Congratulations to our team supporting the Center for Disease Control (CDC) for receiving the Green Sustainability Award of Excellence. Our team led the charge helping CDC to upgrade their spill cabinets across all campuses (Atlanta, GA; Fort Collins, CO; San Juan, PR), which now include a more sustainable material called Trivorex ®. This highly absorbent substance helps neutralize chemicals, reducing human risk. Not only is Trivorex ® better for the environment, it is also more durable with a longer life span. Our team took the lead in preparing 155 cabinets, then distributing 135 throughout the CDC campuses. By purchasing the material in bulk, the team is saving the client 58% in purchasing and shipping costs. This was a massive undertaking that our team of experienced safety specialists was able to execute in a timely manner. In addition, with the estimated savings on waste removal, the cabinets will pay for themselves within two years. As an added bonus, our team helped upgrade the spill cabinet’s gloves to give laboratorians better dexterity and comparable protection at a reduced cost. The orange Nitrile gloves pictured below are twice the thickness of a normal Nitrile surgical glove, and provide good protection for poisons, acids and bases. The clear gloves were designed for NASA to use for solvents which are used heavily by CDC’s laboratorians. Combined, these new gloves save the client even more in material cost.

Metal cabinet reads Chemical Spill Control Center

New spill cabinet.

Open cabinet holds containers of chemicals, several bags, and a dust pan

Trivorex ® (lower left) a chemical neutralizer now included in each spill cabinet.

Two rubber gloves: one orange and one clear.

The new gloves are highly protective for a lower cost.

See More CSS Insights

Bare Earth with sparse grass

Remediating Soil Surrounding Abandoned Mines 

CSS employees have been providing field, lab, and horticultural support for the Environmental Protection Agency’s efforts to develop and test methods for the remediation and revegetation of contaminated soils around selected abandoned mines in the western United States. One of the promising approaches is to incorporate biochar into the soil. Using biochar helps effectively adsorb trace metals and reduce their…

Beakers on a lab counter

An Approach to Assessing Laboratory Space 

CSS employee owners were part of a team of scientists at the National Institutes of Health who developed an approach to evaluating new laboratory space to determine if the space will fit operational needs. This concept, titled The BaseLINE Approach, combines traditional safety processes with additional safety and environmental factors to assess before operations begin.…

Satellite image of hurricane approaching Florida

Supporting the Launch of NOAA Data to Inform More Resilient Infrastructure Designs and Structures

Congratulations to NOAA for launching their new Typical Meteorological Year product, developed by the National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) as part of the industry initiative. This effort helps make environmental data actionable for architects and engineers designing the next generation of resilient infrastructure. CSS is proud to support this effort and our employee owners who contributed to this product.  The Typical Meteorological Year (TMY) product provides location-specific…