• US-AEP Country Assessments now available.
• Green Hotel partnership impacts 1000 hotels in Thailand.
• Fellowship focuses on dredging and sediment management.
• Korean environment officials explore U.S. water treatment technologies.
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Public versions of US-AEP's ten country assessments are now available. The assessments examine the factors driving the changing dynamics of environmental, industrial, and urban management in the Asian nations and territories of Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Singapore, Taiwan, and Thailand. The reports represent the efforts of numerous U.S. and Asian government and private sector representatives to provide a snapshot of the complex trends in Asia that offer hope for environmental improvement with economic development. The assessments are available as individual country reports or as a compendium. To request copies, please contact Rhonda Vandeworp, Communications Associate, via e-mail: rvandeworp@usaep.org or fax: 202-835-0366.

Under a US-AEP BNGO-Business Environmental Partnership grant the Thai Hotels Association is partnering with Dusit Hotels and Resorts to encourage and improve the environmental performance of hotels throughout Thailand. Since the grant was awarded in 1995, the partnership has received endorsement from the National Energy Policy Office and the Office of the Prime Minister and formed multi-organization working committee' the Thailand Board of Environmental Promotion of Tourist Activities (BEPTA)'that includes officials from the Tourism Authority of Thailand, Electrical Generating Authority of Thailand, Metropolitan Water Authority, Association for Development of Environmental Quality, United Nations Environment Programme(UNEP), Association of Thai Travel Agents, as well as the Thai Hotel Association and Dusit Hotel Resort Group. With the support and cooperation of this wide-spectrum of partners, the working group has organized Green Hotel seminars for 1000 hotels throughout the provinces. BEPTA plans to launch the Green Leaf Program in March 1997, introducing the concept at a recent press conference. The program, to be run by a newly created independent foundation'Green Leaf Foundation' will select exceptional hotels as environmental champions for setting standards for environmentally sustainable development and promote Green Leaf certification.

During a two-week US-AEP fellowship, Adrian Dawes,a senior environmental officer from the Hong Kong Environmental Protection Department, examined U.S. capabilities in dredged materials and contaminated sediment management. The fellowship, held January 5-18, 1997, enabled Dawes to attend a course on dredging engineering at Texas A&M University and visit the Waterways Experiment Station Center for Contaminated Sediment in Vicksburg, Mississippi. He also met with representatives of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in Washington, DC. The fellowship was organized through US-AEP's Environmental Exchange Program, implemented by the Institute of International Education.

Two Korean Ministry of Environment officials, Bog-Soon Park and Jin-Su Shin, visited the United States, January 13-17, 1997, and were joined by Dana Mun of US- AEP's Environmental Technology Network for Asia (ETNA) who provided language translation and technical support. Hosted by Bill Tao and Bill Isherwood at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) in California, the Korean officials received presentations and demonstrations of the lab's innovative in situ and ex situ groundwater treatment, water purification, and industrial cleaning technologies. Park and Shin also visited the Shin Alameda County Water District water treatment facility in California, then traveled to Washington, DC to meet with meet with representatives from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to discuss GIS applications for environmental protection and water/wastewater treatment. The Korean representatives also met with various US-AEP staff, including Malcolm Baldwin, John Butler, and Ted Yoder, and US-AEP liaison at EPA, Craig Haas.

Kitti Kumpeera, US-AEP's new Environmental Infrastructure Representative in Thailand is now online and can be reached via e-mail at: kiausaep@loxinfo.co.th.

E-mails to the Council of State Governments, implementors of US-AEP's State Environmental Initiative, should be addressed to Karen Marshall at the following address: kmarshall@csg.org

ISO 14000...An online session entitled 'Understanding and Implementing ISO 14000 Environmental Management Systems (EMS)' will be held February 10-14 to address such questions as: What is ISO 14000? What are the benefits of EMS? How do you implement EMS? How do you register your EMS? For more information contact Jeff Pallister at tel: 403- 266-1030 or visit the ISO 14000 seminar website at http://infopalconference.com/iso14000.htm .

P2 Case Studies....Strategies for reducing waste and emissions for several industry sectors are presented in the Colorado Pollution Prevention Case Studies Compendium, a new report from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment's Pollution Prevention Program. The report, which is available to the public, represents case studies from 47 Colorado businesses that have changed production practices to reduce emissions, hazardous wastes, solid wastes, and use of solvents and volatile organic ccompounds. Contact Neil Kolwey, Pollution Prevention Engineer at tel: 303-692-3309 to request a copy of the report.