Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Awards Accepting Nominations through April 30, 2014

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is accepting nominations for the 2014 Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Awards. The awards promote the environmental and economic benefits of developing and using novel green chemistry both in academia and industry. The American Chemical Society’s Green Chemistry Institute® administers the awards in coordination with the EPA.

Deadline for submitting nominations is April 30, 2014. Winners will be announced in the fall and there will be a special awards ceremony in Washington DC.

Please visit the EPA’s Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Awards website for further details and to download this year’s nomination package.

Sustainability and behavior change article roundup

Here are some recent articles on behavior change and sustainability.

Tackle your company’s waste and create change from within — The Guardian

It’s hard to reduce anything by 90% – and waste to landfill is especially tricky. But that goal is what Los Angeles-based retail supplier, Farmer Brothers, has been working on for the last few years. The size of the reduction is ambitious. Even more remarkable, though, is that this initiative did not originate in the company’s sustainability department, the facilities crew, or even the CEO. Instead the leader was an inspired product manager named Sarah Beaubien.

myActions Platform Turning Engagement with Waste, Wildlife Initiatives Into Action — Sustainable Brands

Engaging people in sustainability remains one of the cause’s biggest challenges – ensuring their behavior reflects their engagement is another. A number of studies have been devoted to bridging the gap between people’s attitudes and their actions, and it remains a conundrum for many organizations on a mission to promote positive behavior. Luckily, tools such as myActions are helping companies not only engage certain groups on the merit of more conscious behaviors but motivate them to follow through. myActions builds and designs online communities and social tools that track the digital sharing of real-world actions. For every action taken, a donation is made to the cause of the user’s choice. The company partners with organizations from municipalities (Ohio Valley) to nonprofits (Net Impact) to brands (EKOCYCLE) that provide the greatest opportunity for impact through their networks.

Consumers may change behavior if delivered the right message — GreenBiz

If you’ve heard me speak at a conference, you know there’s a point in the presentation where I typically say, “Don’t try to educate your audience into changing their behaviors.” Then I ask the audience to raise their hands if they can think of at least one thing they know they should do on a daily basis to be healthier but that they don’t do. Nearly every hand goes up, and I say, “See, knowing a thing doesn’t mean you’re going to do a thing.”

But I might be wrong.

WaterSense H2Otel Challenge Webinars

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) officially launched the WaterSense H2Otel Challenge one month ago to help hotels assess, change, and track their water use using best management practices. Interested hotels can dive right in and take the pledge today, and any organization can help spread the word and recruit hotels.

As part of the H2Otel Challenge, WaterSense is offering a series of technical training webinars that begin this week. To learn more about the WaterSense H2Otel Challenge, review specific water best management practices, and hear from professionals who are using water more efficiently, register now: