CERC
PRESS RELEASE
NATIONAL
POLITICAL CONVENTIONS SHOWCASE GREEN BUILDING
Boston,
July 15, 2004. In a remarkable collaborative effort, the Coalition for
Environmentally Responsible Conventions (CERC), working with the organizers
of the Democratic and Republican conventions, will deploy and showcase
environmental best practices at the political parties' 2004 conventions.
CERC, a non-partisan alliance of over 60 organizations and 200 volunteers,
aims to reach political leaders, private sector decision makers and an
international audience and to establish a legacy of environmental best
practices for large meetings, urban living and commerce.
Barbra
Batshalom, executive director of the Green Roundtable and chair of CERC's
Construction Committee, said, "If we can minimize the environmental
impacts of large meetings like this -- these conventions are each likely
to draw 35,000 people -- then we can easily do the same for smaller events.
Construction, transportation, hotel and restaurant operations, and energy
for HVAC and lighting are all necessary infrastructure for large meetings,
and they all pose environmental problems. We want 70,000 people to go
home from these two conventions thinking about the solutions they've
seen."
Green
Building Practices
Shawmut Design and Construction will employ
green building practices and, wherever possible, environmentally preferred
materials in their portion of the multi-million dollar construction project
at Boston's Fleet Center. Shawmut will use green building practices they
have used in the past and also new ones proposed by greenGoat, a resource
management adviser on the CERC waste management team. Shawmut's construction
schedule and deconstruction schedule are tight, so planning must account
for volume of materials, modular sizes to eliminate waste, and reusability
after disassembly. Shawmut has estimated that 500 sheets of masonite,
250 sheets of plywood, and 700 sheets of homosote board will be diverted
to ReStore, a local reuse organization. The materials will then be offered
to local non-profits and low-income homeowners to be used in other building
projects. Additionally, the plan includes recycling more than 3,000 sheets
of unpainted gypsum wallboard and miles of fiber optic cable. Finally,
the two-story press pavilion will be dismantled and used again after
the Convention, preventing the waste of construction materials. greenGoat
provided an exhaustive survey of outlets (that either salvage or recycle)
that it employed to place the materials from Fleet Center construction.
Recycled Paper Poster Project
The Democratic National Convention Committee
(DNCC), partnering with Scanlon Associates, will also launch the Recycled
Paper Poster Project, which will take wastepaper generated by the first
day of the Convention and, within twenty-four hours, transform it into
posters that are given to Convention attendees. The Project was conceived
by Patrick Scanlon, a decorated Vietnam Veteran and a resident of Andover,
Massachusetts. After the first night of the Convention,
the wastepaper will be shipped from the FleetCenter to the Haverhill
Paperboard Mill in Haverhill, Massachusetts. The wastepaper will be fed
onto the mill's intake conveyor system and deposited directly into the
hydro-pulper. The recycled paper will be manufactured into paperboard,
cut into sheets, wrapped, and palletized for shipment. The
sheets of paperboard will then be transported to the Journeyman Press
in Newburyport, Massachusetts. They
will print the posters, cut them to size, and place them on pallets. After
the posters are printed, they will be shipped back to Boston and distributed
to Convention attendees. The poster will note that it was made from 100
percent recycled materials from the first day of the Convention and will
serve as a reminder of the Democratic Party's commitment to the environment.
Food
Conservation
Two events have agreed to use food grown on Massachusetts
farms - the 15,000-person media party and the Massachusetts delegation
party. In addition to supporting state farmers and local economies, choosing
locally-grown food contributes to environmental sustainability by avoiding
the pollution associated with transporting food over long distances.
In addition, food waste from the media reception will be
transported to a licensed composting facility that will convert it into
a valuable soil fertilizer.
The Greater Boston Food Bank's Second Helping program will "rescue" unused
food from the Convention and Convention-related venues and provide it
to community hunger-relief agencies. (This was arranged independently
of CERC.)
Recognizing
that even the smallest decisions related to the Convention can effect
the environment, the Convention will use confetti made from recycled
paper and biodegradable balloons in their celebrations.
Green
Transportation
General
MotorÕs low-emission hybrid buses will shuttle delegates on a tour of
two recently completed ÒgreenÓ buildings, both of which are applying
for LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification. Delegates and other visitors will visit
Genzyme's new Cambridge headquarters and the Artists for Humanity Epicenter
in South Boston and see both the cutting edge and more basic techniques
used to make a building more environmentally responsible. Hybrid buses
will also be used to transport delegates to other destinations, and CERC
is arranging a training for drivers of diesel buses to limit idling of
their engines, as required by a recent Massachusetts law.
Renewable Energy
The Fleet Center's energy use during the Convention will
be matched by renewable power through CERC's engagement with emerging
market-based incentive systems to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. CERC
has purchased $11,000 of renewable energy certificates (RECs) that represent
the "non-emissions" value of wind power from Massachusetts
and Colorado, hydro power from Connecticut and landfill gas power from
California. Constellation New Energy, the company that purchases electricity
for the Fleet Center, will donate 300 additional RECs plus the electricity
associated with those RECs. Some of the power
for the convention will come from a 250-kilowatt fuel cell power plant
from FuelCell Energy, Inc. that converts natural gas into electricity
in a way that generates 99 percent less dangerous air pollution than
combustion-based fossil fuel power plants. CERC is also employing "greenhouse
gas emission reduction credits" (GGCs) to "green" the
emissions from the fossil fuel use that will be expended to transport
delegates to and from the Convention.
On Tuesday, July 27, delegates will take a boat cruise across
Boston Harbor to tour the wind turbine owned by the Town of Hull. That
turbine will provide part of the RECs purchased by CERC.
CERC
has also organized a "New Energy for America" event at The
State Room in Boston on Wednesday, July 28, promoting polices for renewable
energy and energy efficiency that support the creation of jobs in America.
Speakers will include former EPA Administrator Carol Browner, AFL-CIO
president John Sweeney, United Steel Workers of America President
Leo Gerard, Tom Buffenbarger president of the
Machinists Union (IAMAW), Senator Dick Durbin (D-Ill), and Representatives
Jay Inslee (D-WA), Raul Grijalva (D-AZ) and
Hilda Solis (D-CA). Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi and Senator Tom Daschle
are the honorary co-hosts.
Sustainable
Hospitality
On
May 28, the Saunders Hotel Group -- which owns several Boston-area hotels
-- and Boston-based non-profit CERES' Green Hotel Initiative organized
a Green Hotels Seminar on behalf of CERC to educate and encourage Boston-area
hotels to use green practices in their operations. The workshop attracted
more than 40 participants representing a dozen hotels, and offered a
panel of experts who offered information on waste management -- including
recycling and food composting -- energy and water conservation, and the
use of environmentally preferable products for laundry, cleaning, lighting
and grounds maintenance.
A similar
comprehensive program of practices and events is planned for the Republican
Convention, which begins in New York City on August 30.
CERC's
membership includes some of Boston's leading environmental groups, such
as Union of Concerned Scientists, the Conservation Law Foundation, CERES,
the New England Aquarium and Environmental Defense. EPA and MA DEP are
also active participants. CERC's mission is to promote environmental
best practices at the 2004 national conventions and to establish a legacy
for future conventions and hospitality events.
For
more information on CERC's activities, visit www.cerc04.org .
###