United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
EPA744-F-96-018
September 1996
Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics
                   Program
Partnerships For a

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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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