,
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!
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/
Nationalized health care: All the efficiency of FEMA with
all
the compassion of the IRS
--
EHS Strategies,
Inc.
- enabling
organizations to meet their EHS vision
http://ehsstrategies.com
651-204-3371
Previous post | Top of Page | Next post