10 Webcasts for Climate and Energy Staff: measure climate change health impacts, access sustainability tech help, and more

EPA Webcasts

October 4, 3:00-4:00 PM (EDT) – Free Technical Assistance Available through EPA’s Building Blocks for Sustainable Communities Program

EPA’s Building Blocks for Sustainable Communities Program provides short-term, targeted technical assistance to help communities implement smart growth development approaches, such as creating a green streets strategy, linking land use to water quality, or conducting a parking audit. Participants will learn about the types of assistance available from EPA and its four grantees, and how to apply. This webinar is being held in response to requests for a repeat of the webinar that was held on Sept. 21; the content will be essentially the same.

October 11, 2:00-3:30 PM (EDT) – Estimating the Health Impacts of Climate Change and Clean Energy Programs

State and local climate change and clean energy policies can improve air quality, reduce negative impacts on human health, and save lives. This webinar will cover three EPA tools that state and local governments can use to estimate and communicate the health and related economic benefits of actions that reduce air emissions:

Audience: Recommended for state and local air quality, energy, public health, sustainability, and transportation planning staff.

October 11, 1:00-2:30 PM (EDT) – Solar Energy for Water and Wastewater Utilities: Step-by-Step Project Implementation and Funding Approaches
EPA’s Office of Wastewater Management hosts this webinar on helping water utilities understand how they can use solar energy to increase their energy efficiency. The first part of this webinar will detail the process of implementing solar energy projects at water or wastewater utilities, the various types of solar technologies available, and where they can be used most appropriately. The webinar will also highlight innovative funding approaches, including those with no up-front capital requirements, that result in long-term energy cost savings and stability. Finally, this webinar will present the case study of a successful solar installation at a small wastewater utility in Grafton, Massachusetts.

ENERGY STAR Webcasts

ENERGY STAR offers free online training to help you improve the energy performance of your organization. To register for any of these trainings or to see other upcoming ENERGY STAR trainings, visit the ENERGY STAR Trainings page.

October 3, 1:00-2:00 PM (EDT) – Top Communication Strategies to Build Support for Your Energy Program

This month’s ENERGY STAR National Building Competition webinar will explore how ENERGY STAR partners are building top-down and bottom-up support for energy initiatives through effective communications. Key strategies include sharing energy goals and data; bringing together internal teams to exchange expertise and lessons learned; communicating through reports, creative materials, and events; and engaging occupants to take an active role and interest in saving energy through competitions and other initiatives.

October 16, 12:00-1:00 PM (EDT) – Beyond the Basics of Benchmarking: Advanced Features of Portfolio Manager

So you’ve benchmarked your building, now what? This session builds on the Basics of Benchmarking, highlighting more features you can use in EPA’s Portfolio Manager to help you understand your building’s energy performance, set goals, and share and report data.

In this session you will learn about:

  • Strategies for keeping your data up-to-date and accurate;
  • Metrics to use to assess your building’s energy performance; and
  • How to use Portfolio Manager to demonstrate energy efficiency improvements with the goal setting, reporting, and sharing features.

Additionally, there will be time during the session to get your specific questions answered.

October 18, 1:00-2:00 PM (EDT) – How to Apply for ENERGY STAR Certification

You’ve benchmarked your building in EPA’s Portfolio Manager, you’ve worked hard to improve its energy efficiency to get the building’s score up to a 75, and now you want to get EPA recognition for this accomplishment. The ENERGY STAR Certification will distinguish your building as a superior energy performer.

October 24, 2:00-3:00 PM (EDT) – How to Launch an ENERGY STAR Energy Efficiency Competition

Time and time again, leading ENERGY STAR partners have found that a spirit of healthy competition and the opportunity for recognition are among the best drivers for participation in organization- or community-wide energy management. Any organization can run a competition, including trade associations, commercial businesses, manufacturing companies, local and state governments, schools, congregations, and more. Join ENERGY STAR for this hour-long presentation to learn about (1) the many benefits of energy efficiency competitions; (2) the basic steps you can take to plan and launch an energy efficiency competition; (3) common barriers and possible solutions; and (4) the resources made available by ENERGY STAR that can help you in this process, including the ENERGY STAR Guide to Energy Efficiency Competitions.

October 30, 2:00-3:15 PM (EDT) – Financing Energy Efficient Upgrades with ENERGY STAR

Learn how public sector organizations are improving energy efficiency with innovative solutions to financial barriers. Attendees will learn about financing projects in the public and private sectors, the basics of performance contracting, and how EPA’s tools and resources can help you make the decision to improve your facilities now or later.

NALGEP (National Association of Local Government Environmental Professionals)

October 3, 2:00-3:15 PM (EDT) – EPA’s Brownfields Area-wide Pilot Program: Lessons Learned and New Funding Opportunity

EPA’s Brownfields Area-wide Pilot Program is helping 23 pilot communities respond to local brownfields challenges, particularly where multiple brownfield sites are in close proximity; connected by infrastructure; and limit the overall economic, environmental, and social prosperity of their surroundings. The webinar, sponsored by NALGEP and the Brownfield Communities Network, will discuss lessons learned from the program, share pilot examples, and preview plans for the upcoming RFP for the next round of pilot grants.

ACEEE (American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy)

October 11, 4:00-5:00 PM (EDT) – Community-Based Social Marketing (CBSM) and Home Energy Retrofit Programs

The ACEEE webinar will be co-hosted by staff from the One Change Foundation, who will be on hand to discuss details of their High Five philosophy for mounting CBSM campaigns in support of home energy retrofits. High Five is one of the approaches discussed in the recent ACEEE white paper,Reaching the “High-Hanging Fruit” through Behavior Change: How Community-Based Social Marketing Puts Energy Savings within Reach. This white paper, the first in a forthcoming series on social and behavioral insights and their application for energy efficiency programs, will be available for download on Wednesday, October 10, 2012.

From the State and Local Archives

Climate Change Adaptation for State and Local Governments

This three-part series is one of the most popular series we’ve ever hosted. You can listen to all of it online, in addition to the dozens of other webcasts we have archived on our website.

  • Part One: Climate Impacts and Risk Communication
  • Part Two: Adaptation Planning and Implementation
  • Part Three: Federal Resources and Support for Climate Change Adaptation

What are your program’s training needs?

During the GLRPPR meeting last month, attendees discussed regional training needs, sector or chemical specific issues, and emerging trends in pollution prevention technical assistance. The following trends emerged:

Training

  • Basic principles of P2 as applied to doing technical P2 assessments; focus must be on hands-on; audience would include students, consultants, businesses, TAPs
  • Green chemistry, particularly product substitution; it’s the right thing to do, and green chemistry and other P2 approaches can help a business avoid regulations
  • Front-line worker P2 training as is done by Purdue – P2 is for everyone!
  • EMS for small businesses; ISO 14000 is out of reach for many businesses wanting to do the right thing

Emerging Trends

  • P2 is getting more complex, including more multi-media  — more direct field support is needed as well as follow-up, longer term commitments by TAPs and inter-organizational partnerships and coordination
  • Recipients of the technical assistance are wearing more hats, particularly in economic down times
  • Work needs to get from the lab to the field and successes defused to other P2 TAPs and industry

Sector-specific issues
We got little agreement on this, and a number of states did not respond.

We want to know: What are the most important training needs for your program? What emerging trends do you see in the pollution prevention technical assistance field? Are there sector or chemical specific issues that you need assistance with? Leave your thoughts in the comments. I’m planning to use this information to develop future GLRPPR sponsored webinars and training opportunities.