Plastics are ubiquitous in our daily lives. They are reliable, cheap, strong, lightweight, and resistant to corrosion. Thus, they are used for packaging, building components, medical (syringes and pipettes), even clothes, and, perhaps ironically, environmental control (gloves, bags). Imagine the sanitation issues of carrying toiletries and personal hygiene products that are not in plastic? Plastic packaging is often the best way to maintain a product’s integrity during transport. And plastics are cheap. Imagine the cost to low-income families if they had to buy items with more expensive packaging?

What are plastics? They are polymers, long chains of molecules made from repeating compounds (monomers). Most originate from chemicals found in crude petroleum. Thus there will be the need for oil exploration and refining, even if all transportation vehicles switch to electric. Some modern plastics do use other materials, like corn or cotton. Plastics’ molecular structure can be engineered to effect different characteristics—to be flexible or hard, transparent or opaque. They are durable, strong, lightweight, water resistant, and relatively easy and inexpensive to manufacture. There are thousands of patented plastics, all with unique attributes that make them fit for purpose.

However, plastics have a large adverse environmental impact. Very large! In fact, plastics is causing a global pollution crisis. In whatever form plastics are found, they tend to degrade in time due to radiation from the Sun to “microplastics” – not to the molecular level, but to a tiny state that is hard to separate. Given that 80% of the Earth is made up of water, most plastics end up in our oceans, seas, rivers, etc. A recent study identified 15,000 different micro-plastic compounds deriving from one disposable plastic shopping bag. Many of these micro-plastic compounds become airborne and can reach deep into lung tissue, causing various lung ailments. In our waters, there is an estimated 75 to 200 million tons of plastics, with about 33 million tons added every year. Fish and mammals consume them, including larger plastic particles which can poison or perforate their GI tract. The “Great Pacific Garbage Patch” contains an estimated 1.8 trillion pieces of plastic and is twice the size of Texas. Perhaps you think you do not ingest plastics; you carefully remove food from containers and all. But micro-plastics are found in our stool (even in an newborn’s first stool) and incorporated in our body parts.

So perhaps you think the problem can be solved by recycling. More municipalities than ever perform plastic recycling and more households take part. However, much of the plastics put into recycling ends up in the trash anyway (and to incinerators or landfills) because of the quality of the melted monomers produced in recycling plants (contaminated with other materials or other monomer types). It is cheaper and higher quality to produce plastics from virgin sources than from recycled plastics.

What are the answers? The first is to be aware. This is a global problem that impacts the entire planet. The next is to go beyond recycling, to reduce usage and demand for plastic products altogether. Many municipalities now ban single-use plastic bags at, say, supermarkets. However, substitutes may have their own problems, such as a higher carbon footprint. Also, this would result in people changing their lifestyles in how they purchase or use items and this is difficult. We are used to our plastics-dominated society. Be aware there is an issue and think through how you best can help.

CCES has the experts to help your firm deal with excessive plastics or other materials and to find economic potential substitutes. Contact us today at 914-584-6720 or at karell@CCESworld.com.

New York City’s Local Law 97 (LL 97) goes into effect soon: January 1, 2024. It will have a great impact on real estate in NYC. Other cities are looking at this and may copy.

What is LL 97?  Starting on Jan. 1, 2024, any energy used by a subject building (virtually any building greater than 25,000 sq. ft.) will count toward a greenhouse gas (GHG) emission limit. LL 97 contains factors that convert kWh of electricity to kilograms of GHGs; factors that convert therms of natural gas to GHGs; and factors that convert the number of gallons of #2 and #4 oil used and pounds of steam purchased to GHG emissions. These get totaled up and divided by the building’s listed square footage to get a rate of GHGs per sf. This gets compared to your GHG emission limit (based on what type of building it is: an office building, a residence, a warehouse, a school, etc.) to determine whether you comply. By May 1, 2025, a subject building must submit their 2024 energy usage to the NYC Dept of Buildings to determine compliance with the site-specific limit or not. The fines for some are anticipated to be 6 figures per year.

How to comply.  To meet your GHG emission limit, your building must be more energy efficient (use less energy to perform necessary functions) and/or use “cleaner” energy (defined as energy that emits less GHGs). It is critical to perform a thorough energy evaluation and see where you stand on LL 97. Are you likely to be in compliance next year or not? How high might your fine be? For example, take actual energy usage from a recent year and see if it would comply if the same energy usage would be the same in 2024. An important note: if such a study shows that you comply in 2024, but barely, do not celebrate. Things can change between that baseline year and 2024 (equipment aging, tenant behavior, and, most likely, the weather). You want to not just comply, but comply with a buffer to withstand a worse-than-expected winter or summer causing you to use more energy for tenant comfort.

If you need to make changes to avoid or reduce a potential fine, it is probably too late now to implement many strategies. But if you are facing a fine, one should have such a thorough evaluation done NOW. For example, one strategy is to stop burning oil for heating and use natural gas instead (if available). While there may be an upfront cost to upgrade your burner to burn gas, that cost will be made up in reduced fines in 2025 and beyond and that natural gas is cheaper than oil (and has been so for over a decade).

Another strategy is efficiency. Now is the time to invest in energy efficiency which will help you comply with LL 97 (reduce your GHG emissions), and also lower one’s natural gas and electricity bills, which we know has grown at rates much greater than inflation recently. A thorough energy audit will likely point out several beneficial strategies.

Final note.  Some people ignored LL 97, thinking that the new mayor who took office last year would weaken and perhaps even repeal it. This did not happen. In fact, Mayor Adams is a strong proponent of LL 97 and his Buildings Dept amended the law this past January to make it more comprehensive. Don’t ignore it any longer; don’t wait for it to take effect. It would be too late then to avoid potential massive fines. See LL 97 as not just another law you must comply with, but as a way to save costs and serve your tenants better.

CCES has the experts to address LL 97 and other NYC energy local laws. We can perform the evaluation of your potential compliance status vis-à-vis this rule and develop multiple strategies to reduce or eliminate fines and provide other financial benefits, as well. CCES can also be your project manager to help implement strategies that you choose to ensure they are implemented correctly and you get the most benefit from them.

So we all thought we were done with masks as COVID has lessened from a pandemic to a manageable issue (and fewer deaths than before, but still about 60 Americans die every day from COVID). We had to wear masks indoors. Well, now masks are back, but we should be wearing them outdoors! All because of very high levels of particulate matter (PM) in the air being brought here from hundreds of wildfires throughout Canada. Hot and dry weather earlier than normal, in part due to Climate Change, has caused a record number of forest fires earlier than usual and too many to control. An estimated area the size of South Carolina is burning (spread throughout 4 time zones) and the ashes are picked up by weather patterns and blown into the US. Air pollution certainly knows no national borders! Air quality has reached dangerous levels healthwise in New York City, Chicago, Washington, Minneapolis, and other major metropolitan cities.

Why is this a problem? The smoke from wildfires contains many compounds that are toxic to us, including products of incomplete combustion. Perhaps the most injurious is ultrafine particulates, smaller than 2.5 microns (one-twentieth the diameter of a human hair), which can penetrate our defenses, get into our lungs, and cause substantial damage. “PM_2.5” can damage lung tissue, get into our bloodstream and has been found to damage other organs (the liver, the brain).

Research appears to show that PM_2.5 is especially dangerous for children whose systems are still developing but have immature immune systems. Studies have shown that even before the latest events with the wildfires that there is a correlation between high PM_2.5 levels and poorer test scores, more teenage crime, etc.

So what can we do? In the short-term, check daily the air quality in your area. If the index is or will be that day 100 or greater, be concerned, and if it is over 150, protect yourself by wearing a N95 mask or equivalent outdoors. It won’t filter out all of the PM_2.5 but will remove a good portion of it. In addition, if your area could reach index levels of 150 or greater in the future, implement safeguards for your indoor air, such as installing high quality air conditioning filters. Ensure that the building you work in meets ASHRAE standards for indoor air quality (IAQ), which includes ventilation to dilute pollutants and filtration to remove particulate and other matter.

In the longer term, what can be done to reduce wildfires in the US or elsewhere? Many are caused by lightning, which is beyond our control. However, the conditions that enable wildfires to grow and unleash large amounts of pollutants are influenced by Climate Change. Efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, such as replacing fossil fuel combustion with renewable energy, is a good long-term step. But also, many forest fires are caused by human carelessness. So be sure when camping this summer season to be aware of your actions that could cause a spark and ignite a fire.

The PM_2.5 air quality issue is not going away. More wildfires will occur releasing more pollutants this summer and in future years. Be aware of it, carry a mask around, and be mindful that this is not a matter to take lightly.

CCES has the experts to help you assess your air pollution issues and help you react to conditions or reduce your emissions in an economical way. Contact us today at 914-584-6720 or at karell@CCESworld.com.

The “environment” is coming back. While the previous Administration reduced funding to enforce environmental rules, this one has restored funding and has reversed many of the rules that had been made more lax. Maybe more important is with the growing concern with health caused by the pandemic and the reduced air quality from the Canadian wildfires, it is more important than ever for a company, a building, big or small, to elucidate a concern and policies resulting in a positive, healthy environment for people to live or work in. An environmental policy is a statement, putting into words such sentiments. While voluntary, it can go far to provide common goals to attain and enable stakeholders to feel comfortable, help you be aware of your compliance status of applicable laws, reduce incidents that result in liability, and provide a common front.

There is no standard format for writing an environmental policy, but it is still important that you plan it carefully. For buy-in from Management it is important to  emphasize key benefits such as cost reduction, improved risk management and marketing.

One approach in an environmental policy is to show an environmental history of the business, particularly emphasizing gains made in recent years. Another approach is to benchmark your facility comparing environmental achievements to similar businesses.

Here are a few basic rules to follow:

• keep the statement short – no longer than one sheet front and back
• make sure it is not too technical and can be easy for all to read and understand
• focus the policy on your company’s achievements and practices, not general ones
• ensure the policy document is signed by the #1 person, the owner, to show its standing
• ensure the policy is well communicated (website, bulletin boards, newsletters, etc.)

As you compose your environmental policy, start out with the business mission and how its products help people, while having minimal impact on the environment. Focus on the specific aspects of the business that affect the environment and their potential impacts. Depending on what the company does, these may include air quality, recycling of packaging materials, minimizing waste, clean transportation, minimizing usage of organic solvents, and minimizing noise. Don’t include less applicable issues. The policy should contain commitments to continually improve your environmental performance, to effectively monitor and manage the company’s specific environmental impacts, and to always be in compliance with applicable environmental regulations.

After you state the company’s environmental commitments, it is important to discuss how these commitments will be achieved, discussing concrete efforts in employee training in environmental issues, determining targets and goals, monitoring progress and reviewing performance against these targets.

It may be useful to either integrate your environmental policy with other policies on health and safety, corporate social responsibility or sustainability or dovetail principles between those policies.

Remember, businesses live in a dynamic world. It’s critical to review your environmental policy on a regular basis to assume nothing is outdated or that it is improved to include new conditions.

CCES has the experts to help you develop, draft, or review your environmental policy and help implement your program to get the most out of it, maintain compliance, and show stakeholders your concern. Contact us today at karell@CCESworld.com or at 914-584-6720.