Healthy Resilient and Sustainable Communities Grants in Region 10
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Program Summary
The EPA Region 10 Healthy, Resilient, and Sustainable Communities grant program supports Region 10 communities as they develop and implement pollution prevention and/or sustainable materials management systems that help make their communities safer, healthier, and more resilient.
Eligible entities include Region 10 states (Alaska, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington), local governments, city or township governments, independent school district governments, state-controlled institutions of higher education, non-profit organizations (other than institutions of higher education), nonprofit private institutions of higher education, community-based grassroots organizations, and federally recognized tribes and intertribal consortia.
For more information, please contact Theresa Blaine ([email protected]).
About P2 and SMM
Pollution Prevention (P2) and Sustainable Materials Management (SMM) are powerful tools that can build community health, including:
- Reducing the use, release, and exposure to toxic chemicals.
- Implementing life cycle approaches to reduce the health and environmental impacts of materials use.
- Employing upstream solutions that reduce the need and cost of environmental cleanup and pollution management.
P2 and SMM implementation also helps to build community resilience and sustainability, including:
- Reducing the demand for virgin, raw materials.
- Reducing the demand for and cost of utility services such power, water, and wastewater treatment through energy and water efficiency.
- Increasing the efficiency of materials use and reuse.
- Creating opportunities for in-process recycling and the innovative reuse of materials.
- Fostering systems in which materials, like edible food and building materials, are used for their best and highest purpose.
Pollution prevention is any practice that reduces the amount of any hazardous substance, pollutant, or contaminant entering any waste stream or otherwise released into the environment (including fugitive emissions) prior to recycling, treatment or disposal. Pollution prevention reduces the hazards to public health and the environment associated with the release of such substances, pollutants or contaminants.
Sustainable materials management is a systemic approach to using and reusing materials more productively over their entire life cycles. It represents a change in how our society thinks about the use of natural resources and environmental protection. By looking at a product's entire life cycle, we can find new opportunities to reduce environmental impacts, conserve resources, and reduce costs.
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Grant Recipients and Award Summaries
In 2021, EPA announced the following 7 projects funded in the inaugural round of the Region 10 Healthy, Resilient, and Sustainable Communities grants. EPA provided the full amount requested by successful applicants for a total of $335,916.
Idaho
Recipient: Rolling Tomato
Project: Rolling Tomato Recovers and Redistributes Idaho’s Excess Food
EPA Grant amount: $57,048
Summary: Rolling Tomato will reduce food waste in Idaho by recovering edible food destined for the landfill and redistributing it to families and individuals in need. They will continue their sustainable food management work underway since 2016 and will expand their operations both geographically and by volume, saving as much food from becoming waste as possible and helping partner organizations in the Boise area provide for their communities over the next two fiscal years (FY2022 and FY2023). During this project, Rolling Tomato plans to surpass their previous records for food recovered, greenhouse gases sequestered, meals provided, and money saved.
Partners: Many food donors and food recipient organizations including Acme Bakeshop, Boys & Girls Clubs of Ada County, Women’s & Children’s Alliance, Good Samaritan Home
Oregon
Recipient: Our United Villages (dba ReBuilding Center)
Project: Increasing Reuse of Construction Waste to Benefit Vulnerable Communities
EPA Grant amount: $59,874
Summary: The ReBuilding Center will increase the diversion of construction waste from landfills to provide affordable, accessible reclaimed materials to the public and supply free construction materials to homeowners throughout the Portland region who have been cited for building code violations and cannot afford the necessary repairs. This project takes the significant tonnage of usable construction material otherwise destined for landfills and makes it available to these homeowners at no cost, helping them to avoid mounting fees, repair their homes, and avoid displacement.
Partners: City of Portland, Oregon Metro, Trash for Peace
Recipient: Portland State University
Project: Improving Community Health and Preventing Wasted Food in Multifamily Housing
EPA Grant amount: $37,963
Summary: Portland State University will organize and implement a pilot program to 1) improve fruit quality and rescue fruit from city trees, and 2) distribute it along with wasted food prevention education materials to low-income, multifamily properties in historically disadvantaged areas of Portland, Oregon. This project will prevent food from going to waste and promote community health and resilience by providing fresh produce in areas with limited access to it while strengthening local networks for growing and distributing food.
Partners: Trash for Peace, Portland Tree Fruit Project
Washington
Recipient: South King Tool Library
Project: Reduce, Repair and Reuse: Pollution Prevention through Waste Reduction and Increased Product Repair and Reuse
EPA Grant amount: $60,000
Summary: The South King Tool Library (SKTL) will work with public and private partners to reduce pollution created by households and small businesses in King and Pierce Counties. Emphasis will be on reducing product use that generates pollution and promoting reuse of products and materials, including repairing, sharing, exchange, and repurposing. The SKTL will do this by offering free tool lending, repair events, outreach and education events and resources.
Partners: City of Federal Way, Tilth Alliance, Garden Hotline, Dirt Alert, Puget Sound Energy, Zero Waste Washington, King County Council RE+
Recipient: Kalispel Indian Community
Project: Food-to-Pigs, Pigs-to-Food
EPA Grant amount: $59,500
Summary: The Kalispel Tribe of Indians will advance the local food system by raising pork on the food scraps of their tribally-owned Wetlands Restaurant near Cusick, Washington. This will significantly reduce the food waste of the facility, while creating a new customer base for a local farmer and securing a local source of premium pork to be served at the casino. When successful, this model can be replicated in other rural settings, especially those without access to a commercial composting facility. Moreover, it up-levels the food waste from merely composting, which is relatively low on the EPA’s food waste hierarchy, to “feeding animals”, which is much higher.
Partners: Resource Synergy, Ramstead Ranch
Multiple States
Recipient: Ecology Action
Project: Grocery Challenge: Food Retail Pollution Prevention Challenge Competition
EPA Grant amount: $33,312
Summary: Ecology Action’s Grocery Challenge will employ a challenge competition model to educate and incentivize pollution prevention practices among grocery store employees. Ecology Action will use the challenge competition to directly educate 40 employees and reach 200 employees at 20 stores about simple acts that reduce pollution at its source. The challenge competition’s goal is to increase access to and the sale of Safer Choice certified chemical products through employee and shopper education, targeting communities disproportionately affected in their access to safer products.
Partners: Albertsons, Northwest Food Retail Association, Retail Learning Institute, Leidos and Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance
Recipient: Pollution Prevention Resource Center
Project: Safer Choice Product Certification Assistance Program for Manufacturers
EPA Grant amount: $59,887
Summary: The Pollution Prevention Resource Center (PPRC) will develop a program to guide businesses in Oregon and Washington through EPA's Safer Choice labeling program. provide on-site and remote technical assistance from a dedicated Associate/Fellow who will guide businesses in certifying products under EPA’s Safer Choice label. The project will provide small businesses assistance in certifying products under the EPA Safer Choice label and offer rebates to businesses to offset the cost of Safer Choice certification.
Partners: Oregon Department of Environmental Quality, Washington Department of Ecology
Applications
Applications are closed.
The 2021 notice of funding opportunity is available for reference at Grants.gov: Opportunity number EPA-R10-HRSC-2021.