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About SCCP

The NPPR 2025 Safer Chemistry Challenge Program (SCCP) is designed to motivate, challenge, and reward facilities to reduce the use of chemicals, especially hazardous chemicals, through source reduction measures. These measures include the following approaches:

• Making changes in production processes and adopting new technologies
• Moving toward cleaner processes that avoid the use and generation of toxic chemicals
• Changing raw materials to include benign or low toxicity materials that degrade into innocuous substances in the environment
• Using tools and design options in support of green chemistry
• Selecting and using safe alternatives

As part of this program, companies are encouraged to partner with state and local technical assistance programs. Such programs can help identify ways to reduce waste and emissions and move toward safer substitute chemicals, which can result in reduced costs, improved productivity, and regulatory compliance.

Challenge Program Benefits
By making changes and participating in the Challenge Program, companies can:

• Improve employee health and safety
• Minimize risk and liability Institute supply chain initiatives
• Improve company image with the community
• Reward investments in the design of increasingly safer chemicals and products
• Reduce cost of compliance and employee protection
• Realize that alternatives may have improved performance Improve profitability

Steps to Participating in the Challenge Program

SCCP One Page Background (The baseline year is 2010.)

Updates

P2 Measurement Tools

Pollution Prevention Measurement Tools

RELEVANCE OF POLLUTION PREVENTION MEASURES - THINK CLIMATE CHANGE

Pollution prevention and climate change? You may be sure that pollution prevention can successfully tackle climate change–but can you prove it?  Thanks to the U.S. EPA’s new pollution prevention calculators, you now can provide the numbers you need to convincingly make your case.

In our society, measurement is empowerment.  From corporate managers to baseball fans, measurement bring credibility to discussions, informs us of where we are allows us to set goals for where we want to be.  It allows us to evaluate the status quo, benchmark, and make changes.  Whether you are in business, government agencies, and public institutions or at home–numbers inform good decisions.  Among environmental solutions, pollution prevention solutions tend to have the strongest track record for delivering environmental benefits while preventing an economic burden on the marketplace.  These calculators can empower those marketing pollution prevention solutions and making connections between P2 and positive environmental change for problems like climate change.

Suite of P2 Performance Measures

• Pounds of hazardous materials reduced;
• Gallons of water saved;
• Million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalents (greenhouse gas emissions) that are reduced or avoided;
• Dollars saved by businesses and institutions through P2 practices.

Background

The tools were reviewed by a panel from the P2 community and were showcased in national webinars and conferences reaching over 600 participants.  Based on panel and webinar-training feedback the U.S. EPA reworked the tools to be more robust, user friendly, with better training elements.  All of the P2 tools are in an Excel format and finalized as of November 2011.  U.S. EPA will periodically update the tools as new information and data sources become available.

Who should use the tools?

Anyone can use the tools.  The U.S. EPA designed them with state and local governments, business facilities, grantees, and project managers in mind.

What is the purpose and benefits of the tools?

They are designed to help calculate GHG emissions and cost savings from P2 activities, and to help convert gallons of hazardous materials into pounds.  The tools help to convert standard business units into environmental measurement units, increase transparency of reported data, and make reference sources clear.

P2 GHG Calculator: The P2 GHG Calculator calculates GHG emission reductions from electricity conservation, green energy, fuel and chemical substitutions with lower GHG-intensities, water conservation, and improved materials and process management in the chemical manufacturing sector.  This tool will assist program participants submit higher-quality data for the program measure, and demonstrates the unique multi-media perspective that P2 brings to reduce (MTCO2e) metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent.

P2 Cost Calculator:  The P2 Cost Calculator calculates cost savings associated with reduced costs for hazardous inputs in a facility process, reduced costs for handling hazardous waste, reductions in annual air permitting fees that are based on actual emissions, reduced water discharge treatment costs based on gallons of discharged, reduced charges for water usage, reduced fuel costs, and reduced costs for electricity.  Understanding potential cost savings presents a big incentive for action and collaboration to program beneficiaries.

Gallons to Pounds Converter:  This is designed to provide conversions from units commonly encountered in business to units for P2 Program measures.  It is not uncommon for hazardous materials to be measured in gallons for business purposes - gallons of paint and gallons of waste water, for example.  For program purposes, all these gallon measures need to be converted to pounds of hazardous materials for the program measure “pounds of hazardous materials reduced.”

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)


Training

P2 Calculators October 25, 2011 Webinar

If you have any comments or questions regarding these tools please contact Natalie Hummel (hummel.natalie@epa.gov) at 202-564-1424 or Kathy Davey (davey.kathy@epa.gov) at 202-564-8834.

White Papers

13 States Release States’ Principles for TSCA Reform

On Wednesday, Dec. 2, the thirteen states of California, Connecticut, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, New York, Oregon, Vermont and Washington released a document outlining their shared principles for reforming the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA).

View the signed document of principles: Document of Principles

States’ Principles on Reform of the Toxic Substance Control Act December 2, 2009: States’ Principles on Reform of the Toxic Substance Control Act

Regions

P2 Regional Roundtables