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Welcome, New Stakeholders!
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The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) mark their 75th anniversary at a time of great disruption for the world. 2020 must be a year of dialogue when we come together to discuss our priorities as a human family, and how we can build a better future.
The RCE facilitated North Texas’s dialogue with three virtual events. Each one focused on an SDG prioritized in North Texas: Good Health and Well-Being (SDG 3); Quality Education (SDG 4); and Sustainable Cities and Communities (SDG 11).
Not surprisingly, the topics in the webinars frequently overlapped, proving that sustainability is a complex issue with many inter-dependencies.
North Texas Food Bank’s Dr. Valerie Hawthorne pointed out that hunger is a symptom of poverty. Any solution that solves hunger must also respect the community, reach the broad spectrum of people, and live in reality. Valerie’s presentation and personal stories were heartbreaking at times.
The EPA has also made food a priority and Stephen Sturdivant described the various environmental problems that food production creates like water depletion, deforestation, and GHG emissions.
It is good to hear that both EPA & NTFB are working to reduce food waste. A common theme throughout the NTX Dialogue was the need for collaboration.
Groups like the North Texas RISE Coalition and the North Texas Innovation Alliance rely on members working together to move towards a north star. RISE, a relatively new coalition, is pursuing a regional GHG emission inventory. North Texas is the largest region in the nation without one!
NTIA has chosen to chip away at several “shocks” and “stressors” that are obstacles to creating the most connected, smart, and resilient region in the country. You can hear the passion in Tamara Cook (RISE) and Jen Sanders (NTIA) while they present; both have a history of forming groups to tackle tough issues.
“Groups” include the 9B individual people living on this planet! As Lori De La Cruz points out, everyone can contribute to scientific data. Citizen Science is simple and free and we must all check it out. Lori showed several stimulating apps during her presentation like NASA’s GLOBE (Global Learning & Observations to Benefit the Environment) app.
The three webinars help us understand where North Texas is on its SDG journey and outline pathways to be more successful. Listen today!
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Dallas College Sustainability Summit
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10th Annual Virtual Sustainability Summit
Resilience for the Next 50 Years
Friday, November 6, 2020
Keynote Speaker
Charles Hopkins, UNESCO Chair in Reorienting Education towards Sustainability
York University – Toronto, Canada
"In the pursuit of resiliency: sustainability & social justice for all"
Hosted by:
Dallas College Mountain View Campus
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Operational vs. Embodied Carbon Emissions
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Saving energy at home. It an obvious choice. The more energy we save, the more money we save, and we get a side of carbon emissions savings. But what if that’s only the tip of the iceberg. What if we can make an exponential impact without doing something that seems drastic…like giving up our car?
Let’s take buildings as an example.
The building sector is the world’s single largest emitter of greenhouse gases (GHGs), accounting for 39% of total global GHG emissions. Although operational emissions account for more of a building's carbon footprint over its entire life, between now and 2030, about half of the carbon footprint of new construction will be embodied emissions, NOT operational emissions. Building products can reduce their carbon footprint and even become carbon sinks that help remove excess greenhouse gases from the atmosphere.
So what is embodied carbon? Embodied carbon is the amount of greenhouse gases emitted during the raw material extraction, transportation, manufacturing, and construction of a product or material. The greenhouse gases (methane, carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, and others) are converted into Carbon Dioxide Equivalents (CO2-e) so that we know how much the creation of a product or material contributes to global warming. Global warming contributes to climate change, and while climate change can happen naturally, there has been a dramatic increase in greenhouse gas emissions since the industrial revolution. The change is “quickly” (in geological time scale) driving the carbon balance way out of whack. Whether in the building industry of not, we can think of the supply chain of anything - our personal spending habits or our organization’s (work or school) spending habits – as a largely unaddressed opportunity for measuring and reducing the carbon footprint of what we buy. This can happen by not buying it in the first place or choosing lower carbon footprint options. The more we pay attention to the carbon footprint of everything we buy the more immediate the carbon emissions savings will be.
To learn more about this topic, there is a $5 webinar at an awesome new platform for college students called Epee with resources for sustainability topics and beyond: https://epee-education.com/product/sustainability-embodied-carbon/.
Lisa Conway
VP Sustainability, Americas
Interface
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The SharedAirDFW Network is up and running! According to the press release, “It becomes the first and only regional hyperlocal air-monitoring network in Texas and one of the only ones being built by any U.S. city.” Over 100 air quality monitors were distributed through the North Texas region and will be providing real time data to the public. Residents can learn about what quality of air they are breathing down to the minute! This is the largest network of this kind in the U.S. and the first in Texas!
The program is a result of a collaboration between the University of Texas at Dallas, Paul Quinn College, Dallas College, the City of Plano, and Downwinders at Risk. It is supported by grants from the City of Plano, Downwinders at Risk, the US EPA, and more. Read more details about this project in D Magazine!
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Do You Know What To Throw?
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Recycling is complicated. It is hard to know what is and is not recyclable since many recycling programs accept different materials. This means that what is recyclable where you live might not be recyclable where you work or recreate. As a result, garbage ends up in the recycling stream and recyclables end up in the landfill. The garbage contaminating the recycling stream reduces the value of recyclables, damages material recovery facility (MRF) equipment, and injures MRF employees. The valuable recyclables that are trashed negatively impact landfill capacity and present a significant opportunity cost both to the economy and the environment.
Recognizing the urgent need to address these significant challenges, the Resource Conservation Council (RCC) directed the North Central Texas Council of Governments (NCTCOG) to develop a regional education campaign that would inform residents how to recycle more and recycle right. The RCC serves as the solid waste advisory committee for the North Central Texas region, and is coordinated and supported administratively by the NCTCOG.
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To make the campaign as effective and focused as possible, NCTCOG’s project advisory group, consisting of hired contractors and local experts, determined that the messaging needed to be data driven.
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As such, the first phase of the project consisted of several data collection components. One of these components was a waste characterization study which consisted of collecting and sorting residential garbage to gain an understanding of the type and quantity of recyclables being landfilled. Over the course of five days, NCTCOG’s contractor hand-sorted approximately 10,800 pounds of waste from ten participating cities in North Central Texas who together represented approximately 45 percent of the total single-family households in the region.
The data showed that the region’s capture rate, meaning the percentage of recyclables actually being recycled, was 32 percent. For reference purposes, capture rates in other major American cities, like New York City, Philadelphia, and Chicago, are close to 50 percent, and some cities, like Atlanta and Denver are even higher, at about 65 and 69 percent respectively (Source: The Recycling Partnership). Of the 5.4 tons of material that was sorted during the waste characterization study, approximately one ton was recyclable. Based on extrapolation of this data, it is estimated that approximately $122 million of potentially recyclable material is disposed of annually in the North Central Texas region. Recyclable plastics and metals represent the highest value material with the lowest capture rates in the region.
Another important data collection component was conducting MRF interviews to ascertain which contaminants in the recycling stream are the most undesirable; materials that are not only garbage but are also hazardous to equipment and employees. The top five most undesirable materials were: medical needles, explosives (propane tanks, aerosol cans), food and yard waste, plastic bags, and tanglers (hoses, chains, ropes).
The last major data collection component, which also served as a baseline to measure the effectiveness of the campaign, was the Know What To Throw quiz. The quiz consisted of nine questions designed to gauge residents’ knowledge on whether certain materials are recyclable or not. The questions missed most often indicated higher levels of confusion regarding a material’s recyclability.
The results of these data collection efforts were used to develop the campaign messaging to target the specific issues facing North Central Texas. Additionally, the messaging was designed to be simple, consistent, and high-level in order to be relevant across the region. The intent of the messaging was to focus on the materials that are universally recyclable and those items that are universally not recyclable, so that residents would Know What To Throw.
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Know What To Throw was officially launched in June 2019 by engaging in a multitude of paid and organic promotional activities. All materials referred back to NCTCOG’s TimeToRecycle.com website which hosts the Know What To Throw quiz along with a wide range of recycling resources. NCTCOG advertised on billboards, buses and trains, radio, movie theaters, newspapers, social media (including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Google Display Ads) and printed materials.
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The paid advertising push ended in August 2019 and during that time period over 7,000 people took the Know What To Throw quiz and the campaign racked up over 3 million Google Ad impressions, almost 18,000 Google Ad clicks, over 400,000 Facebook Ad impressions, and close to 5,000 Facebook Ad engagements. Also, during the time period between June and August 2019, the average monthly website traffic to TimeToRecycle.com increased by approximately 400 percent.
In order to continue the momentum generated by the initial campaign efforts and to amplify the message regionally, the RCC reconstituted the Recycle Roundtable, a subcommittee that guides the continuing campaign efforts. NCTCOG will continue posting to all social media accounts until at least August 2021. In order to reduce recycling contamination and increase participation in the region, it is critically important that North Central Texas communities and private sector entities continue to participate in the campaign by reposting and sharing NCTCOG’s social posts, creating their own social posts, sending out information in utility bills or newsletters, and posting the information on their websites. Additionally, two more waste characterization studies, one that was performed in November 2019 and one that is scheduled for October 2020 will help determine the effectiveness of the Know What To Throw campaign by comparing the results to those of the original study.
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More details on ongoing activities and how to get involved can be found on the Recycle Roundtable webpage here: https://www.nctcog.org/envir/committees/resource-conservation-council/recycle-roundtable-subcommittee.
The Know What To Throw education campaign was funded through a grant by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.
About the North Central Texas Council of Governments:
NCTCOG is a voluntary association of local governments established in 1966 to assist local governments in planning for common needs, cooperating for mutual benefit and coordinating for sound regional development. NCTCOG's purpose is to strengthen both the individual and collective power of local governments and to help them recognize regional opportunities, eliminate unnecessary duplication and make joint decisions.
NCTCOG serves a 16-county region of North Central Texas, which is centered on the two urban centers of Dallas and Fort Worth. Currently, NCTCOG has 229 member governments including 16 counties, 169 cities, 19 school districts and 25 special districts. For more information on the NCTCOG Environment and Development Department, visit www.nctcog.org/envir.
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