E3 Ohio

The Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission (MORPC) received $498,824 in funding through the EPA 2010 Climate Showcase Community Grant to support the integration of the national E3 sustainability initiative with the Ohio By-Product Synergy (BPS) Network.

Known as ME3, the project creates an efficient and replicable model for reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions through an assessment program, allowing businesses to identify and implement opportunities for cost savings through energy and material efficiency.

The grant funding will allow MORPC to attract 25 Ohio businesses to ME3 over the next three years.

Potential reductions from facilities:

• 264,000 metric tons of GHGs
• 120,000 metric tons of yearly life cycle of GHGs
• 5,000 metric tons diverted from landfills

The Ohio BPS Network, involving 18 Ohio-based companies, was established in 2009. The 18 companies signed agreements to participate in the Ohio BPS Network and have been engaged in a series of working meetings to identify and evaluate potential synergies whereby one company's by-product could become another company's feedstock. The current network members include Procter and Gamble, Honda of America Manufacturing, Worthington Industries, Marathon Oil, and many other large and small businesses.

E3 and BPS each have a gap that the other can fill. E3 looks primarily at a company's internal operations, without referencing the potential of material exchanges that can be arranged with other companies. BPS Networks facilitate such material exchanges but do not address other aspects of sustainable business practices, such as energy conservation and/or water conservation or the associated GHG reductions.