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/ Pacific Northwest Sustainable Energy Demonstration / Sustainable Energy on Vashon Island
This project includes activities to move Vashon Island energy
sources towards renewables.
/ Pacific Northwest Sustainable
Energy Demonstration /
This project evaluates converting an island community from importation
of all energy to producing all energy locally from renewable resources.
The first major report is Energy
Independent Communities.
/ American Center for Life
Cycle Assessment /
In 2001, the American Center for Life Cycle Assessment was formed
under the auspices of the Institute for Environmental Research
and Education to promote the adoption of Environmental Life Cycle
Assessment among industry, government, and NGO's.
/ Life-Cycle Assessment /
Life cycle assessment or LCA is a method for looking holistically
at the environmental impacts of products or services from cradle
top grave which provides a science-based measure of environmental
performance.
/ International Environmental Management
Standards - ISO 14000 /
The ISO 14000 standards are a series of environmental management
standards.
/ InLCA Conference /
IERE co-sponsored the meeting:
The International Conference & Exhibition on Life Cycle
Assessment: Tools for Sustainability, April 25 - 27, 2000,
Arlington, Virginia
with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Office of Research
and Development. The final agenda is available here.
The agenda includes links to the abstracts. Many of the abstracts
include links to the slide presentations in pdf format.
/ Sustainable Agriculture /
Our program is designed to help farmers produce meat, dairy and
other farm products that are safer for people and for the environment,
and that use that improved quality as a marketing tool. Ultimately,
the produce of individual farmers will have an ecolable, which
identifies the individual farm from which the produce came. Consumers
will be able to check up on the environmental performance of individual
farms through internet connections.
/ Sustainable Agriculture / Agricultural
Environmental Management System /
The program is based on international voluntary standards for
environmental management (the ISO 14000 series) and has three
components: a farm and facility based environmental management
system, ecolabels which give a marketing edge to environmentally
friendly products, and a community environmental board, which
links producers and processors to their communities. Each element
can stand on its own feet, but together they make a complete community
based program.
/ Sustainable Agriculture / Life
Cycle Assessment of Agricultural Products /
IERE has been working with farmers to improve their environmental
performance. We are measuring that performance with a technique
called Life Cycle Assessment or LCA. An LCA evaluates the environmental
impacts of products from cradle to grave in a holistic fashion.
/ Sustainable Agriculture / Integrated
Pest Management Implementation Plan for the Nebraska Cattle Industry
/
Substantial work on Integrated Pest Management in Livestock has
provided technical resources for managing pests on livestock.
However, up to now little has been done to develop a program that
supports the adoption of IPM practices in this important agricultural
sector. This work describes an IPM plan for the cattle industry
in Nebraska. It is based on the use of a comprehensive environmental
management system that includes conformance to international standards
and the use of life cycle assessment to provide ecolabels.
/ Sustainable Agriculture / Grazing
/
We are interested in grazing systems because many of the environmental
impacts of farming are reduced when animals are grazed in near-natural
systems.
/ Sustainable Agriculture / Grazing / Analysis
of Grassfed Products /
Having a farm that is managed to protect environmental
values provides foods that are better for you, too. This is
especially true of animal products (meat, eggs and dairy) that
are produced using intensive grazing methods, which protect and
improve the fertility of the soil. Grassfed meats are rich in
omega-3 fatty acids, which have been shown to provide significant
health benefits. Nutritional analyses can show these differences.
/ Vashon Island / Vashon
Island Heavy Metals /
Elevated concentrations of lead, arsenic, and cadmium have been
found on Vashon Island, Maury Island, and the surrounding mainland.
The source appears to have been the Asarco smelter in Ruston (near
Tacoma).
/ Vashon Island / GIS
/
IERE is pursuing the use of GIS (geographic information systems)
to support efforts on the island in conservation, environmental
studies, and plannning.
/ Vashon Island / Land use maps /
/ Biodiversity-Landuse Indicators Workshop
/
Changes in landscape due to such activities as agriculture, silviculture,
fishing, urban sprawl and transportation infrastructure have been
recognized for some time as one of the major causes of the loss
of biodiversity planet-wide. The lack of a consistent measurement
tool or tools (i.e., indicators) makes it difficult to assess
relative impacts and direct programs towards better conservation
practices. Recognizing this need, the Defenders of Wildlife and
the Institute for Environmental Research and Education (IERE)
organized a workshop at the Defenders of Wildlife's national offices
in Washington D.C. held on 13 July 2000. The workshop was attended
by representatives of environmental NGO's, the U.S. Government,
university researchers and business. Interests ranged widely,
but most of the participants had direct experience in developing
or using indicators or standards for environmental performance.