Standards & Compliance Briefing: EPA GreenChill, ASTM Sustainable Manufacturing, B Corp

The EPA GreenChill partnership recognized ACME, Weis Markets and Whole Foods supermarkets in New Jersey and New York for their efforts in reducing use of harmful chemicals used in refrigeration. The stores were all recognized for reducing the use of refrigerants which can harm the ozone layer and transitioning to less damaging refrigerants, the agency said.

ASTM International’s Committee E60 on Sustainability has created a new subcommittee, E60.13 on Sustainable Manufacturing, to focus on the development and use of sustainable manufacturing processes. The new group will hold its first meeting during Committee E60’s October 2012 meeting in Atlanta, Ga. The subcommittee proposes to develop four new manufacturing sustainability metrics, ASTM said.

Renewable energy and carbon offsets provider 3Degrees said that it is now a certified B Corporation. The B Lab certification recognizes the carbon consulting firm for its social and environmental business plans. 3Degrees is also a five-time winner of the US Department of Energy’s Green Power Leadership Award, the company said.

The NSF International seafood division is now accredited to offer Aquaculture Stewardship Council Chain of Custody certification to the seafood industry. This certification supports environmentally responsible aquaculture practices and verifies that seafood originates from farms that comply with sustainable seafood standards, NSF said.

ANSI has launched the Energy Efficiency Standardization Coordination Collaborative, and is seeking relevant experts to take part in the activity. The EESCC will assess the energy efficiency standardization landscape and carry out the development of a standardization roadmap. The roadmap is intended to identify what standards, codes, and conformance programs are available or under development, and what gaps exist, the standards institute said. The first full plenary meeting of the EESCC is targeted for November 7-8, in the Washington, DC, area.

The ASTM International Committee F20 on Hazardous Substances and Oil Spill Response has approved several standards for in-situ burning. The latest proposed standard, ASTM WK37324, Guide for Evaluation of In-Situ Burning Effectiveness, aims to guide local and regional spill response teams during spill response planning and spill events.

New nuclear safety guidelines and monitoring methods from the IEC/IEEE 62582 series are aimed as ensuring the safety of electrical equipment used at nuclear power plant sites. The standards focus on condition monitoring of electrical equipment that performs critical nuclear power plant safety and accident mitigation functions, IEEE said.