SUNPRO - Environmental and High Voltage Electrical Services

Striving Today for a Better World Tomorrow

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What do Green and Sustainability mean for Sunpro?

Sunpro believes that green and sustainability are terms of action for working to balance the needs and desires of business and the community with the flow of nature that is on-going around us. We believe that green and sustainable actions are needed so that businesses, communities and the environment can continue to thrive together as a whole system today and long into our future.

It is our understanding that taking green and sustainable actions requires a balancing of environmental, social and economic resources. This often means that we (and our customers) have to reconsider our immediate and long-term needs and desires.

Consistent with our core value for continuous improvement, we strive to provide services that meet the immediate needs of our customers today and better meet the needs of our customers, our communities, and our environment in the long-term.

Sustainability is “…a delightfully diverse, safe, healthy and just world, with clean air, water, soil and power – economically, equitably, ecologically and elegantly enjoyed.” - William McDonough (sustainability architect, designer and highly acclaimed author for his publication Cradle to Cradle)

Where is Sunpro able to offer Green and Sustainable Solutions within Environmental Services?

What is “Green Remediation”? - Green Remediation - (US EPA) The practice of considering all environmental effects of remedy implementation and incorporating options to maximize the net environmental benefit of cleanup actions.

Sunpro is a dynamic team of diversely knowledgeable, skilled, innovative, and pragmatic individuals. This team is ideal for collaborating with customers, vendors, agencies and communities to identify opportunities and generate options for applying green and sustainable practices to environmental remediation and construction projects.

“...every social and global issue of our day is a business opportunity in disguise – just waiting for the imagination and innovation, the pragmatism, and the entrepreneurship of good business.” - Peter Drucker (business and management authority)

Sunpro can offer a variety of environmental remediation and construction solutions that will impact the quantities and types of wastes being generated as well as the methods in which those wastes are subsequently transported, treated, disposed, recycled and/or reused. Discussing the solutions for generating and handling wastes is critical for understanding the total costs of a project today and potentially in the future.

Particularly, our team continues to seek out better methods of managing wastes to lessen the costs and risks associated with waste. Whenever possible, the preferred method is to implement the ‘cradle to cradle’ concept (William McDonough, ‘Cradle to Cradle’ 2002). This method typically applies out-of-the-box thinking and interdisciplinary collaboration to find outlets in which ‘waste’ can be used as ‘product’; therefore preventing it from becoming waste in the first place. With the wide range of waste streams we handle, this is a continuously evolving effort that requires regular brainstorming and collaboration with our clients, vendors, agencies and the community.

Sunpro Green and Sustainable Practices and Continuous Improvement

Sunpro embraces common better management practices such as recycling and purchasing of local resources and strives to continuously improve in the following practices specific to environmental construction and remediation projects with which we are involved:

*Energy Usage* Use of optimized passive-energy technologies with little or no demand for external utility power such as bioremediation or phytoremediation

Using renewable resources such as wind and solar energy to meet power demands of energy-intensive treatment systems or equipment Use energy efficient equipment, and periodically evaluate and optimize energy efficiency of equipment with high energy demands Using alternate fuels to operate machinery and routine vehicles Maintain equipment at peak performance to maximize efficiency

Material Consumption and Waste Generation

Use technologies designed to minimize waste generation such in-situ treatment versus transporting material offsite for treatment/disposal
Instrument delineation of clean and contaminated soils to minimize treatment/disposal needs
Onsite water treatment
Reuse materials during treatment processes and daily operations whenever possible

Recycle routine waste and recycle or salvage scrap material during construction and demolition
Finding outlets for ‘waste’ to be used (and labeled) as product such as bio-farms that renew hydrocarbon contaminated soils into usable soils

Air Emissions

Minimize use of heavy equipment requiring high volumes of fuel
Use cleaner fuels

Reduce atmospheric release of toxic or priority pollutants (ozone, particulate matter, carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide, and lead)
Minimize ambient dust particulates generated

Land and Ecosystem Impacts

Minimize extraction or destruction of natural resources such as oil and timber
Use minimally invasive in-situ technologies
Use passive energy technologies such as bioremediation and phytoremediation as primary remedies or finishing steps

Water requirements and impacts on water resources

Minimize fresh water consumption and maximize water reuse during daily operations and treatment processes
Reclaim treated water for beneficial use such as irrigation
Use native vegetation requiring little or no irrigation
Prevent impacts such as nutrient loading on water quality in nearby water bodies

Resources for Continued Learning…

Practicing Green and Sustainable Remediation

US EPA - Fact Sheet for Incorporating Sustainable Practices into Remediation

US EPA - Primer for Incorporating Sustainable Practices into Remediation

US EPA - Green Remediation, Best Management Practices for Excavation and Surface Restoration

US EPA - Fact Sheet on Examples of Best Management Practices for Green Remediation

National Association of Remedial Project Managers - Presentation on Green Remediation: Exercise in Applying Strategies

National Association of Remedial Project Managers - Presentation on Greening Superfund Sites

Federal Remediation Technologies Roundtable - Presentations on Green & Sustainable Practices and Technologies

Web Videos on Sustainability

Ray Anderson - Business Logic of Sustainability

Gunter Pauli - The Logic of System Design