Eco Case Study'sGood Clean Grades
The UCLA Institute of the Environment is out with its "Southern California Environmental Report Card, Winter 2010."
This year's report is titled, Promoting Green Innovation, and is written by Peter Sinsheimer, the executive director of the university's Sustainable Technology and Policy Program.
In Green, Sinsheimer -- who was previously with UEPI -- examines the 17-year effort to limit use of the chemical, perchloroethylene.
"In this article," Sinsheimer writes, "we use PCE and the dry cleaning process as a case study to demonstrate the importance, challenges and rewards of green innovation."
The hook for the piece are the report card grades the author hands out near the end of his analysis. Sinsheimer awards mostly high marks to the various state and regional government bodies and utilities he mentions.
The California Legislature, for example, may have only a 9% public approval rating in the latest PPIC poll, but on this particular issue, Sinsheimer's analysis grants that body an "A" grade.
The California Air Resources Board earns a B+. The South Coast Air Quality Management District gets an A+, an A, and a D -- the latter "for [not] establishing an incentive program for non-PCE alternatives."
And energy utilities, in general, receive an A "for sponsoring research verifying the energy efficiency of professional wet cleaning and for developing professional wet cleaning demonstration programs and/or incentive programs."
Visit this link to read the full report, including a free-of-charge .pdf download, and information about the funders -- some of who were among the graded orgs.
And here's the EPA's Chemical Fact Sheet for perchloroethylene.
Photo Credit: The image accompanying this post was taken by Flickr user Bam-Bam. It was used under Creative Commons license.