2008 Empowering P2 Conference
Montgomery Bell State Park
September 18-19
Hosted by the Tennessee Pollution Prevention Partnership (TP3) and the Tennessee Pollution Prevention Roundtable, this was the fourth biennial conference promoting pollution prevention and environmental stewardship in Tennessee. This year’s conference theme was Energy – Water – Sustainability. Speakers and panels highlighted disturbing trends and innovative solutions to the issues that are so critical to creating a sustainable future.
Following a presentation by David Owenby on TDEC’s involvement in energy and water issues in the state, David recognized TP3 Performers and Partners attending the conference. Reggie Barrino with EPA Region 4 recognized Performance Track industries in attendance.
The keynote speaker, Tom Casten with Recycled Energy Development, has a 30-year history developing decentralized energy recycling projects. He enlightened the audience about the enormous opportunities of capturing waste energy from the currently inefficient generation of electricity. Recycling wasted energy has the revolutionary potential to generate vast amounts of low-cost power without burning fossil fuels or emitting greenhouse gases
Mary Ann Dickinson is Executive Director of the Alliance for Water Efficiency, a non-profit dedicated to the efficient and sustainable use of water. Her plenary presentation looked at water conservation from a climate change perspective, considering that water supply has a high amount of embedded energy and that saving water can ultimately save carbon emissions.
Panels on Energy Efficiency, TP3 Success Stories, Water Conservation, and Applied Residential Sustainability gave everyone ideas for their home, school, and workplace. One of the highlights of the TP3 Success Stories panel was a presentation by a student from Fayette Academy Ecology Club in Somerville. She explained her club’s success with the school board in adopting an energy policy and performing a lighting upgrade in the school gym to be followed by further energy projects. Everyone was impressed by the club’s energy education outreach, especially the “Change a Light, Change the World” campaign that placed 2700 CFL bulbs in the greater community.
Although attendance reflected the high gas prices and economic concerns, many key folks were present. Comments from evaluations included appreciation of the Fayette County School staff, students and presentation. “So glad they could come - having folks from the Warren County school system see the Fayette County presentation will be inspirational both to the plant who hosts many school programs and to the schools who have a huge goal to shoot for and surpass. It was also beneficial for us/industry as, one of the teachers from Fayette County said they were glad to see what industry was doing - because they had no idea!”
All in all, the 2008 Empowering P2 Conference demonstrated that a short and sweet event with dedicated and passionate participants can provide excellent networking opportunities and information transfer on critical topics.
