Congresswoman Chellie Pingree, D-Maine, announced a Lincoln Academy student, Noah Arbuckle, is one of the first place winners of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Pollution Prevention Works: A Storytelling Challenge for Students.
Arbuckle created a video that features the semiconductor manufacturing company GlobalFoundries and the pollution prevention activities implemented at its facility in Essex Junction, Vt.
The video describes activities to reduce releases of chemicals on the toxics release inventory including ethylene glycol, fluorine, hydrochloric acid, and ammonia, resulting in reduced impacts on the environment, especially on local waterways.
“Students like Noah give me a great sense of hope for the future. The impacts of pollution take a toll on our environment and communities, and students like Noah are not sitting idly by — they are taking action, raising awareness, and shining a light on solutions we can and must implement to protect our environment and human health,” Pingree said. “I offer my heartfelt congratulations to Noah and the other winners of the EPA’s storytelling competition.”
The other winning stories include essays, infographics, videos, and a mock newspaper article to highlight how pollution prevention practices implemented at businesses benefited communities, the environment, and the businesses themselves. More than 50 high school and college students from across the nation submitted stories for consideration.
“It is exciting to celebrate these students that will help shape our future. With their stories, we are increasing awareness of the benefits and practice of pollution prevention,” EPA Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention Deputy Assistant Administrator Jennie Romer said. “I congratulate these talented students for their creativity in highlighting innovative pollution prevention solutions that can help protect human health and the environment.”
To increase awareness and showcase pollution prevention activities, the challenge invited high school and college students to use EPA’s toxic release inventory pollution prevention search tool to identify an industrial facility or set of facilities in the U.S. that have reported implementing pollution prevention practices that reduced, eliminated or prevented pollution at its source.
The students then were challenged to tell a compelling story about how those pollution prevention practices resulted in positive benefits for the business and the surrounding community and environment.
By sharing these stories of real life examples on YouTube and EPA’s website, students, as well as the public, can learn about pollution prevention activities in their community. These stories also provide businesses insight into how others are continually improving their business practices to help protect the environment.
