Green & Sustainable Remediation
	Team Leader Tom O'Neill 609-292-2150 tom.o'neill@dep.state.nj.us

The ultimate goal of remediation systems is to promote environmental well-being and human health and safety. In order to meet these goals, many remedies in place today were implemented with best of intentions, but with little or no consideration of green or sustainable enhancements. In order to minimize any negative impacts of application of a remediation system, we need to consider the process from a holistic perspective and not protect one medium or one receptor at the expense of another medium or another receptor. For instance, many decisions on remediation technologies do not assess the impacts of greenhouse gas emissions, natural resource consumption, adaptability to climate change, or energy usage. While protection of human health and the environment is at the top of the any remediation selection and implementation process, considering the overall sustainable and green approaches will enhance this protectiveness. The ITRC Green and Sustainable Remediation (GSR) team will facilitate discussion in the regulatory community advantages and disadvantages of sustainable and green remediation during remedy selection, implementation and post implementation phases.

Many State and federal agencies are just beginning to assess and apply green/sustainable remediation in their regulatory programs. This project will provide an important link to all the agencies currently initiating GSR programs, find the best approaches to green and sustainable efforts, filter out those that are not truly adding value to the process and provide a clear pathway towards educating state regulators and other environmental practitioners in applying GSR considerations.

Some of the topics the GSR team will address in the coming years include:

• How can we adopt GSR techniques to help better protect human health and the environment?
• Which GSR approaches are really GSR in nature as opposed to be something else in GSR disguise?
• Development of a consensus technical and regulatory guidance document, at the national level, on how to incorporate green and sustainable approaches to environmental remediation.
• Development of surveys, data gathering and internet-based training modules for GSR approaches and their direct application at contaminated sites.
• Which of the GSR approaches are really adding value and provide better protection.
• What criteria can be used to select GSR technologies?
• How do we measure the GSR approaches success? What metrics do we use and how can we measure them?
• How can we reduce energy consumption or use alternative sources of energy that will be less harmful to overall environment?
• How do we promote the use and development of GSR technologies?