October is Energy Awareness Month

In honor of Energy Awareness Month, during October the GLRPPR Blog will highlight web sites, resources, and organizations pertaining to energy efficiency and alternative/renewable energy.

To kick things off, be sure to check out GLRPPR’s Web Site of the Month for October, the Delta P2E2 Center. The Delta Institute is a non-profit organization located in Chicago, IL that works with businesses, governments and communities to improve environmental quality while promoting community and economic development. The Institute and its partners have developed the Delta P2E2 Center to help promote pollution prevention and energy efficiency measures among manufacturers, local governments, school districts, and civic institutions. The Center provides technical assistance to identify energy efficiency measures to save money and protect the environment. The Center provides a range of financing programs to implement the most promising measures. The Center also buys and sells carbon credits on the Chicago Climate Exchange on behalf of companies, and pools and trades carbon credits generated from carbon sequestration projects on behalf of farmers and landowners.

The web site provides case studies (three are currently available) and publications related to the Center’s P2E2 assistance projects in the Great Lakes region (none available at the time of the writing of this post). Continue to watch this site for further developments. Contact information for partner organizations in both Illinois and Michigan is provided on the web site for those who would like more information.

End of Life Vehicle Solutions (ELVS)

Check out the web site for End of Life Vehicle Solutions (ELVS). ELVS was created by the automotive industry to promote the industry’s environmental efforts in recyclability, education and outreach, and the proper management of substances of concern. Participating Members of ELVS are: BMW of North America, LLC, DaimlerChrysler Corporation, Ford Motor Company, General Motors Corporation, International Truck & Engine, Mack Trucks, Inc., Mitsubishi Motors North America, Inc., Nissan North America, Inc., Subaru of America, Inc., Volkswagen of America, Inc., and Volvo Trucks North America. End of Life Vehicle Solutions manages, on a nationwide basis, programs to collect, transport, retort, recycle, or dispose of elemental mercury from automotive switches.

The ELVS web site provides information on medium and heavy-duty trucks, the National Vehicle Mercury Switch Recovery Program, educational materials (including videos showing how to remove certain switches from specified vehicles), recycling opportunities via The Environmental Quality Company (EQ), and mercury switch recovery program reporting for various states. An interactive map on the home page allows users to click on states to view regulatory information related to mercury switches for that state.