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Inside Outdoor | Winter 2016 72
Montebello Agreement
(see REACH)
The Security and Prosperity
Partnership (SPP) also is known as the
Montebello Agreement, so named for the
city in Quebec where the summit was
held. The SPPWeb site states that this
is a Bush Administration, White House-
led initiative to increase security and
economic prosperity in North America.
Part of this voluntary framework is to
establish risk characterization by 2012
of over 9,000 chemical substances
produced in the U.S. in quantities over
25,000 pounds per year. By 2020,
Canada, Mexico and the U.S. will “strive
to achieve…inventories of all chemical
substances in commerce.” Many
view the Montebello Agreement as a
North American reaction to REACH,
the European Union’s Registration,
Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction
of Chemicals, which went into EU law
last June.
National Resources
Defense Council (NRDC)
01(c)(3), the NRDC
is an international environmental
advocacy group based in NewYork
City. Membership tops more than
1.3 million people, with an operating
budget exceeding $120 million and
employing more than 400 people
including attorneys, policy experts and
scientists. The NRDC policy focus is on
e, clean air, clean water,
rban quality-of-
life, habitat preservation and a host of
related sustainable development (see
Sustainable Development) concerns.
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., is a Senior
Attorney at NRDC.www.nrdc.org
Net Zero Building (NZB)
The National Renewable Energy
Laboratory’s Paul Torcellini, et al, define
a net zero building as “…a building with
greatly reduced energy needs through
efficiency gains such that the balance
of the energy needs can be supplied
by renewable technologies.” Torcellini,
et al point out there is no commonly
understood definition or understanding
of NZB. Factors such as net-zero
site energy, net-zero source energy,
net-zero energy costs and net-zero
energy emissions shape the evolving
definition of this building concept. A
working definition of NZB is building
construction designs that produces zero
annual carbon emissions or nearly zero
energy consumption. Net zero building
is also referred to as, net zero energy
building, zero net building and zero net
energy building.
Non-Renewable Energy
Non-renewable energy is an energy
source that cannot renew itself at a rate
commensurate with economic demands
within human lifetimes. Fossil fuels
such as petroleum, coal and natural gas
are not renewable as the timeframe to
renew what has been consumed takes
hundreds of millions of years. Such is
the case with petroleum where plant
matter undergoes catagenesis on its
way to becoming fossil fuels. Uranium,
aluminum, gold and other elements or
compounds extracted from the earth
are also non-renewable. Uranium, a
non-renewable fuel for nuclear power
generation, according to OECD’s Robert
Vance, reached its Hubbert Peak (i.e.
peak uranium – similar to peak oil)
in the 1980s.
Oeko-Tex
International Association for
Research and Testing in the Field of
Textile Ecology or Oeko-Tex, was
established in 1993 by the Austrian
Textile Research Institute, the German
Hohenstein Research Institute and the
Swiss Textile Testing Institute Testex.
Today it has evolved into a group of
14 test institutes throughout Europe
and Japan. Its certification programs,
Oeko-Tex 100, Oeko-Tex 100plus and
Oeko-Tex 1000 focuses on what they
term the four parts of textile ecology:
production, human, performance and
disposal ecology. Verification of Oeko-
Tex 100, 100plus and 1000 submissions
are achieved through the ISO 14000
suite of environmental protocols,
ISO laboratory testing protocols, DIN
EN, and IEC standards. Oeko-Tex’s
standards also exceed the current
best practices as defined by the EU’s
REACH (see REACH). The testing
institutes forward their results to the
Oeko-Tex Secretariat, which evaluates
the applications, issues certificates
to passing applications and tests for
compliance during the issued period.
Organic
In textile technology, organic refers
to standards ensuring sustainable
practices during all phases of fiber
pr duction. Beginning with every
aspect of cultivation under the National
Organic Program (NOP) guidelines,
post-harvest wet processes such
as dying and bleaching, textile
fabrication, manufacturing of goods,
transportation, worker environment,
labeling/compliance, packaging,
n are
comprehensively addressed.
Presently, there are no processing
standards for organic fibers from
the U.S. federal government beyond
cultivation ending with the consumer.
For standards related to organic food,
please see:http://www.ams.usda.gov/
nop/indexIE.htm.
Oxo-biodegradation
A two-step process that begins with
degradation by oxidation, followed by
biodegradation.
A variation of this developed for
polymers, such as polyethylene, add
a degradability component during the
material’s manufacturing. The added
component allows the polymer to thermo-
(heat), photo- (light) or hydro- (water)
degrade within 90 days in a commercial
composting environment.
It is purported that in non-
commercial composting environments,
the biodegradation will take place but at
a
The Precautionary Principle
The EEB (European Environmental
Bureau 1999) defines the Precautionary
Principle as follows:
2.1The Precautionary Principle justifies
early action to prevent harm and