Sustainable Business
Diesel emissions targeted in Northeast Portland
Private and public entities, acting alongside non-profits, are voluntarily reducing diesel pollution in a part of the city known for heavy traffic and industry
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Gov. Ted Kulongoski designated the emissions reduction project through Oregon Solutions, an arm of the National Policy Consensus Center at Portland State University that promotes community governance.
A diverse group of stakeholders is tackling diesel emission issues in North and Northeast Portland through an Oregon Solutions project designated by Gov. Ted Kulongoski.
The collaborative group is working to find ways to reduce diesel emissions, which contribute to asthma and other health problems in the area and greenhouse gas accumulation worldwide, from construction equipment and heavy on-road, rail and marine traffic.
Fuel providers, trucking companies and garbage and recycling haulers are cooperating with public agencies like the Oregon Departments of Environmental Quality and Transportation, City of Portland and Multnomah County health department in the project, which promotes a voluntary rather than legislative approach to improving air quality and reducing dependence on fossil fuels.
Oregon Solutions – an arm of the National Policy Consensus Center at Portland State University that promotes comm-unity governance based on principals of collaboration, integration, and sustainability – organized the emissions reduction program.
“Using this voluntary approach, I think we make progress on the ground, step by step, with more tangible results than legislative efforts,” said Kim Travis, network manager for Oregon Solutions. “These things can happen independently.”
The project has its share of non-profit collaborators, such as the Environmental Justice Action Group, Coalition for a Livable Future and Oregon Environmental Council. Kulongoski appointed respected community leaders Doctor Algie Gatewood, president of Portland Community College, Cascade Campus, and Carl Talton of Portland Family of Funds as co-conveners.
Participants in the project have met three times so far, and have identified areas they could pursue within their own organizations to reduce diesel emissions, committing to the improvements by signing the “declaration of cooperation,” an informal document containing agreed-upon solutions.
Those solutions will focus on voluntary actions that can be achieved without regulatory intervention, including the use of cleaner fuels, add-on control devices and other simple strategies, like encouraging drivers or machine operators to turn off an engine when it could be idling.
Representatives of Freightliner, a leading national manufacturer of commercial vehicles with headquarters in Portland, said the project is a good fit with the company’s goals. The company plans several developments in coming years to reduce emissions.
“Freightliner is currently developing state-of-the-art clean diesel technology,” said Amy Sills, Freightliner’s head of corporate communications. “In addition to introducing dramatically cleaner diesel trucks in 2007, Freightliner is working on numerous projects to help its customers reduce fuel consumption.”
Sills agreed that the non-regulatory approach to cleaner emissions that the project employs has a way of streamlining the process.
“This project provides the opportunity to very quickly begin reducing diesel emissions from a broad variety of local sources,” she said. “No regulatory approach could achieve the goals of this project as efficiently.”
Organizers hope that the collective effect will prove that diesel fleet owners and operators can reduce costs and risks while simultaneously improving local air quality.