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U.S. EPA Contaminated Site Cleanup Information (CLU-IN)


U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
U.S. EPA Technology Innovation and Field Services Division

Global Efforts to Advance Remediation at Contaminated Sites

US and EU Perspectives on Green and Sustainable Remediation

In recognizing that contaminated site cleanup creates an environmental footprint of its own, the United States (US) and other countries have developed policy and technical initiatives over recent years to optimize environmental performance and outcomes of cleanup projects through green remediation strategies. These initiatives involve increasing our understanding of the environmental footprint of site remediation and, when appropriate, taking steps to minimize that footprint. Worldwide consortia also recognize that a holistic approach to contaminated land management decisions offers a means to address the economic and social aspects of site cleanup, along with environmental outcomes, in a manner that is sustainable.

"US and EU Perspectives on Green and Sustainable Remediation" is an open-access Internet seminar series presented by the USEPA in cooperation with regulators and other stakeholders in the European Union (EU). The initial seminar was delivered in 2010 as a primer for the first "green and sustainable (GSR) remediation" panel session at a ConSoil international conference, with the intent of providing background information on rapidly evolving GSR initiatives and enabling attendees to make the most of limited time during ConSoil 2010.

Since ConSoil 2010, additional internet seminars have been offered to the public to provide updates on international initiatives, case studies on GSR implementation within the US and EU, and products under development throughout the world to support GSR. Many of the seminar topics mirror information exchanged in recent international conferences dedicated to the topic of GSR, such as:

  • Sustainable Remediation 2012, which was held in Vienna, Austria, and jointly sponsored by the USEPA, EURODEMO+, and CL:AIRE
  • Green Remediation: Environment ~ Energy~ Economics, which was held in the US at Amherst, Massachusetts, in 2010 and followed by Sustainable Remediation 2011: State of the Practice
  • GreenRemediation 2009, which was held in Copenhagen, Denmark, and jointly sponsored by the Danish Ministry of the Environment and several industry partners.

Seminar Archives

Sustainable Remediation, April 15, 2014

This one-hour Internet seminar served as a pre-conference workshop for the Sustainable Remediation Conference 2014 and included four presentations:

  • Green Remediation: An Overview of the State of the Practice; Carlos Pachon, USEPA
  • Entities leading green & sustainable remediation: global update; Dietmar Muller-Grabherr, Environment Agency Austria
  • Insight on themes for upcoming Sustainable Remediation Conference: Agenda and Host Country Goals; Marco Falconi, Italy/ISPRA, and Claudio Albano, SuRF Italy/CH2M Hill
  • High resolution site characterisation coupled with in situ thermal as a means of sustainable remediation; Alan Thomas, NICOLE/ERM UK
  • Using Quantitation to Develop Sustainable Solutions; Paul Favara, CH2M Hill US

View or download the archived seminar.

US and EU Perspectives on Green and Sustainable Remediation, Part 5, October 9, 2012

This two-hour Internet seminar addressed the Sustainable Remediation Conference 2012 in Vienna, Austria, and provided an overview of the following conference presentations.

  • Conceptual Framework: considering sustainability within remedial approaches
  • Sustainability Assessment: methodologies, models, and tools for sustainable remediation and
  • Sustainability Management: case studies of sustainable remediation projects

An open forum was held throughout the seminar to respond to participant questions. View or download the archived seminar.

US and EU Perspectives on Green and Sustainable Remediation, Part 4, March 6, 2012

This two-hour Internet seminar provided participants with:

  • A US case study on greening Superfund cleanup at the Apache Powder Superfund Site in Arizona
  • A case study on how GSR efforts are implemented in Central Europe
  • Austria's new tool for performing a cost-effectiveness analysis that integrates the environmental and socio-economic dimensions of sustainability
  • An update on developments that support USEPA's greener cleanup iniatiative (e.g., EPA's environmental footprint methodology for estimating or quantifying a remediation project's footprint) and the ASTM International effort to develop a voluntary consensus-based standard for greener cleanups
  • Updates on international GSR efforts and
  • Information on 2012 GSR internet seminars and conferences

An open forum was held throughout the seminar to respond to participant questions. View or download the archived seminar.

US and EU Perspectives on Green and Sustainable Remediation, Part 3, October 26, 2011

This two-hour Internet seminar provided participants with:

  • An introduction to the USEPA's draft methodology for estimating or quantifying a remediation project's environmental footprint
  • Case studies on GSR efforts applied in the US and EU
  • Information presented during the GSR track at the October 2011 International Committee on Contaminated Land (ICCL) meeting, including key points from the Common Forum on Contaminated Land in the European Union (Common Forum) paper on sustainable and risk-informed land management; and
  • Updates from initiatives around the world.

An open forum was held throughout the seminar during which participants' questions were addressed. View or download the archived seminar.

US and EU Perspectives on Green and Sustainable Remediation Part 2, March 15, 2011

The focus of this two-hour Internet seminar was to clarify the common elements and differences between green remediation and sustainable remediation and provide US and EU case studies of green remediation. Panelists included representatives from the USEPA, Environment Agency Austria (EAA), and Sustainable Remediation Forum (SuRF) - United Kingdom (UK). In addition, presenters from the July 2010 Internet seminar "US and EU Perspectives on Green and Sustainable Remediation" and a September 2010 ConSoil special session attended the seminar, representing SURF US and the Netherlands; EURODEMO+; Network for Industrially Contaminated Land in Europe (NICOLE); Common Forum on Contaminated Land in Europe; and Environment Canada. View or download the archived seminar.

US and EU Perspectives on Green and Sustainable Remediation, July 12, 2010

This interactive Internet seminar acted as a primer for the Special Session 8A Sustainable Remediation: International Initiatives which took place at ConSoil 2010. During the seminar, international leaders of GSR efforts discussed their drivers and constraints as well as the impacts of these opportunities and issues. An open forum after the presentations provided participants an opportunity to submit questions to the panel of speakers, which included representatives from the following organizations: USEPA; Environment Canada; SuRF US, SuRF UK, and SuRF Netherlands; EURODEMO+; NICOLE; and the Common Forum on Contaminated Land in Europe. View or download the archived seminar.

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