Art is a powerful tool for conveying ideas. It transcends various modes of communication, allowing it to trigger mental, emotional, and physical responses from its target audience. Its effectiveness as a tool for environmental advocacy, however, is limited by the sustainability of the practice and the materials used. Contemporary art practices in the Philippines have found ways to support the campaign for environmental sustainability by using repurposed materials that result in a decreased carbon footprint in the art production process, while conveying environmental themes. This evaluative article presents two case studies tackling the new-found indigenous art practice of the Talaandig tribe in the province of Bukidnon, Philippines, and the contemporary art practice of select assemblage artists from Metro Manila using found objects. This article illustrates how Filipino artists in both the indigenous and contemporary art scenes are supporting the global campaign of environmental conservation in message and action.

Environmental Practice 18: 260–266 (2016)

Existing studies have demonstrated a lack of consensus on the relationships between what the public sees when viewing a river, the actual ecological quality of that river, and a perceived need for management measures for that river. More specifically, there is insufficient information available about public perceptions of high-quality rivers. Therefore, this study, conducted in North Carolina, assessed public perceptions of a high-quality river, including links between perceptions of how attractive or how natural the river appeared and perceptions of specific ecological conditions on the river. The study also assessed the public’s perceived need for flood protection or river rehabilitation. The study’s results show that public perception of the river studied is complex and, in some ways, aligns well with available monitoring data collected from that river, but simultaneously reflects the public’s lack of knowledge about what constitutes a high-quality river, which influenced a perceived need for flood control and rehabilitation.

Environmental Practice 18: 44–52 (2016)

Unprecedented levels of global bottled water consumption present a major challenge for the environment and water conservation initiatives. Educational institutions are in a unique position to promote conservation behavior by signaling pro-environmental norms. To decrease disposable bottled water consumption on campus, Princeton University instituted an innovative “Drink Local” program in 2009. The program provides reusable water bottles to all incoming students and we analyze the program’s impact here by drawing on behavioral and social influence research. In particular, we hypothesized that by signaling that the desired “prototypical” behavior of Princeton students should be “sustainable,” students would be less likely to consume bottled water on one hand, and more likely to offer normative support for a campus bottled water ban on the other. Results from a quasi-experiment involving over 1,300 students confirm our hypotheses; students who received the reusable Drink Local bottles upon arrival to Princeton are significantly less likely to drink disposable bottled water and more likely to support a campus-wide bottled water ban. These results are promising for educational institutions who wish to promote water conservation behavior on campus and beyond.

Environmental Practice 18: 116–122 (2016)

The beneficial reuse of environmentally contaminated properties in Rhode Island remains a vast opportunity for practitioners to consider grant applications, creative financing, transactional cleanups, and/or Court-supervised cleanups. There are hundreds of re-developed, formerly contaminated sites all over the state of Rhode Island, which can be remediated under the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management’s Brownfields program. In September of 2015, the RIDEM’s Brownfields program was significantly enhanced by state administration, providing for grants to conduct investigation and cleanup of contaminated sites. Funds are and will be available for pre-development planning, remedial investigation, redevelopment and marketing plans, remedial design, construction of remedies, and associated work. The trigger for any Brownfields remediation, and in turn, eligibility for funding, continues to be notification of a release of hazardous materials. Once under RIDEM’s jurisdiction, any responsible party must adhere to the site remediation site management process.

The grant money may be applied to investigation of soil, groundwater, soil gas, indoor air and infrastructure/building materials. Funds are also available for site assessment, remediation, hazardous material abatement, waste disposal, long term monitoring, institutional controls, environmental consulting costs, and marketing. The Brownfields grant program provides new and diverse opportunities for environmental professionals to assist their clients in the Brownfields process.

Environmental Practice 18: 267–269 (2016)

The management of developer-led pressures on the marine environment is archaeology’s last frontier. Long inaccessible and invisible offshore, advances in technology have today propelled the sunken past into the consciousness of commercial archaeology. Arguably among no other form of heritage assets are archaeology and environment so complexly embedded. Lessons from the recent past have increasingly compelled developers to incorporate surveys of maritime seascapes into environmental impact assessments (coastal construction, sealane deepening, aggregate dredging, wind farms, and oil and gas pipeline and fiber-optic cable laying). Qualitative decisions about what to protect in situ, avoid, or excavate requires an objective understanding of significance assessment in relation to risk. The high profile of the United Nations Organization for Education, Science and Culture (UNESCO) Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage exerts increasing pressures on governments worldwide to seek sustainable development. Demersal bottom fishing, World War II shipwreck hull oil leakage, and global warming are newly emerged risks that require expanded heritage recognition.

Environmental Practice 18: 184–191 (2016)

Shale gas exploration involving hydraulic fracturing (fracking) has been on South Africa’s energy agenda since 2010 as a potential alternative to coal. Internationally, the desirability of fracking has been under debate, due to increasing evidence of associated environmental and health risks. There is limited research related to the public’s knowledge and risk perceptions of fracking, and none whatsoever from South Africa. This cross-sectional study explored, through a household survey, knowledge of, health risk perceptions of, and information sources related to fracking of 102 Central Karoo residents. Our results indicated that 40% of the participants do not know what fracking is or the potential risks and benefits thereof. The media is participants’ main information source (59.8%), and only half of the participants trust their information sources. Those with more trust in their information sources perceived fracking as posing a greater risk. Those believing fracking poses a low risk were more likely to trust the government and oil and gas companies. More than half of the participants (52.9%) believe that fracking poses an extreme health risk, and 78% think that fracking will harm their health. Despite this, 45% of the participants indicated a willingness to work in the fracking industry. The most commonly listed reasons for why fracking would make Karoo residents sick included water pollution (47.4%) and air pollution (19.6%). This study found high levels of risk uncertainty related to fracking among Central Karoo residents.

Environmental Practice 18: 53–68 (2016)

Government agencies, environmental consultants, and the public alike are frustrated by poor the coordination between agency planning and environmental impact assessment (EIA). Contracts for project design, construction, and management too often fail to provide for EIA, or to accommodate its results. A systematic review of standard contract documents and guidelines used by one major U.S. government agency revealed that they seldom took into account the need for EIA or provided for integrating the results of EIA into planning. Correcting these deficiencies was not very difficult. Other agencies may be well advised to undertake similar reviews.

Environmental Practice 18: 270–273 (2016)

With the rapid pace of development in the various shale plays across the United States, there is a cultural change for the electric utilities occurring. Electric power infrastructure is being rapidly constructed to support shale development that requires environmental review that was rarely conducted in the past. Power generation and transmission lines are an important cog in the development of this infrastructure but not in the limelight when discussing shale energy development. This presentation will highlight some of these shale plays, the infrastructure being built in support of these plays, and the key environmental issues that may impact the pace of development.

Environmental Practice 18: 125–128 (2016)

Federal water resources development planning and the associated environmental assessment processes have been very complex and expensive. Federal water resource agencies are reassessing approaches to planning, with the support of our leadership and legislators, which encourages National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) practitioners to apply the Council on Environmental Quality guidance to improve NEPA and to work with regulating agencies to streamline efforts and provide reasonable levels of information adequate for risk informed decision making.

Environmental Practice 18: 69–71 (2016)

In the late 20th century history of American historic preservation, public or social/council housing occupies a unique space. For over 20 years, American policy in this area, representing an investment of billions of taxpayer dollars, has been dominated by high-profile efforts to “transform” the downtowns of major American cities such as Chicago, Atlanta, and Houston by demolishing public housing projects that were located in the city outskirts when originally built. These efforts have engendered significant debates about historic preservation at every level of government and have produced federal policy decisions on the part of the United States (US) Departments of Housing and Urban Development and the Interior, which have facilitated the demolition of hundreds of thousands of units of public housing in America, which in most cases has not been replaced on a one-for-one basis and which is no longer affordable for the poor or near-poor. In the majority of cases, the National Park Service has supported extensive demolition of historic public housing projects, or at best, only token preservation of them. The role of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, which has never listed a public housing project in its annual list of “endangered” historic sites, has, at best, been to remain organizationally silent and, at worst, to partner with organizations such as the US Green Building Council and the Congress for the New Urbanism, organizations that would not exist in their present form without the use of public housing as a petri dish for their condescending neoliberal conceptions about how other people, particularly poor people, ought to live.

Environmental Practice 18: 192–204 (2016)

Public participation can not only contribute to improvement of decisions, but can also help in enhancing the capability of communities to solve problems and pursue common concerns. Arguably, a strong public participation in environmental governance could increase the commitment among stakeholders, which strengthens the compliance and enforcement of policies. Nevertheless, despite the critical importance of public participation in policy making, such involvements are not as effective as may be desired for logical conclusion and efficient implementation of policies. The near nonexistence of visualization tools at the disposal of the general public to aid in visual understanding of the problem is the major cause factor for the non-involvement and negligible influence of the populace in policy making. One such facility is being established at Wildlife Institute of India for visualizing the impacts of climate change on biodiversity of Indian Himalayan Region (IHR).

Environmental Practice 18: 129–131 (2016)

This brief article sketches the current situation regarding cultural heritage, community engagement, and environmental impact assessment in Australia. The country is by no means perfect when it comes to heritage management in the impact-assessment process. Yet, practitioners have evolved a set of common understandings concerning social value and community engagement that characteristically (though, of course, not inevitably) produce mutually-acceptable outcomes for all stakeholders. These understandings rest largely on the internationally-renowned “Burra Charter,” which applies to all cultural heritage in Australia, but are given added legal weight with regard to Indigenous heritage by Native Title legislation giving Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people a significant say in land use. The centrality of social value and community engagement is clear in the codes of ethics of professional organizations managing heritage in impact assessment, such as the Australian Archaeological Association and the Australian Association of Consulting Archaeologists Inc.

Environmental Practice 18: 205–208 (2016)

Federal agencies are made responsible for managing the historic properties under their jurisdiction by the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, as amended. A component of this responsibility is to mitigate the effect of a federal undertaking on historic properties through mitigation often through documentation. Providing public access to this documentation has always been a challenge. To address the issue of public access to mitigation information, personnel from Argonne National Laboratory created the Box Digital Display Platform, a system for communicating information about historic properties to the public. The platform, developed for the US Army Dugway Proving Ground, uses short introductory videos to present a topic but can also incorporate photos, drawings, GIS information, and documents. The system operates from a small, self-contained computer that can be attached to any digital monitor via an HDMI cable. The system relies on web-based software that allows the information to be republished as a touch-screen device application or as a website. The system does not connect to the Internet, and this increases security and eliminates the software maintenance fees associated with websites. The platform is designed to incorporate the products of past documentation to make this information more accessible to the public; specifically those documentations developed using the Historic American Building Survey/ Historic American Engineering Record (HABS/HAER) standards. Argonne National Laboratory’s Box Digital Display Platform can assist federal agencies in complying with the requirements of the National Historic Preservation Act.

Environmental Practice 18: 209–213 (2016)