Category: Information Tools

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Pollution Prevention Internship Programs

Check out the new U.S. EPA web page listing information on pollution prevention (P2) internship programs throughout the country. Internships allow college students the chance to gain valuable career experience. Internship programs listed include those at government agencies, non-profits, universities and even businesses (such as Greenmaker Building Supply in Chicago, IL).

Thanks to Beth Anderson of U.S. EPA for sharing the link to this page. She noted that the information on the page was compiled by an intern named Lauren, appropriately enough, so thanks to Lauren too!

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Documents recently added to GLRPPR sector resources

Below are some of the recent additions to GLRPPR’s sector resources. These updates are also available as an RSS feed.

  • BuildItSolar: The Renewable Energy Site for Do-It-Yourselfers
    Fri, 20 Jun 2008 15:27:08 GMT
    Build It Solar includes plans, tools and information to do renewable energy and conservation projects. Includes links to The Half Project, one family’s program to cut their energy use, energy costs, and CO2 emissions in half. Excellent resource for DIY solar information.
  • Guidelines for Avoiding Wood from Endangered Forests
    Fri, 20 Jun 2008 14:44:25 GMT
    This document includes examples of key high-demand tree species extracted from endangered forests. The document also includes examples of more environmentally sound alternative materials and their sources.
  • Drive Green
    Thu, 19 Jun 2008 19:51:06 GMT
    Compilation of articles, video, and blog entries from Popular Mechanics about energy-efficient driving and alternative fuel vehicles. Includes features on new technologies, test drives of new vehicles, analysis, tips, and related material.
  • Online News Hour: Alternative Fuels
    Thu, 19 Jun 2008 19:49:58 GMT
    News and features about alternative automotive fuels such as ethanol, natural gas, hydrogen, electric, and biodiesel. Includes reports, case studies, classroom materials, and interactive features such as “How Does Your Car Stack Up?” that considers carbon dioxide output and fuel costs.
  • Edmunds Green Car Guide
    Thu, 19 Jun 2008 16:54:40 GMT
    This buying guide features articles on fuel-efficient cars, alternative fuels and new technologies (such as biodiesel, electric, and compressed natural gas), hybrid vehicles, improving gas mileage (covering “hypermilers,” who try to beat the EPA average fuel economy ratings), and oil and gas prices. From Edmunds, producers of consumer automotive information.
  • Doing Well by Doing Good? Green Office Buildings
    Thu, 19 Jun 2008 14:59:25 GMT
    This paper provides the first credible evidence on the economic value of the certification of “green buildings” in the commercial sector — value derived from impersonal market transactions rather than engineering estimates. We match publicly available information on the addresses of Energy-Star and LEED-rated office buildings to a commercial data source detailing the characteristics of U.S. office buildings and their rental rates. We analyze the micro data on 694 certified green buildings and on 7489 other office buildings located within a quarter mile of the certified buildings. We find systematic evidence that rents for green offices are about two percent higher than rents for comparable buildings located nearby. Effective rents, i.e., rents adjusted for the occupancy levels in office buildings, are about six percent higher in green buildings than in comparable office buildings nearby. At prevailing capitalization rates, conversion of the average non-green building to an equivalent green building would add more than $5 million in market value. These results are robust to the statistical models employed.
  • Truckers – Clean Diesel Grants and Loans
    Thu, 19 Jun 2008 14:41:30 GMT
    This page is designed for truck owners seeking information about loans and grants for eligible clean diesel projects under the National Clean Diesel Campaign.
  • Drinking Water Treatability Database
    Wed, 18 Jun 2008 19:51:06 GMT
    The Drinking Water Treatability Database (TDB) presents referenced information on the control of contaminants in drinking water. It allows drinking water utilities, first responders to spills or emergencies, treatment process designers, research organizations, academicians, regulators and others to access referenced information gathered from thousands of literature sources and assembled on one site. It includes more than 25 treatment processes used by drinking water utilities. The literature includes bench-, pilot-, and full-scale studies of surface waters, ground waters and laboratory waters. The literature includes peer-reviewed journals and conferences, other conferences and symposia, research reports, theses, and dissertations.
  • Adapting to Climate Change: A Business Approach
    Wed, 18 Jun 2008 16:17:43 GMT
    This report outlines a sensible business approach to analyzing and adapting to the physical risks of climate change. It focuses on a critical first step in assessing these climate impacts: understanding the potential risks to business and the importance of taking action to mitigate those risks. Not all businesses need to take action now; this paper develops a qualitative screening process to assess whether a business is likely to be vulnerable to the physical risks associated with climate change, and whether a more detailed risk assessment is warranted.
  • Do Your Part! for Climate Friendly Parks
    Wed, 18 Jun 2008 14:56:27 GMT
    Do Your Part! for Climate Friendly Parks is the first interactive online program in the country that provides national park visitors and supporters with the tools to understand and reduce their carbon footprints and thereby help to protect our national parks from global warming. Do Your Part! is sponsored by the National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA) in support of the National Park Service’s Climate Friendly Parks program. Do Your Part!’s interactive mapping feature lets you explore park goals and the progress park stakeholders are making towards those goals. Its carbon calculator provides the tools you need to understand your current carbon footprint and then set goals to reduce your impact. Its tracking tool displays progress in real time towards park and related group goals.
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Tech Tip: Google Guide and my favorite Google tricks

Developed by Nancy Blachman, Google Guide is a comprehensive resource for getting the most out of web search using Google. Although most of the information here is also available through Google’s Help Center (http://www.google.com/support/), the tutorial format is unique. I also like the links to Google cheat sheets for advanced search and the calculator. They are based on Google’s own cheat sheet, which is also available in the Help Center.

Although I realize that most people (except for search geeks like me) probably won’t ever use most of the features that Google has to offer, there are a couple of features that I use often and find very helpful. They are:

define:

The query [define:] will provide a definition of the words you enter after it, gathered from various online sources. The definition will be for the entire phrase entered (i.e., it will include all the words in the exact order you typed them).  See the results of define:biomimicry for an example.

site:

If you include [site:] in your query, Google will restrict the results to those websites in the given domain. See the results of biodiesel site:glrppr.org for an example.

What’s your favorite Google search trick? Share in the comments.

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RSS in Plain English

[Post authored by Tyler Rubach]

As the web developer and resident “geek” of our office, I’m asked a lot questions regarding technologies that are shaping the web. One of the most common questions I get is “What’s so cool about RSS anyhow?”. While I fancy myself as someone who can speak technology in “Plain English”, the folks at Common Craft have created a video demonstrating simply and effectively why RSS is such a great tool. Check it out below!

Now that you’re an expert on consuming RSS feeds, here are the RSS feeds that GLRPPR offers:

If any of you have any additional tips or tricks with regard to RSS feeds, please leave a comment.

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EPA National Dialogue on Environmental Information

[Post author: Scott Butner]

During the month of May, the EPA Office of Environmental Information (OEI) is hosting a national dialogue on environmental information, inviting all of its stakeholders to comment on what we’d like to see from EPA in terms of information — sources, formats, etc.

I’ve worked with EPA on the issue of environmental information for many, many years — I have not seen them as receptive to new ideas as they seem to be recently, at any time before.  Take a few moments to participate in the conversation, and especially to speak up  for the need for improved P2 related information, which is barely registering in the comments people have made to date.

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The Boolify Project

I found this search tool last week and though it would be of interest to those of you who are more visually oriented. It’s targeted toward elementary and middle school students, but should appeal to anyone who is a visual thinker.

The Boolify Project was designed to make it easier to for people to understand their web search by illustrating their search logic and by showing them how each change to their search instantly changes their results. Use the green pieces for your key words or phrases, then pull down the and/or/not pieces to link concepts. It’s a very nice way to design complex searches. There are also some great links on Boolean searching and web site evaluation in the Curriculum section.

Keep in mind that search results are presented through Google’s “Safe Search STRICT” technology, so if you’re searching for something that might be filtered, your results may not be complete.

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May 2008 Site of the Month: Campus Environmental Resource Center (ERC)

The Campus Environmental Resource Center provides comprehensive environmental compliance assistance and pollution prevention information for colleges and universities. The center was developed by the National Association of Colleges and University Business Officials with support and funding from EPA. The Web site makes it easier for school officials to learn more about applicable environmental regulations and ensure a safe and sustainable environment for their students, faculty, and staff. The online center provides information on topics including waste management, air and water resources, drinking water, and public safety. Viewers can find out what types of campus activities are regulated by EPA, see how best to comply with environmental regulations, query federal enforcement and compliance data, learn how to apply for federal grants, and e-mail comments to EPA on regulations under development.

Please note that GLRPPR Sites of the Month are now being posted on the GLRPPR Blog, and will display on the GLRPPR homepage at the first of the month. Sites of the Month from May 2008 on will be archived in the blog category “Sites of the Month.” Previous sites of the month are listed at http://www.glrppr.org/news/site_of_the_month.cfm.

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RSS Feed for Recent Additions to GLRPPR Sector Resources

If you find the RSS feeds for individual Sector Resources useful, you might be interested in trying out GLRPPR’s RSS feed for the latest document additions to all Sector Resources. If you want to keep up with resources on a wide variety of subjects, this could be helpful. Keep in mind that this feed only features new resource links added to the Sector Resources; it does not include events, news or funding opportunities, which are included in the individual Sector Resource feeds.

If you have problems or questions related to the “recent documents” feed, contact GLRPPR Webmaster Tyler Rubach.

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Celebrate Earth Day April 22

Earth Day is next Tuesday, and if you’re interested in finding local events to participate in, check out the Earth Day Network web site.  In the “Earth Day Events” section of that site, you can search for events by keyword, location or date.  You can also view a list of all the events submitted to the EDN site or submit a description of your own Earth Day event.

If your company or organization is planning a special event or activity for Earth Day, consider sharing your plans in the “Comments” area of this post–you might give another organization a great idea for next year.

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Rate Archived GLRPPR Help Desk Answers

Did you know you could rate the usefulness of the answers provided in the GLRPPR Help Desk Archive? Just click on the “View Answer” link for any question in the archive. Below the response displayed, there will be a prompt saying “Was this answer helpful to you?” and you may click “yes” or “no.” Note that if you would like to add to or comment upon the information provided in the archived answer, you can click the word “Comments” at the bottom of the response and fill out a simple online form to submit your comment. This is your opportunity to share information about a resource that you’re aware of, but which wasn’t included in the archived answer, to say how you used the information provided, or to simply thank our Help Desk Librarian for the great info.

Remember that submitting a pollution prevention related question to the Help Desk Librarian is easy–just fill out the online form and submit it. You’ll get an hour of free literature and Internet searching by a professional librarian and a response within a week that will provide a great start for exploring the topic you’ve inquired about. Archived Help Desk questions and answers are also integrated into relevant Sector Resources on the GLRPPR web site.

If you have questions or would like further information about the GLRPPR Help Desk, contact Laura Barnes.