Publications
“Green Screen for Safer Chemicals” Report
CPA’s Green Screen is a new comparative assessment tool that guides a precautionary approach to how we evaluate chemicals. With specific benchmarking criteria, companies can make more informed decisions about chemicals that ultimately will lead to greener chemicals coming to the market place. Click here or on the image to download. (pdf)
“Healthy Business Strategies” Report Shows How Companies Can Thrive While Valuing Human Health and the Environment
Six business case studies show how companies are creating value by embedding concerns for human health and the environment into products. They are eliminating toxics, making innovative products, creating new partnerships and supporting policy reform. Click here or on the image to download. (pdf)
“Sick of Dust” Report Finds Hazardous Chemicals in Household Dust
The first U.S. study to test household dust for a new and wide variety of chemicals found that we are exposed to a “toxic cocktail” every day in our homes, breathing dust emitted from commonly used products — and it’s all legal. Click here or on the image to download. (pdf)
Toxic Fire Retardants Discovered in Dust Taken from Computers in Offices and Schools
Brominated Flame Retardants in Dust on Computers: The Case for Safer Chemicals and Better Computer Design urges the high tech industry to move faster to find safer materials. Click here or on the image to download. (pdf)
Safer Products and Green Chemistry
- Create Safe and Healthy Spaces: Selecting Materials that Support Healing, Mark Rossi, PhD and Tom Lent, September 2006. Download the report. (pdf)
- The Fight for Substitution Within REACH and What was Finally Decided. Sept 2007. Download the report. (doc)
- The Louisville Charter for Safer Chemicals (www.louisvillecharter.org) lists six important criteria for a sustainable chemicals policy. The first criteria is Making the Substitution Principle the Cornerstone of Sustainable Chemicals Policies and Moving Towards Clean Production and Innovation. Download the background paper (pdf)
- Safer Chemicals Within Reach: Using the Substitution Principle to Drive Green Chemistry. This report shows how to substitute safer materials for hazardous chemicals and gives case studies of industries who are moving to safer chemical practices. This report is being used in Europe to lobby for substitution legislation within the upcoming new chemical policy, REACH, but its relevance is useful to all governments, industries, and NGOs around the world. Download the summary and full report. (pdf)
- The Substitution Principle: How to Really Promote Safer Chemical Use. Download the report. (pdf)
- Moving Towards Sustainable Plastics: A Report Card on the Six Leading Automakers. This report ranks Toyota ahead of other car manufacturers in its use of renewable-based plastic and recycling. Download the report. (pdf)
- Summary Report from BFR2004 Conference, Toronto, June 6–9, 2004, by Beverley Thorpe. Download the report. (doc)
Renewable Resources and Bio-Society
- A network of groups, of which CPA is a partner, have developed Sustainable Biomaterials Guidelines. Visit the website.
- Moving Towards Sustainable Plastics: A Report Card on the Six Leading Automakers. This report ranks Toyota ahead of other car manufacturers in its use of renewable-based plastic and recycling. Download the report. (pdf)
- Can We Shift from the Petroleum Economy to the Bio-based and Solar Future? Talk given to Conamara Educational Environmental Trust. Oct 2006. Download the talk (doc) and powerpoint presentation (ppt).
Product Take Back
- New producer take back Tool Kit available to help governments and communities learn how to save money and produce less toxic waste. Download the tool kit files:
EPR Tool Kit (black & white) (PDF)
EPR Tool Kit (color) (PDF)
Supplemental CD Files (.zip collection of PDFs) - Summary report from Take It Back! conference, San Francisco , March 1–3, 2004. Click here to read online.
- “Beyond Recycling: Why We Need Producer Responsibility in North America.” Talk by Beverley Thorpe, Clean Production Action, on the occasion of the celebration of the Berkeley Ecology Center’s ‘Thirty Years of Curbside Recycling,” Berkeley, California. November 20, 2003. Download the speech. (doc)
- How Europe is Closing the Loop. EPR as it relates to the Green Dot, PVC Plastic and Waste from Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) and End-of-Life Vehicles (EoLV) directives. 2003. Download the slide show. (ppt)
Clean Production and Alternatives to Waste Generation
- “Demanding Clean Production in Incineration Campaigns: Case Studies of Four Successful Campaigns and Short Overview of Clean Production” (GAIA Malaysia Clean Production talk). Download the slide show. (ppt)
- “The Problem with PVC.” Presentation to “Waste Not Asia” meeting in Seoul, Korea, June 20–24, 2004. Download the slide show. (ppt)
- “A Critical Review of the Life Cycle Assessment of PVC.” This critique exposes the weaknesses in a lifecycle assessment of PVC plastic commissioned by the European Union in 2004. Download the critique. (doc)
- “Citizen's Guide to Clean Production,” at UMass Lowell’s Center for Sustainable Production. Click here to read online.
