Clean energy offers a cost-effective way to meet our nation’s growing energy demand while reducing emissions of criteria air pollutants and greenhouse gases, lowering energy costs, improving the reliability and security of the energy system, and creating jobs. State governments have an important role to play in advancing clean energy by implementing energy efficiency, renewable energy, and combined heat and power in their own buildings and operations and enacting policies to increase the use of these measures throughout their communities. Join us for an interactive discussion of innovative approaches states have taken to promote clean energy by leveraging partnerships and funding opportunities. Speaker presentations will feature clean energy applications in schools, the business community, wastewater and drinking water facilities, and brownfields. Group brainstorming sessions will identify challenges to implementing clean energy and propose solutions.

Government at the Federal, State and local levels can improve their environmental footprint and promote sustainability. Governmental organizations have adopted approaches to “lead by example.” In so doing, they have influenced the market place by leading the way with sustainable market solutions. Governmental organizations have also encouraged private-sector sustainable actions through direct leadership initiatives and creative use of information. This session will foster a conversation about what governments are doing to advance sustainable practices within government and what is being done to influence private-sector practices.

Public and private investments in the green economy are continuing to increase. It is, therefore, increasingly important to assure that workers get training in jobs that help reduce pollution, and that employment opportunities exist for these workers. Focusing on both (re)training existing workers, and creating new jobs in the green economy, this session will feature a discussion from the state-level environmental, economic and workforce development perspectives.

Rapidly growing interest in “greener” or more sustainable products presents a series of opportunities and challenges for the environment and for government. Properly focused, this market shift could deliver significant and measurable improvements in human health and the environment. So who is providing leadership, technical and policy expertise, program experience and overall credibility? This session will explore the innovative roles that government has had and could have in the future. Specific options and strategies that will be discussed by a panel of Federal, State and private sector practitioners and by session participants include sustainable materials management, use of life cycle analysis, sustainable product development/management/recognition, policing against green washing, end-of-life management systems for products (reuse, recycling, etc.), national and international trends, and performance metrics.

On June 16, 2009, EPA joined with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the U. S. Department of Transportation (DOT) to help improve access to affordable housing, increase transportation options, and lower transportation costs while protecting the environment in communities nationwide. This Partnership for Sustainable Communities established a set of guiding livability principles that inform the agencies's efforts to coordinate federal housing, transportation, and other infrastructure investments to protect the environment, promote equitable development, and help to address the challenges of climate change. The Indianapolis Smart Growth Redevelopment District exemplifies the spirit of this inter-agency collaboration, drawing on a spectrum of federal, local, and NGO resources to maximize impact for redeveloping brownfields for green infrastructure, urban agriculture, affordable housing, and new commercial development. HUD, DOT, and EPA are working with the community to craft a Redevelopment Strategy that looks at the assets and challenges within and surrounding the District and will work with the community to implement one of the Strategy’s steps. This panel discussion brings together a spectrum of project stakeholders, including local community development corporations, the City of Indianapolis, EPA, HUD and DOT. Panelists will tell the story of this innovative effort from their different perspectives, share lessons learned, and provide insights on the challenges and rewards of collaborating for co-benefits.

Join this dialogue on how government and community organizations can partner to achieve health and environmental results. Participants will share their perspectives on efforts to protect the public from harmful chemical exposures, engage in EPA’s Community Action for a Renewed Environment (CARE) Program, and collaborate on cross-cutting public health and environmental issues. Framing questions will allow attendees to explore both barriers and opportunities for effective collaboration.

Green is good for business, the environment, and the economy. Green means opportunities. Learn how the Alabama E-3 Project brought federal agencies, state and local governments, local utilities, state and local governments, and small-medium size manufacturers together to green their workforce, promote sustainable manufacturing, and reduce environmental impacts while gaining a competitive edge. Collaborating on a vision, the City of Milwaukee, local businesses, state agencies, and other private/public entities transformed a 1500-acre river valley former industrial center into redevelopment and economic growth opportunities that also provides urban recreational spaces with improved river access.

EPA wants to move towards Sustainable Materials Management, but what does that mean? This session will illustrate three examples of addressing the waste problem: each example will progressively demonstrate how Sustainable Materials Management can be achieved through the lifecycle of a product. First, we will discuss use of compost for stormwater management; then the development of use of COMPASS® (Comparative Packaging Assessment), a life cycle based web application that helps packaging professionals to incorporate environmental parameters into design decisions; then a discussion of the lifecycle building challenge, a competition to design buildings for deconstruction.

Regulatory functions such as permitting and enforcement are well-established, but this doesn't mean they aren't changing to keep up with the times. This session looks at how EPA and state programs are updating their regulatory activities to take on new issues and use new tools to make them more effective and efficient.

How can communities plan for - or respond to - the challenges that accompany a changing climate? This session will explore both cases, featuring speakers who have engaged in the task of planning for future climate scenarios, or who have undertaken that task in the wake of a climate-related disaster. By show-casing examples of community and state actions to address both pre-hazard mitigation and post-disaster recovery planning, this session will highlight strategies that can be used to create places with greater environmental, economic, and social resilience. This discussion will also consider ways that government at local, state and federal levels can work more effectively to address climate change adaptation. The audience will have the opportunity to engage the speakers and moderator in discussion on the issues and on ways to overcome community barriers to effective climate adaptation planning.

Several areas across the U.S. are utilizing creative financing options to fund environmental improvement projects. Hear from a panel of experts on how to develop and implement viable financing options that promote goals from clean air to safe drinking water.

More and more, regulators at the federal and State level are realizing cost efficiencies and increased effectiveness by addressing multiple impairments or pollutants at once. Join this panel of experts in water, waste, and air programs as they discuss their use of novel planning and policy tools in pursuit of effective multi-pollutant approaches to environmental mitigation.