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Published:
Friday, September 16, 2011
20 years of pollution prevention partnerships celebrated
SCBJ staff
SEATTLE — The Pacific Northwest Pollution Prevention Resource Center and its partners, including the Boeing Co., Intel, Staples, Interstate Distributor Co., Freight Wing, Canyon Creek Cabinets, Network for Business Innovation and Sustainability, Washington Department of Ecology and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, will celebrate their private-public partnership at 5:30 p.m., Tuesday, Sept. 20, at the Red Lion on Fifth Avenue in Seattle.
This unique partnership has been engaged for 20 years working to prevent pollution at its source throughout the Pacific Northwest Region.
In the late 1980s, the governors from all four states — Booth Gardner, Washington; Neil Goldschmidt, Oregon; Cecil Andrus, Idaho; and Steve Cowper, Alaska — were concerned about hazardous waste management in their states. They appointed leaders to the Hazardous Waste Advisory Council that spent several years making recommendations for policy and regulatory changes that would, if adopted, make an aggressive attempt at stopping pollution before it became a waste issue.
One of the recommendations that the council made was the formation of a nonprofit organization that would serve as a catalyst in the region to bring businesses together. The council envisioned an organization that would help build networks and provide information and technical assistance for businesses about pollution prevention. The Pacific Northwest Pollution Prevention Research (later changed to Resource) Center opened its doors in Seattle in 1991.
Joining in the 20-year celebration on Sept. 20 will be Dennis McLerran, Region 10 EPA administrator; Dick Pedersen, director of the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality; and keynote speaker Dara O’Rourke, co-founder of GoodGuide. O’Rourke is an expert on the environmental, health and social impacts of global supply chains. As both a professor and a practitioner, O’Rourke teaches environmental and labor policy at the University of California at Berkeley and is chief sustainability officer of GoodGuide, the most comprehensive source of consumer information on the health, environmental and social performance of products and companies.
Go to www.pprc.org/rrt2011 for more information about the event.
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