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SMM Web Academy- Climate, Materials and Your Community
This webinar on the connection between climate, materials and your community will focus on the work of the West Coast Climate and Materials Management Forum. The Forum, which is co-led by EPA Regions 9 and 10, is a partnership of Western cities, counties and states that are developing and sharing ways to integrate lifecycle materials management policies and practices into climate actions in Western communities. Join us to learn more about the connection between climate and materials, and to hear about some of the innovative tools the Forum has developed to help drive climate action in your community.
Why integrate materials management into climate policies and practices?
- Materials management is associated with an estimated 42% of total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the U.S.
- The Forum has developed a toolkit for state and local climate protection that will help your local government hit the ground running with new approaches to GHG inventories, model climate action plans and innovative policies.
- Downstream actions like recycling and composting have upstream benefits according to a recent report developed by the Forum’s Materials Management Workgroup. In fact, within California, Oregon, and Washington, recycling or composting many of the commonly found items in the disposed waste stream could reduce GHG emissions by more than 32 MMTCO2e, the equivalent of taking 6.3 million cars off the road for a year.
Speaker Bios:
- David Allaway, Senior Policy Analyst, Oregon Department of Environmental Quality, spoke about why materials management matters and the connection/opportunities between climate and materials management, which forms the basis for the Forum’s work.
Materials Management as a Climate Mitigation Strategy (PDF) (34 pp, 570K, About PDF)
- Shannon Davis, West Coast Climate and Materials Management Co-lead, EPA Region 9, spoke about the Forum’s Toolkit for State and Local Climate Protection
, a comprehensive resource to help state and local governments map out how to incorporate material conservation into climate and sustainability strategies. Programs that focus on material conservation can deliver emissions reductions and contribute to climate action goals, while also producing benefits such as resource conservation, cost savings, job creation and economic development.
Climate Protection: A Materials Management Toolkit (PDF) (22 pp, 461K, About PDF)
- John Davis, Administrator, Mojave Desert and Mountain Recycling Authority, shared information from a new report developed by the Forum’s Materials Management Workgroup titled, “Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions through Recycling and Composting (Report) (PDF)” (30 pp, 760K, About PDF). Using the WARM calculator to quantify the life-cycle GHG emissions reductions that could be achieved by recycling or composting materials currently being landfilled in CA, OR and WA, the report identifies four priority material categories that offer the greatest emissions reduction potential in all three states: carpet, core recyclables, dimensional lumber, and food scraps, along with management options.
Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions through Recycling and Composting (PDF) (27 pp, 745K, About PDF)