Newsletter of NEIWPCC’s
Sustainability Committee
Eco-Office Bulletin
V O L U M E
SPECIAL
POINTS OF
INTEREST:
 This month’s EcoOffice highlights
some green tips for
summer.
 June 20 First Day of
Summer!
4 ,
I S S U E
INSIDE
THIS
ISSUE:
How to Hydrate? 1
Is Going Dairy1
Free Nutritionally Safe?
From the Chair:
Paper vs. Plastic
and the Life Cycle Assessment
Perspective
4
J U N E
2 0 1 6
How to Hydrate? By Mark Nimiroski
For good health, we are encouraged to remain wellhydrated. A good rule of
thumb is that we should consume 8-8oz servings of water
per day. That equals about 2
liters, or a half-gallon.
 July 4: Independence Day!
2
Nobody wants to carry around
a bulky half-gallon container
of water, so how can we meet
this goal? Do we simply fill a
bottle from the tap? Some are
concerned that tap water is
not safe, especially after hearing about problems with lead
in public drinking water in
Flint, MI. Is bottled water the
best solution? Many believe
that bottled water tastes
better, and it can offer convenience for our busy lives.
Ironically, testing standards
are far less stringent on
bottled water
than for tap
water. Production,
bottling, and
transportation costs
mean that
bottled water
can cost 2000
times more
than tap wa1
ter! The environmental Photo credit: bicycling.com
costs of
bottled water are also high. Fossil fuels are used in the bottling
and transportation of water far
from its sources, and single use
plastic bottles create waste.
Americans use 50 billion water
bottles each year, and the recycling rate is only 23 percent on
2
these bottles!
Public institutions have to spend
money to dispose of bottles either through recycling or other
methods, and this has led to
efforts to ban water bottles.
Bottled water sales have been
banned in several national
parks, and that policy has been
feverishly Continued on Page 3
Is Going Dairy-Free Nutritionally Safe? By Kayla Hultquist
Reprinted from the Willian H. Miner Agricultural Research Institute Farm Report —
Thank you to Myra Lawyer for making the connection!
Photo credit: overthrowmartha.com
Dairy-free products have been
gaining popularity and more
dairy alternatives are becoming
available in the marketplace.
The market for dairy-free products was originally targeted at
consumers who were lactose
intolerant or had a milk allergy
but this has shifted to include
consumers who are concerned
about animal rights and the environmental impact of animal
agriculture. While these are
valid concerns that producers
strive to improve upon on a daily
basis, dairy products are an important part of “MyPlate” as the
USDA recommends daily consumption of 2 cups of dairy for
children 2-3 years of age, 2 ½
cups for children 4-8 years of
age, and 3 cups for everyone
else. Removing dairy products
from the diet may be more harmful than some consumers expect.
Continued on Page 2
PAGE
ECO-OFFICE
2
BULLETIN
Photo credit: www.cartoonstock.com
Is Going Dairy-Free Nutritionally Safe? (continued)
Some common alternatives to
drinking cow’s milk include soy,
almond, rice, coconut, and hemp
milk, all of which have been said to
have a smaller carbon footprint.
These products may have a smaller total carbon footprint but on a
nutrient basis they actually have a
larger one. For example, the
“Nutrient Density to Climate Impact” index (calculated by dividing
the nutrient density by greenhouse gas emissions) is much higher for cow’s milk at 0.54 compared
to soy milk at 0.25. This means
that cow’s milk provides more
nutrients per unit of greenhouse gas
emission.
While animal agriculture continues
to have an impact on greenhouse
gas emissions, great progress has
been made to reduce these emissions and to become more efficient.
The carbon footprint per pound of
milk was reduced by 2/3 from 1944
to 2007, with continued further advancements.
A critical question that consumers
should ask before consuming dairyfree products is “Am I actually
getting the nutrients I need from
these dairy alternatives?” Cow’s
milk is naturally rich in protein,
calcium, potassium, phosphorus,
riboflavin, and vitamin B12. Cow’s
milk is usually fortified with vitamin
D, which aids in calcium and vitamin A absorption. Dairy alternatives are lacking in key nutrients
when compared to cow’s milk, and
are often fortified with these nutrients to make them more similar to
cow’s milk.
• Soy milk – The most similar to
cow’s milk as it contains a large
amount of protein (8 to 10 grams
per serving) and has been fortified
with calcium, vitamin A, vitamin D,
and riboflavin. Although soy milk
has been fortified with calcium, The
American Journal of Clinical Nutrition reported that the calcium in
cow’s milk is absorbed 25% better
than the calcium in soy milk.
• Almond milk – Also fortified with
nutrients such as calcium, vitamin
D, and vitamin E but contains a
very small amount of protein,
about 1 gram per serving compared
to the 8 grams found in cow’s milk.
• Rice milk – Very hypoallergenic as
it is free of soy, gluten, and nuts
and is fortified with vitamin A, vitamin D, vitamin B12, and calcium.
Rice milk is also low in protein and
is thin and watery, which makes it
less than ideal for cooking.
• Coconut milk – Similar in texture
to cow’s milk as it is high in fat
(about 5 grams saturated fat per
serving) but lacking in protein. It’s
Photo credit: blogs.ext.vt.edu
Continued on Page 5
PAGE
ECO-OFFICE
3
How to Hydrate (Continued)
debated. Several municipalities
have enacted, or plan to enact
bottled water sale bans. One argument against these policies is that
banning bottled water takes a
healthy choice away from consumers. It is possible that consumers will choose soda or other sugary drinks if bottled water is not
available. There is also a cost to
vendors who may lose money in
sales.
Are Bottle filling stations a good
solution?
Photo credit: Dan Peckham
In order to provide alternatives to
bottled water in national parks,
the National Parks Service has
installed bottle filling stations to
allow park users to refill bottles
that they bring or purchase. This
trend has caught on, and 18 national parks have stopped or will
soon stop the sale of bottled water.
National parks aren’t the only
place where you see new installations. School children and college
students have taken an active
role, and have raised funds to
install bottle filling stations in
their schools and on campuses.
The newly constructed library in
the town where I live has one, and
my family uses it often. The NEIWPCC Lowell office building has a
bottle filling station on the first
floor. As of May 2016 the elec-
tronic counter indicated that
waste from 12,127 disposable
plastic bottles had been eliminated! This is a nice example of immediate positive feedback for a
more sustainable choice. The
counter allows the positive actions
of the whole group to be measured. That can be a powerful motivation when compared to filling a
bottle at a tap or a drinking fountain which offer no feedback.
There are other good reasons to
choose a bottle filling station as a
way to promote more sustainable
water choices. The presence of the
station sets a good example of
environmental responsibility. It is
a visible symbol of a good organizational choice with measurable
proof that it is working. People are
more likely to take part in sustain-
BULLETIN
able activities when there are few
barriers. If the action is easy, you
will get more people to participate. Since many have sensoractivated operation, water bottles
are easier to fill than at a bubbler
or a standard tap. Another important factor in encouraging sustainable activities is that people
want to be part of the group. If
refilling a reusable bottle is the
norm, then more will follow suit
because people want to be caught
doing something good.
Studies have shown that taste,
temperature, and convenience
are the primary factors in water
choices. If filtered and chilled water is available in a high traffic
location, it can make a big difference in whether people choose a
filling station or purchase a disposable bottle.
There may be some drawbacks to
the bottle filling stations. You
need a plumber to install the
units, so initial setup can be expensive. Filters need to be replaced, so that increases the
maintenance cost. The filters
probably end up in the landfill
rather than being recycled.
Chilling the water does require
electricity, but the energy used is
comparable to a standard drinking
fountain. If a working drinking
fountain is removed and then
recycled or dumped in a landfill, it
is questionable whether there is
less waste being produced.
Any potential drawbacks can be
offset. The purchase and installa-
Article Citations
1. Fishman, Charles. “Message in a Bottle.” Fast Company Magazine July 2007: 110.
2. Boesler, Matthew. “Bottled Water Costs 2000 Times as Much as Tap Water” Business Insider. Business Insider
07/12/2013. Web. 06/02/2016.
Continued on Page 5
PAGE
4
From the Chair: Paper vs. Plastic
and the Life Cycle Assessment
Perspective
By Dan Peckham
If you’re ever feeling a little too peppy
and for some reason decide you need a
downer to bring you back to reality, life
cycle assessment is a good place to
turn. Narratives of the “sustainable
choice” are often quite set in stone –
paper bags are more environmentally
friendly than plastic ones, a vegetarian
diet is the more sustainable choice,
and tap water is the right call over
bottled water. For some of these choices there is little to debate in terms of
which option is greener, but for others
the answer is more muddled when you
look at the full life cycle of each option.
We’ll use the paper vs. plastic bag debate as an example.
Plastic bags, produced with a byproduct of oil, are being threatened with
bans in many places around the U.S.,
but are the alternatives actually more
environmentally friendly? The manufacturing process for paper bags is actually more intensive than the process
for plastic bags: getting the materials,
especially if the bag isn’t made 100%
out of recycled paper, and creating the
bag isn’t free. Furthermore, paper bags
are much heavier than plastic bags so
transporting them in bulk around the
country to stores is less efficient per
bag than paper. Paper bags are also
more likely to rip so plastic bags can be
reused more.
ECO-OFFICE
Alright, but what about the reusable
bags being sold by many grocery stores
these days? To make these sturdy
enough to reuse again and again, these
bags often require a much more intensive production process. Also, they are
often made from oil-based plastics just
like their single-use counterparts. The
chart below concludes that reusable
recycled bags win out after eight uses,
but their potential long-term payback
can be sabotaged by human forgetfulness – I can confess to numerous grocery trips where I don’t remember to
bring my reusable bags until it’s too late.
I don’t know about you but I’m already
getting overwhelmed… and we have
only scratched the surface. We haven’t
even begun to talk about the environmental impact of landfilled plastic bags
as compared to recycling the paper ones
(recycling takes energy, too), or the
amount of water and energy required to
wash reusable bags. How do the postuse impacts of reusable and paper bags
compare to the impact of a non-
B U LPhoto
L E credit:
T I Ndamniwish.com
Photo credit: community.comicbookresources.com/
biodegradable bag floating in the
ocean?
None of us has the time to do this kind
of a life cycle analysis of each and every decision we make. However, we can
do our best to remain cognizant of the
whole suite of impacts that our decisions have, environmentally and otherwise (without getting too depressed
about it all). And one thing we do have
control over is our behavior. The 3Rs –
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle – can apply to
paper, plastic, and reusable bags – and
much more. Understand your choices
and take action when you have the
opportunity to make a positive impact.
PAGE
5
How to Hydrate (Continued)
tion price can be justified partially by
the environmental benefit, but also as a
service that people enjoy. Amenities
that cost money are generally worth it if
it makes employees, students, or visitors enjoy the experience more. In a
new building construction, the cost
difference is marginal when compared
to other choices, like traditional drinking
fountains. This was most likely the case
at our new library. If broken or seldom
used drinking fountains are replaced in
existing buildings, the upgrades are no
more damaging to the environment
than any other routine maintenance. If
energy use is a
concern, a timer
can turn units off
on weekends.
Overall, these
stations appear
to be a good solution to encourage healthy and
sustainable habits to workplaces,
schools, parks
Photo credit: img.memey.com
and other public
places. If other offices or places that
you visit have filling stations, or oth-
er green or not-so-green beverage
choices, I’d be curious to hear.
Is Going Dairy-Free Nutritionally Safe? (continued)
fortified with vitamin A, vitamin B12,
vitamin D, and calcium and is also free
of soy and gluten.
benefit from the various types of
dairy-free products as they are unable to consume cow’s milk.
• Hemp milk – Another dairy alternative
for consumers with allergies to soy,
nuts, and gluten. Hemp milk contains a
high amount of protein, vitamin A, vitamin E, vitamin B12, and folic acid but
unless fortified is low in calcium.
If done properly, consumers can
choose to go dairy-free and find other products that will provide them
with the nutrients they are lacking
with a dairy-free diet, but people
need to be informed on the nutrient
profiles of dairy alternatives and that
Nutrient profiles of various dairy alternatives may differ as each product is
fortified with varying levels of nutrients,
so consumers should check the nutrition
facts before purchasing the product.
Some people may ask, “What about
consumers who are lactose intolerant or
have a milk allergy?” Consumers that
are lactose intolerant are unable to digest the lactose (sugar) in cow’s milk
due to insufficient quantities of lactase
production, which breaks down lactose.
Fortunately there are lactose-free dairy
products where the lactose has already
been broken down by adding lactase,
but nutritionally the milk compares to
regular cow’s milk. In addition, these
people can also take lactase tablets before consuming dairy products to help
aid them in breaking down the lactose.
Consumers with a milk allergy could
Photo credit: sarasnow.com
dairy alternatives are actually producing more greenhouse gases on a
per unit of nutrient basis. While consumers may be able to obtain their
daily requirement of nutrients elsewhere, cow’s milk is still a powerhouse when it comes to the amount
of nutrients it contains including
protein and calcium.
PAGE
6
Parting Shot: World Leaders at COP21 in Paris
Photo credit: flickr.com
Submit an article for our September fall issue!
NEIWPCC staff at the Lowell office started putting together the Eco-Office Bulletin newsletter in September 2012 as a way for the
sustainability committee to update the rest of the office on their activities, as well as to share news and tips on sustainable practices at the office and home. Distribution was expanded to include all NEIWPCC employees in December 2012, and we are
pleased that recent articles have come from staff in both Lowell and beyond. For future issues, we welcome article submissions
from all employees. Stay turned for more information on submitting!
________________________________
Design: Dan Peckham
Established by an Act of Congress in 1947, the New England Interstate Water
Pollution Control Commission is a not-for-profit interstate agency that employs a variety of strategies to meet the water-related needs of our member
states—Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York,
Rhode Island, and Vermont. We serve and assist our states by:

650 Suffolk Street, Suite 410,
Lowell, MA 01854

Phone: 978-323-7929





Fax: 978-323-7919
E-mail: [email protected]
http://www.NEIWPCC.org
Coordinating forums and events that encourage cooperation among the
states
Developing resources that foster progress on water and wastewater issues
Representing the region in matters of federal policy
Training environmental professionals
Initiating and overseeing scientific research
Educating the public
Providing overall leadership in water management and protection