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Sector-specific Strategies
Note: EPA no longer updates this information, but it may be useful as a reference or resource.
- Agribusiness: The Western Iowa Livestock External Stewardship Pilot Project
- Cement Manufacturing: Trends in Beneficial Use of Alternative Fuels and Raw Materials
- Chemical Manufacturing: Voluntary Programs Guide for the Specialty-Batch Chemical Sector
- Chemical Manufacturing: Compendium of Chemical Tools
- Construction and Greenhouse Gas Emissions
- Construction: Low-cost Ways to Reduce Emissions from Construction Equipment
- Metal Casting: Increasing the Beneficial Reuse of Foundry Sand
- Oil and Gas: An Assessment of the Environmental Implications of Oil and Gas Production: A Regional Case Study
- Paint and Coatings: Product Stewardship Institute (PSI) MOU
- Ports: Planning for Climate Change Impacts at U.S. Ports
- Ports: Preparing Ports Emission Inventories
- Shipyard Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emissions Inventory Tool
- Shipbuilding and Ship Repair: Lean Production and Environmental Management Systems
Agribusiness
The Western Iowa Livestock External Stewardship Pilot Project (PDF) (56 pp, 2.9MB, About PDF) was a product of a working relationship with the meat-processing segment of the Agribusiness sector. As part of the program, stakeholders outlined a project to test whether the livestock industry—working together with state and federal agencies and producers—could design, implement and measure voluntary environmental stewardship towards nutrient management. Published in October 2004, the document highlights this initiative that emphasizes consultation, cooperation, and communication among meat processors, livestock producers, and government officials. Farmland Foods, Prestage-Stoecker Farms, and independent livestock producers led the project with support from Iowa NRCS, Iowa DNR and Iowa State University. Significant contributions from all involved contributed to the success of this collaboration.
Cement: Beneficial Reuse of Fuels and Materials
Cement Sector: Trends in Beneficial Use of Alternative Fuels and Raw Materials (PDF) (116 pp, 2.7MB, About PDF) analyzes recent trends in beneficial use of alternative fuels and raw materials (AFR) in cement production. The overall objective of the study, revised in October 2008, is to promote increased utilization of beneficial-use materials in cement kilns, where it is safe to do so, by identifying trends as well as cost, technical, supply/logistics, and barriers to increased utilization of these materials. Alternative fuels considered in this study include petroleum refinery spent catalyst and clarified slurry oil sediments (CSOS), scrap paper/wood, construction and demolition (C&D) debris, scrap tires, wastewater treatment sludge (biosolids), plastics, and emerging materials, including scrap carpet and automobile shredder residue (ASR). The report is intended to provide information to state and federal regulators, trade associations, and other stakeholders to support and promote beneficial material reuse.
Chemical Manufacturing: Utilizing Voluntary Programs
The Voluntary Programs Guide: Specialty-Batch Chemical Sector (2004) was conceived to address industry partners’ assertion that targeted tools were needed to help facilities and companies choose the right voluntary program for themselves. The guide is divided into two sections. The first section contains one-page summaries of programs designed for individual companies or facilities from twelve voluntary programs across EPA offices, and are organized by topic area. The second section summarizes four additional voluntary programs that may be of broader interest to the specialty-batch chemical sector as a whole. An appendix to this document presents more detailed information on all 16 programs.
Chemical Manufacturing: Compendium of Chemical Tools
EPA has compiled a Compendium of Chemical Tools, a collection of Chemical Manufacturing sector work, information on other relevant government programs, and a wide range of sector-related tools. This web page contains reports and other documents, meeting summaries, programs, information about chemical-focused trade associations and state organizations, and links to other relevant web sites.
Construction and Climate
No single construction company is a significant greenhouse gas contributor, but the carbon footprint of the entire sector is substantial because the industry is so large. The report, Potential for Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions in the Construction Sector (PDF) (49 pp, 803K, About PDF), documents the industry's emissions and examines ways to reduce them. Published in February 2009, the report presents one scenario for cutting emissions by millions of tons per year.
Construction and Diesel Emission Reductions
Cleaner Diesels: Low-cost Ways to Reduce Emissions from Construction Equipment (PDF) (38 pp, 433K, About PDF) documents a Sector Strategies research project designed to study and identify low-cost ways to reduce emissions from off-road construction equipment. Published in March 2007, the report details the costs and benefits of a number of these strategies/actions that may be taken by small companies (and medium or larger ones as well) in the Construction sector to reduce their emissions. Air pollution from diesel emissions is a public health concern that reaches every part of the country. The two main pollutants of concern in diesel exhaust that affect human health are nitrogen oxide (NOx) and particulate matter (PM). The Construction sector is a significant contributor to these emissions, creating 32% of all mobile-source NOx emissions and 37% of PM emissions.
Metal Casting: Increasing the Beneficial Reuse of Foundry Sand
In 2008-2009, EPA consulted with a broad group of stakeholders to consider various actions for increasing the beneficial use of foundry sand. This process resulted in the development of a Multi-Stakeholder Action Plan (MAP) that identifies key challenges to increased beneficial use and a comprehensive set of actions aimed at increasing the beneficial use of foundry sands. Over fourteen national organizations have agreed to implement specified actions with the goal of increasing the beneficial use rate to 50% by 2015. EPA's Region 5 (Susan Mooney; Email: mooney.susan@epa.gov; Tel: 312-886-3585) is Chairing the Steering Group that is overseeing the implementation of the Action Plan.
- Click here to link to the MAP (PDF) (16 pp, 125K, About PDF)
To foster the reuse of spent foundry sand, in September 2006 EPA released the State Toolkit for Developing Beneficial Reuse Programs for Foundry Sand. The guide is designed to help states initiate or revise their reuse programs in a way that increases safe beneficial reuse of foundry sand. The Toolkit provides program options and concrete examples of a variety of approaches used in states to efficiently conduct beneficial reuse determinations.
Oil and Gas: Rocky Mountain Region Oil & Gas Case Study
An Assessment of the Environmental Implications of Oil and Gas Production: A Regional Case Study (PDF) (115 pp, 2.23MB, About PDF) is a working draft that provides an overview of emerging oil and gas exploration and production issues in the Mountain West. Released in 2008, this report is a resource for agency and industry decision makers charged with assessing, responding to, and preventing oil and gas sector impacts. In addition, the report addresses several state, regional, and national initiatives to advance responsible oil and gas production.
Paint and Coatings: Paint Product Stewardship Initiative
To address the challenges of reducing and managing leftover architectural paint, EPA and state and local agencies have joined together with paint manufacturers, retailers, recyclers, and others under the auspices of the Paint Product Stewardship Initiative (PPSI) 
. These stakeholders are now exploring a broad range of issues and approaches to leftover paint management with the goal of working toward a nationally coordinated leftover paint management system.
Since December 2003, the Product Stewardship Institute (PSI) has facilitated a national dialogue aimed at reducing the generation of leftover paint, while increasing reuse and recycling opportunities. With the avid support of more than 200 dialogue participants, these discussions resulted in an historic agreement mediated by PSI in October 2007 among paint manufacturers, government agencies, paint recyclers, painting contractors, and other participants. The Memorandum of Understanding (13 pp, 50K, About PDF) called for the establishment of an industry-funded Paint Stewardship Organization to collect and manage leftover paint using a pass-through cost to consumers. The agreement also committed stakeholders to conduct a demonstration project in the State of Oregon, which began in 2009. The agreement was facilitated by PSI.
Ports: Planning for Climate Change Impacts at U.S. Ports
Over the upcoming decades, climate change is likely to cause sea levels to rise, lake levels to drop, more frequent and severe storms, and increases in extreme high temperatures. A white paper, Planning for Climate Change Impacts at U.S. Ports (PDF) (16 pp, 237K , About PDF), June 2008) was written to help raise awareness of the effects of climate change so that ports can work with government, industry and communities to make more informed adaptation decisions. Included are short summaries of what six ports are doing to assess the risks to their facilities and develop local and regional strategies to mitigate those risks.
Ports: Preparing Ports Emission Inventories
Current Methodologies in Preparing Mobile Source Port-Related Emission Inventories, April 2009 (PDF) (116 pp, 3Mb, About PDF) describes what has been learned about development of port-related emission inventories to date and is a tool that can be used to inform the development of such inventories. This final report represents the completion of a June 23, 2005 draft report entitled, “Best Practices in Preparing Port Emission Inventories.”
Shipbuilding and Ship Repair: Inventorying Shipyard Greenhouse Gas Emissions
The Shipyard Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emissions Inventory Tool (XLS, 532K) is designed to estimate GHG emissions from sources that occur in shipyards. The purpose of the GHG Inventory Tool is to give each shipyard a customized, credible tool to measure its GHG emissions. The tool is based on the GHG emissions protocols of the World Resources Institute (WRI) and the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
Shipbuilding and Ship Repair: Lean Production and Environmental Management Systems
The purpose of Findings and Recommendations on Lean Production and Environmental Management Systems in the Shipbuilding and Ship Repair Sector (PDF) (15 pp, 163K, About PDF) is to summarize research and findings on the relationship between lean production and environmental management systems in the shipbuilding and ship repair sector. Recognizing that lean production—a leading business model being applied in many sectors of the U.S. economy—and EMS both affect environmental performance, EPA initiated research to better understand the relationship between the lean model and EMS. The 2004 report, which is based on interviews with managers at five shipyards, concludes that the lean model and environmental management systems are compatible and synergistic approaches. The report also describes strategies that organizations have used and/or could use to improve their environmental performance and reduce costs by combining lean and environmental management practices.