United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
EPA744-F-96-018
September 1996
Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics
Program
Partnerships For a
U.S. EPA
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Why Design for the
Environment?
usinesses operating in^the 1990s face a variety of competing
demands—keeping costs low and quality high, staying competi-
j tive in a global marketplace, and meeting consumer preferences
for more environmentally friendly products.
Designing for the environment is an effective strategy for organizing
and managing these challenging demands. Building on the design for the
environment (DfE) concept pioneered by industry, the Environmental
Protection Agency's (EPA's) DfE program helps businesses incorporate
environmental considerations into the design and redesign of products,
processes, and technical and management systems.
How does a business "design for the
environment?"
« By implementing pollution prevention, energy efficiency, and other
resource conservation measures.
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What is EPA's DfE Program?
"^f hrough the DfE program, EPA develops and provides businesses
with information to make environmentally informed choices
and design for the environment. DfE forms voluntary partner-
ships with industry,;public interest groups, universities, research
institutions, and other government agencies to develop environmentally
friendly alternatives to existing products and processes. Within each project,
the DfE program ensures that the information reaches the people who
make the choices—from managers to industrial design engineers to materi-
als specifiers and buyers.
What DfE Projects are
Underway?
PA's DfE projects include broad instjtjMbnll efforts aimed at
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with trade associations and businesses in specific industries.,.^
'of these|projects are described below. US .,'."<^-'
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A typical industry project includes developing a Cleaner Technologies Substitutes
Assessment (CTSA) and a communication and implementation strategy. CTSAs
provide detailed environmental, economic, and performance information on tradi-
tional and alternative manufacturing methods and technologies. To help industry
implement some of the new technologies identified during CTSA development,
DfE provides a variety of outreach tools, which may include fact sheets, bulletins,
pollution prevention case studies,; software, videos, and training materials.
Printed Wiring Board Project
The printed wiring
board (PWB) is the
building block of the
electronics industry. It
is the underlying link
between semiconductors, computer
chips, and other electronic compo-
nents. The traditional electroless cop-
per- process for manufacturing PWBs
uses toxic chemicals that pose poten-
tial health and environmental risks,
generates large volumes of hazardous
waste, and uses substantial amounts of
water and energy. The project is work-
ing with 750 PWB manufacturers to
examine alternative technologies that
reduce or eliminate these impacts. The
project has demonstrated seven
promising alternatives at 26 sites
across the United States.
Dry Cleaning Project
A DfE partnership
with the dry cleaning
industry and public
interest groups is
working to reduce
exposure to perchloroethylene (perc).
Traditionally used by most of the
nation's 34,000 commercial dry clean-
ers, perc is a chemical solvent that
poses potential health and environ-
mental concerns. DfE has established
two demonstration sites to collect data
on the performance, customer satisfac-
tion, and cost of a non-toxic alterna-
tive technology called wet cleaning.
Other alternative cleaning methods
being-examined include liquid carbon
dioxide, ultrasonic, and microwave
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drying technologies. Dffi is also develop-
ing a pollution prevention/waste mini-
mization manual and a training program
to promote the design and operation of
"greener" dry cleaning facilities.
Screen Printing Project !
Dffi encourages the
nations 20,000 graphic
art screen printers to
consider environmental
and worker safety con-
cerns along with cost and performance
when purchasing materials and design-
ing systems. One way to reduce thfe
environmental impact of screen printing
is to replace hazardous chemicals with
environmentally-safer substitutes. .
Working together, EPA and the screen
printing industry evaluated 14 screen
reclamation systems and are identifying
and publicizing pollution prevention
opportunities.
Flexography Project
Flexography is a process
used primarily for print-
ing on paper, corrugated
paperboard, or plastic
consumer packages and
labels. Conventional flexographic inks
contain solvents made of volatile organic
compounds that can pose risks to
human health and the environment.
Dffi is working in partnership with1
seven trade associations representing
over 1,600 flexographic printers and the
ink manufacturers to evaluate alternative
solvent, waterborne, and ultraviolet-
cured flexographic ink technologies. The
goal of this project is to help printers
make more environmentally informed
decisions about the ink technologies
they use.
Lithography Project
There are 54,000 litho-
graphic printing shops
in the United States that
typically use petroleum
solvents to clean their
presses. These solvents, called blanket
washes, contain volatile organic com-
pounds, which can be unhealthy to
breathe and contribute to smog forma-
tion. To help small business printers
make more informed decisions about
the blanket wash products used in their
shops, the Dffi Lithography Project
partners worked together to evaluate 37
different blanket wash products. The
results suggest that some blanket washes
are safer for workers and the environ-
ment, and can lower costs.
Metal Finishing Project
Metal surface finishing
involves a variety of
processes to coat a metal-
lic base material with one
or more layers of another
metal, paint, or plastic to enhance, alter,
or finish the metals surface. Typical metal
finishing processes produce air emissions,
wastewater effluent, and excessive solid
waste. This project has produced a variety
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of pollution prevention materials for the
nations 13,500 metal finishers, including
an industry profile, a regulatory guide,
and waste assessment tools. The project
has also initiated a series of demonstration
projects to examine emerging pollution
prevention alternatives, including chrome
electroplating projects at four sites in
Michigan and Ohio.
Institutional Projects
Successful pollution prevention pro-
grams can result in significant economic
and environmental savings. Because these
savings often are not adequately mea-
sured, they are frequendy omitted from
business planning activities. EPA is work-
ing with the accounting, insurance, and
finance industries to identify and quanti-
fy the economic and environmental sav-
ings that can be achieved by implement-
ing innovative pollution prevention
methodologies. Current projects include:
Environmental Accounting
Project
EPA is working with the
private sector to develop
new tools that will help
businesses incorporate
environmental costs and
benefits into managerial accounting and
capital budgeting practices. These tools
will allow businesses to reduce their envi-
ronmental costs while improving their'
environmental performance.
Insurance/Risk Management
Project
EPA has completed a
project with the
American Institute of
Chartered Property
Casualty Underwriters
(AICPCU) to incorporate pollution pre-
vention information into AICPCU s risk
management certification program. EPA
is also convening an informal industry
advisory panel to help identify addition-
al opportunities to work with the insur-
ance and risk management industries.
Financing Project
The financial communi-
ty has traditionally asso-
ciated environmental
investments with liabili-
ty rather than with
opportunity, which has limited the abili-
ty of some businesses to adopt modern
pollution prevention practices: EPA is
helping businesses and the financial
community estimate the returns from
pollution prevention investments.
Cooperative
Government Project
Cleaning Products
EPA and the U.S.
General Services
Administration are col-
laborating on a long-
term project to promote
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the use of environmentally preferred
cleaning products. This effort involves
developing standards for cleaning
products, performing integrated risk •
assessments, and evaluating product
performance. The project coincides i
with a federal Executive Order man-
dating that government agencies use
environmentally preferred cleaners.
Green Chemistry :
Green chemistry is
the design, manufac-
ture, and use of envi-
ronmentally benign
chemical products
and processes that prevent pollution,
produce less-hazardous waste, and
reduce environmental and human
health risks. The DfE Green
Chemistry program recognizes and
supports fundamental breakthroughs
in chemistry that are cost-effective,
useful to industry, and prevent pollu-
tion. Current projects include:
The Green Chemistry
Challenge—encourages the chemi-
cal industry to promote pollution pre-
vention and industrial ecology.
Through award and grant programs,
DfE recognizes and promotes the
research, development, and imple-
mentation of new and innovative
green chemistry methodologies.
Research Partnerships—sponsor
cooperative research projects with
industry, government, and academia
to develop chemical products and
processes that are commercially feasi-
ble and more environmentally benign.
SMART Review Program-
assesses the pollution potential associ-
ated with new chemicals and their
manufacture in order to find environ-
mentally preferable solutions that can
be voluntarily adopted by industry.
Green Chemistry Curriculum
Development—incorporates
"green chemistry" concepts into the
traditional chemistry curricula.
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