Hello All,
We are a not-for-profit recycling processor (among other business enterprises) and provide an annual letter to our recycling customers to quantify the environmental benefits of the waste they diverted through recycling, e.g., "You recycled 30,401 pounds of waste paper...[and] you saved the equivalent of 321.61 trees that would have otherwise been harvested for paper pulp."
We are in the process of updating the letter and are looking for a good "energy saved" equivalent. We currently convert the avoided energy costs into gallons of gasoline, but would like to know of other energy equivalents that might be more meaningful to a recycling customer. FYI, we also report equivalencies in terms of water saved, GHG emissions avoided and hauling costs.
Thank you in advance for your thoughts and comments.
Meg Rowe
Sustainability Advisor
Garten Services, Inc.
United States
www.garten.org
Environmental Benefits Equivalent for Avoided Energy Costs
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Katy, Thanks for the link to the cool widgets! I hope to get them up on my site over the weekend.
Ken, I'm surprised I didn't notice the "kinks". That would be a different website altogether. Recycling kinks...
Kyle Winkler
Environmental Program Coordinator
Zero Waste Pittsburgh
United States
http://www.zwpgh.org
EPA now has a widget, based off the WARM model, that can go right up on your webpage.
Web address: http://www.epa.gov/epawaste/conserve/tools/iwarm/widgets/
You pick a recyclable and then an appliance and it will give you the number of hours you can run the appliance if you recycle a certain amount of the recyclable material. I found it a little confusing at first because it puts up an X when you pick an item and doesn't say you need to pick an appliance, so at first I thought it wasn't working. If you post it with simple directions, it can be useful. Meg, you can use it right on the website to get stats you can then put in your letter.
Katy Duggan-Haas
Sustainability Program Coordinator
Modern Recycling
United States
Thanks Kyle. Especially for not pointing out I typed "kinks" rather than "links." =8-(
Ken Donnelly
Vice President, Atlantic Canada
Lura Consulting
Canada
www.beyondattitude.com
The one that I was going to mention was the Waste Reduction Model (WARM) from the US EPA. Here is the updated link. It's on the page that Ken sent, but the link needs to be updated- http://epa.gov/climatechange/wycd/waste/calculators/Warm_Form.html
I use it to calculate energy equivalents such barrels of oil, number of households yearly energy usage and gallons of gasoline.
Kyle Winkler
Environmental Program Coordinator
Pennsylvania Resources Council
United States
Meg,
There are many calculators on the web, if you google it you will find lots. Here is a page that kinks to a bunch of them: http://www.on.ec.gc.ca/community/ecoaction/greenhousecalcs-e.html.
Cheers,
Ken
Ken Donnelly
Vice President, Atlantic Canada
Lura Consulting
Canada
www.beyondattitude.com
Thanks, All. I am familiar with the online calculators for personal use. I am looking for a new way to express to a commercial customer that the total tonnage of all the paper, plastics, metal, and electronic recycling for the year saved an energy equivalent of X. We currently calculate (rather our accounting software and accounting department calculates) that equivalent in terms of gallons of gasoline saved. I wondered if there is another equivalent for ENERGY SAVED that other organizations have found especially meaningful to a recycling customer. Perhaps not, but thought someone may have thought of something we had not. Thanks!
Meg Rowe
Sustainability Advisor
Garten Services, Inc.
United States
www.garten.org