot for their offices. The Cleveland Green Building Coalition spearheaded the task of
converting the old bank building into the new Environmental Center. Executive director Sadhu
Johnston explains, the project is not your average renovation.


“What we’re really trying to do is to demonstrate to people that you can do green while
preserving and that’s often they are seen to butt heads and this project is showing that the two
movements have a lot in common.”


While touring the mostly finished building, Johnston points out seemingly endless
environmentally friendly features. First, there’s a radiant floor heating and cooling system. Then
there are the geothermal wells under the parking lot. They use insulation made from recycled
paper and cardboard. And the roof is divided into three sections: one part has traditional black
tar, another has a white reflective coating and the third segment is a living roof, which looks like
a garden.


Johnston says the layout is meant to demonstrate a more than 100-degree temperature variation
between the three surfaces. All of the different materials and methods used to construct the
Environmental Center, could signal a forward thinking manufacturer to see financial reward from
the burgeoning interest in green buildings. After all, green buildings tend to save money.


The Environmental Center is 67-percent more energy efficient than required by code. In fiscal
terms, that adds up to a half-million dollar savings over 20 years. This might make you wonder
why more people aren’t building green. Actually, according to U.S. Green Building Council
president and CEO Christine Ervin, interest in green construction has been increasing over the
past decade. Since the group established green certification standards three years ago, nearly 700
projects have registered to meet certification. And, Ervin adds, the increase in interest is not
exclusive to tree-huggers


“The diversity of the kinds of projects also is telling us that this is a serious trend that is moving
into the mainstream market. We have projects that are registered firehouses, small schools, FAA
stations. All the way up to manufacturing plants and convention centers.”


Several cities and government agencies are already mandating green construction on new
buildings, including the city of Portland, the General Services Administration and the U.S. Army.


David Goldstein is with the Natural Resources Defense Council and environmental group in San
Francisco. He says there’s a movement afoot to establish national incentives to build green. In
other words, the time is ripe for the construction industry to get with the green program.


“From the point of view of the manufacturers of the equipment and supplies, and of the expert
building designers who put all these things together, once these policies for green buildings are
there, that’s a new market opportunity for them. So it is in their interest to promote these kinds of
policies.”


Goldstein adds green regulations also have a coincidental social benefit. With 35-percent of
pollution coming from the electricity and gas buildings use, requiring green buildings is as much
a public health issue as it is an economic one.


Some manufacturers in the great lakes region have caught on to the possibilities. The Cleveland
Based Garland Company manufactures and installs roofing systems all over the country and is
responsible for the Environmental Center’s roof—its first in-town green job. Garland
incorporates recycled materials into about 80 percent of its products. Nathan Schaus, project
manager at Garland, says about 15 percent of their business comes from their green product line.
Schaus says the market for green materials will continue to grow, especially with manufacturers
pushing its benefits.


“It’s a two-fold education. You need to educate the buyer, the end user that what they’re buying
is a building solution for the long term. So the initial investment, you have to explain that cost
over its life cycle. With the incentives, it’s changing the mindsets of the people that regulate
government and electricity today.”


Government regulators may work even faster on establishing incentives when they see the
increase in demand for residential green building on top of the commercial market. According to
the National Association of Homebuilders, about 13,000 green homes were built last year – a
huge increase over any single year before that. If demand continues to increase at such a rapid
pace, those business that go green now may be making plenty of green in the future.


For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Shula Neuman.

Park Service Investigates Snowmobile Use

Last year a coalition of environmental groups challenged the NationalPark Service, saying that it was violating its own mandate by allowingsnowmobile use on designated trails in the parks. The Great Lakes RadioConsortium’s Shula Neuman reports that the challenge to the park systemhas prompted the Service’s Midwest officials to monitor just what kindof impact snowmobiles are having on their parks:

Transcript

Last year a coalition of environmental groups challenged the National Park
Service, saying that it was violating its own mandate by allowing snowmobile
use on designated trails in the parks. The Great Lakes Radio
Consortium’s Shula Neuman reports that the challenge to the park system has prompted
the Service’s Midwest officials to monitor just what kind of impact
snowmobiles are having on their parks.


Pictured Rocks National Park sits on Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. It boasts
42 miles of shoreline along Lake Superior, scenic cliffs and sand dunes. In
the winter, the park’s average snowfall of 29-inches attracts about
15-thousand snowmobilers. Park superintendent Grant Peterson says that most
of those snowmobilers are locals who know where they can and cannot travel
and are generally respectful of the park’s regulations. As a result,
snowmobilers and other winter recreationists get along pretty well. Still,
some skiers have expressed concern about the noise and exhaust that
snowmobiles produce. Peterson says it’s those issues as well as some less
tangible ones that need to be resolved.


“The biggest issue is how do we measure the impact.. there’s a
sociological component. Do other winter users find it has an adverse impact
on their enjoyment of the lakeshore with respect to snowmobilers.”


The quantity of snowmobilers in the national parks in the Western states
prompted a coalition of environmental groups, called the Bluewater Network,
to assert that snowmobiles were harming the environment. That’s because the
machines’ two-stroke engines release around 100 times more carbon monoxide
and 300-times more hydrocarbons into the air than cars. They also say, the
noise produced by snowmobiles disturbs wildlife. Their concern is that the
park service wasn’t doing enough about these problems. Senior advisor at the
Department of the Interior, Destry Jarvis, says that the Bluewater Network
was correct: current snowmobile regulations violated executive orders
established in the 1970s that mandated protecting the natural resources in
the parks above all other uses.


“The issue before us is, is this standard of it’s OK on frozen lakes
and unplowed roads in and of itself meet the standard of the executive order
and we concluded that it did not.”


To correct the inconsistency, the National Parks Service is expected to
release proposed changes to snowmobiling regulations in early October.
According to Jarvis, the changes would generally prohibit snowmobiles in
national parks with a few exceptions, such as permitting snowmobilers to
traverse the parks to get to private lands inside or nearby. Individual
superintendents can make the regulations even stricter if they determine
that snowmobiles are still harming the parks. But this requires monitoring
snowmobile use. And as Associate Regional Director Jim Loach explains, in
the Midwest there has been no unified monitoring system.


“You need the basic information first. What are the numbers that we
are talking about. Until we sit down and talk we don’t have those answers
and that’s one of the reasons we are coming together now, and that’s another
reason why there have been proposed changes on a national basis.”

For snowmobile activists though, the parks service is moving too fast to
tighten its restrictions on snowmobile use. Jeff Mausaulf, an activist with
the Snowmobile Association of Minnesota, acknowledges that snowmobile
engines aren’t the most efficient, but argues its unfair to target
snowmobilers with stricter regulations


“Snowmobilers are by and large environmentalists. They enjoy the
great outdoors. Anyone who is outside when its 25 below out and they love to
be out there, they want to protect the outdoors, they are not out there to
destroy it, they are out there to enjoy it and will do whatever it takes to
preserve that.”


Masaulf also says that there’s a difference between Midwest snowmobilers and
their western counterparts. In the west, smaller parks are crowded with
users who are there for only a few hours at a time. In the Midwest, he
says, fewer snowmobilers use extensive trail networks throughout the region
for long trips. Midwest park rangers acknowledge this difference too. And
they say that’s why Midwest parks are less likely to tighten the proposed
regulations. Still, the Interior Department’s Jarvis says that until each
park knows just how snowmobiles are affecting the park and until the
snowmobile industry comes out with a clean burning engine, the park service
has to establish more restrictive snowmobile regulations.


“We don’t want to prohibit people from using the parks in the
wintertime. It’s just that this particular machine violates the standards
that the parks are managed under.”


Midwest park officials met recently to establish a region-wide method for
monitoring the impact snowmobiles have on the parks. These systems should be
in place this winter. In about a year the EPA is expected to come out with
its regulations for quieter, more efficient snowmobile engines. However,
that may be too late. If it’s up to the park service, this winter may be
the last time snowmobiles travel on federal parkland routes. For the Great
Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Shula Neuman in St. Louis.

Park Service May Monitor Snowmobiling

Before the snow begins to fall, members of the Midwest region of theNational Park Service will meet later this week to discuss a monitoringprogram for snowmobile use within the parks. The Great Lakes RadioConsortium’s Shula Neuman reports that this week’s meeting is the ParkService’s first attempt to implement a region-wide monitoring system:

Transcript

Before the snow begins to fall, members of the Midwest Region of the
National Parks Service will meet later this week to discuss a monitoring
program for snowmobile use within the parks. Shula Neuman reports for the
Great Lakes Radio Consortium that this week’s meeting is the service’s first
attempt to implement a region-wide monitoring system.


Although individual parks may have conducted their own studies into how many
snowmobilers are using the trails, until now there has been no unified
attempt to study the issue. Associate Director for the Midwest Region Jim
Loach says the parks service needs to fill in the gaps in its knowledge of
snow mobile use.


“The first thing is to get a handle on exactly what is occurring and what it
is we should be looking at so we can look at a standard that tells us
perhaps that things are fine the way they are, that we need to make some
changes in our management strategies or that different regulations are
necessary.”


Loach says parks service staff will meet with specialists in resource
management, air quality and regulatory measures so a monitoring program can
be put in place by winter. For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Shula
Neuman.