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Call for
Proposals announced for US-AEP's State Environmental Initiative grants
program.
The Council of State Governments (CSG),
administrator of US-AEP�s State Environmental Initiative (SEI) program, has
announced the Call for Proposals for new projects to be funded in 2000. SEI
links American and Asian partners in an effort to solve a variety of Asian
environmental problems. Grants of up to $150,000 are available to state-run
organizations to propose and implement SEI projects, and approximately $1
million is available to fund projects in 2000. For more information about
the Call for Proposals, please contact Karen Marshall at CSG by phone
(606-244-8234) or e-mail
kmarshal@csg.org. The Call for Proposals will be available on
the SEI website this week at
http://www.sei-asia.org.
Over
$500,000 in U.S. sales to Taiwan confirmed in September.
US-AEP�s Operations office confirmed over $500,000
in sales by three U.S. environmental firms to Taiwanese companies. Two of
the companies�United Sciences, Inc. of Gibsonia, Pennsylvania, and Advanced
Pollution Instrumentation, Inc. of San Diego, California�made their sales as
a result of attending the Air & Waste Management Association (A&WMA) annual
conference in St. Louis, Missouri in June. A Taiwanese delegate, supported
by US-AEP�s Overseas Program Fund (OPF), met with both companies and
purchased an opacity monitor from United Sciences for $130,000, and an
emissions analyzer from Advanced Pollution for $170,000. In addition,
International Environmental Solutions of Phoenix, Arizona, made a sale of
$209,000 worth of biological stimulants to a Taiwanese agent through the
assistance and guidance of the Taiwan Office of Technology Cooperation. [OPF
is administered by the National Association of State Development Agencies.]
SEI project
delivers environmental accounting and train-the-trainers courses in the
Philippines in September.
As part of the Illinois-Philippines SEI project to promote environmental
accounting to Philippine financial and management accountants, courses on
Environmental Cost Accounting (ECA) and train-the-trainers were presented in
Manila in September. Ms. Keri Luly of the Illinois Environmental Protection
Agency and Dr. Deborah Savage of the Tellus Institute, two of the U.S. SEI
partners, developed and delivered the courses.
The first event, the ECA course on September 2-3, was presented in two
day-long sessions. Each session was attended by more than 50 participants,
including accountants, engineers, environmental managers, and academics. The
course was designed to help industrial accountants and engineers work
together to identify and estimate their companies� true environmental costs,
and assess the profitability of potential pollution prevention projects.
Case studies, developed by working with several Philippines companies, were
presented to apply ECA concepts to pollution prevention projects and plans.
Fatima Reyes of the Philippine Institute of Certified Public Accountants (PICPA),
the leading Philippine SEI partner, said that the course enabled "business
decision-makers to realize the cost and bottom line impacts of the company�s
environmental performance and see how clean production can be a much more
profitable solution."
The train-the-trainers course, held September 9-11, was presented to
twelve PICPA members. PICPA is developing a trainer certification program to
ensure the quality of delivery of the course in the future. In addition,
PICPA will introduce the course during the ASEAN Federation of Accountants
Convention in the Philippines in November.
New on the
US-AEP website: Information about the Dow Jones Sustainability Group
Indices.
Financial Times recently published a letter
by Mr. Owen Cylke, manager of US-AEP�s Policy Group, regarding the new Dow
Jones Sustainability Group Indices. Mr. Cylke suggests that these new
indices prove that corporate sustainability is an investable concept. The
letter is available on US-AEP�s website at
https://www.usaep.org/articles/article44.htm.
US-AEP
supports series of seminars on energy efficiency in India.
The Alliance to Save Energy, in collaboration with US-AEP and the USAID
Global Bureau Energy Office, is organizing a set of four seminars on energy
efficient technologies and practices in India. The speakers will be from
both Indian and American companies in the energy efficiency field, and will
present information on the various technologies and practices relevant to
the audience�s particular needs. The audience is expected to be made up of
representatives from industrial and commercial firms in India.
The first seminar, "Energy Efficiency in India: State of the Art," was
held in Chennai on September 23-24. Organized in partnership with the
Council of Energy Efficiency Companies of India and the Madras Chamber of
Commerce and Industry, the event drew more than 70 participants. Mr.
Sundaresan Subramanian, US-AEP technology representative in Chennai, made a
presentation at the seminar as did Mr. Richard Edwards and Mr. Arun Sarkar
from the USAID mission in India. The second seminar will be held in
Bangalore in October 1999, with the second pair of seminars slated for
January 2000.
U.S. expert
presents at waste management conference in Hong Kong through EEP.
US-AEP�s Environmental Exchange Program (EEP) supported a U.S. expert�s
participation in Waste Management �99 in Hong Kong, September 20-21. The
problems of Hong Kong�s strained solid waste facilities was the highlighted
topic of the conference. Mr. Thomas Wetherill, managing director of
SCS-Wetherill Environmental, made a presentation on U.S. waste management
technologies and waste minimization strategies. Mr. Wetherill appeared at
the conference through EEP. The conference� sponsored by Alternative
Development Asia Ltd, Pacific Waste Management Ltd, the Hong Kong
Environmental Protection Agency, and US-AEP�drew participants from
government, the private sector, and nongovernmental organizations. [Note:
EEP is administered by the Institute of International Education.]
Recommended
reading from the US-AEP Information Center.
The October 1999 issue of Environment magazine includes an article
by Allen L. White on "Sustainability and the Accountable Corporation:
Society�s Rising Expectations of Business." According to Ms. Fatmata
McCormack, the Info Center manager, the article discusses how companies are
now incorporating sustainability into their business development policies.
Mr. White is vice president of Tellus Institute and vice chair of the
steering committee on the Global Reporting Initiative. For readers located
in the Washington, DC area, this issue may be borrowed from the Information
Center�s collection at 1720 Eye Street NW by contacting Ms. McCormack at
fatmata@usaep.org. |
