On April 22, the 40th anniversary of Earth Day will be celebrated from coast-to-coast; a day which was first realized by Wisconsin Senator Gaylord Nelson who wanted to find a way to increase environmental awareness and to promote urgently needed federal legislation to deal with an alarming ecological crisis.It wasn’t until visiting Santa Barbara Calif in August, 1969, and reading about the popularity of “teach-ins” at college campuses as way of educating students about the Vietnam War that an idea caught hold in Nelson’s head to hold a similar “teach-ins” only with a focus on environmental awareness.Since the first Earth Day was held on April 22, 1970, when a chorus of demonstrators around the nation some 20 million strong voiced their concerns about the environment, specifically about the pollution of air and water, that a significant amount of federal legislation was passed to protect the environment.

via The History Of Earth Day Plus How You Can Get Involved – Yahoo! News.

NQA is proud to announce that Larry Tibert, the Environmental, Health and Safety Business Manager has achieved Lead Auditor status from the International Cyanide Management Institute (ICMI). This status allows for the independent third-party audits of mining operations, cyanide producers and cyanide transporters.

The Cyanide Code is a voluntary program for companies engaged in the production of gold by the cyanidation process, as well as manufacturers and transporters of cyanide used at gold mines. The Code is performance based and provides guidance for best practice in the use and management of cyanide.

The Code has earned the support of several prominent organizations. The G8 nations, an international forum for the governments of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States, in 2007  recognized the Code as one of several certification systems that are suitable instruments for ”increasing transparency and good governance in the extraction and processing of mineral raw materials.” The World Bank’s International Finance Corporation (IFC), which provides lending for mine development projects, has voiced its support for the Code by requiring its gold mine borrowers to use cyanide in a manner consistent with the Code.

To date, 57 companies have become signatories to the Code (21 mining companies, 12 cyanide producers, 24 transporters), covering 147 operations in 35 countries on six continents.

Please contact Larry Tibert at 800-649-5289 or ltibert@nqa-usa.com to discuss this new offering.

The US EPA issued its final rule for greenhouse gas (GHG) reporting on September 22, 2009. Gases covered include carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), hydrofluorocarbons (HFC), perfluorocarbons (PFC), sulfur hexafluoride (SF6), and other fluorinated gases including nitrogen trifluoride (NF3) and hydrfluorinated ethers (HFE). The final rule can be viewed at the EPA website.

NQA suggests that each organization determine the applicability of this rule considering the following guidelines:

1. Determine whether or not your facility will need to comply with this rule (Do you emit in excess of 25,000 metric tons of CO2 equivalent (CO2e) annually from all stationary fuel combustion devices)

2. Begin the planning process for monitoring and reporting (There have been some reports that EPA has money as part of the Federal Stimulus Funding that could be eligible for monitoring equipment purchases).

3. Conduct baseline GHG inventory (metric tons of CO2e) of your emission sources (If you are required to report based on your baseline inventories consider whether you will need assistance in preparing report to EPA-due by 3/31/2010)

National Quality Assurance has established resources to assist organizations in developing a plan to deal with the GHG Reporting Rule. Please contact Larry Tibert at 800-649-5289 or via email for additional information.

Water, Water Everywhere
And how Saint-Gobain plans to use 90 percent less of it

By Ellen O’Connor Special to the Worcester Business Journal 09/28/09
Joseph Durfresne, senior environmental engineer at Saint-Gobain in Worcester, says the company’s Worcester operations will use only 20 million gallons of water next year. The work that goes on at the various business units on the Saint-Gobain Worcester campus involves the application of heat — lots of it — which means gallons, nearly 123 million gallons per year, of water must be used to cool down equipment.But over the past two years, Saint-Gobain has made a concerted effort to reduce its dependency upon well water and has achieved a remarkable 79 percent reduction in its annual usage of water. In 2008, Saint-Gobain used 25.5 million gallons of water, down from 122.9 million gallons the previous year. It is a yearly reduction in usage that actually would have been greater had the new changes been in place for the entirety of 2008, said Joseph Dufresne, senior environmental engineer at Saint-Gobain.

via Water, Water Everywhere | Worcester Business Journal.