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Green Remediation

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The practice of considering all environmental effects of remedy implementation and incorporating options to minimize the environmental footprints of cleanup actions. Through green remediation, site-specific conservation benefits are compared for different cleanup strategies and the environmental trade-offs of those strategies are weighed.

View the online version of the Green Remediation Primer Incorporating Sustainable Environmental Practices into Remediation of Contaminated Sites [PDF, 780kb] - In accordance with its mission to protect human health and the environment, EPA is dedicated to developing and promoting innovative cleanup strategies that restore contaminated sites to productive use, reduce associated costs, and promote environmental stewardship. With the implementation of green remediation, these goals can be met by considering all environmental effects of remedy implementation and incorporating options to maximize net environmental benefit of cleanup actions. Green remediation reduces the demand placed on the environment during cleanup activities and can help increase the environmental, economic, and social benefits of cleanup. This primer includes:

Best management practices (BMPs) that can help decision-makers, communities, and other stakeholders identify new strategies in terms of sustainability
Identifies the range of alternatives available to improve the sustainability of cleanup activities
Cross-educates remediation and reuse decision-makers and other stakeholders about green remediation
Provides tools for daily operations and introductory information on the use of renewable energy resources
Includes profiles of site-specific implementation of green remediation strategies to help federal and state agencies, local communities, and other stakeholders learn from collective experiences and successes

More Details about Green Remediation

Overview of Green Remediation

Green Remediation is the practice of considering all environmental effects of remedy implementation and incorporating options to maximize net environmental benefit of cleanup actions. Strategies for green remediation rely on sustainable development which meets the need of the present without compromising the need of future generations, while minimizing overall burdens to society. Sustainable practices emphasize the need to more closely evaluate core elements of a cleanup project; compare the site-specific value of conservation benefits gained by different strategies of green remediation; and weigh the environmental trade-offs of potential strategies. Green remediation addresses the following six core elements:

Energy requirements of the treatment system
Air emissions
Water requirements and impacts on water resources
Land and ecosystem impacts
Material consumption and waste generation
Long-term stewardship actions

Site Management Practices

BMPs of green remediation help ensure that day-to-day operations during all cleanup phases maximize opportunities to preserve and conserve natural resources while achieving the cleanup’s mission of protecting human health and the environment. Opportunities to implement the practices are not restricted to cleanups involving media treatment; for example, the practices can apply to removal actions involving primarily institutional controls or short-term soil excavation with offsite disposal.

Each site management plan can incorporate practices addressing core elements of green remediation with periodic review and update as new opportunities arise. An adaptive approach to site management planning enables early plans, in many cases initiated during emergency removal actions, to be expanded throughout remediation and extended into long-term stewardship controls. Each plan can outline site-specific procedures to:

Reduce air emissions and energy use
Demonstrate water quality preservation and resource conservation
Establish near-term improvements to the ecosystem that carry forward into site revitalization
Reduce material consumption and waste generation