What is SQRC?
Barbara Kanegsberg
Ed Kanegsberg
Surface Quality Resource Center, SQRC, is a not for profit, 501c3 organization.
We established SQRC as a separate entity from our consultancy to utilize
our decades of experience in chemistry, clinical chemistry, physics,
and process
development for productive, environmentally-preferred projects. Industrial
activities are reality of contemporary life; the need to protect our environment
is also a reality.
The SQRC charter encompasses two basic areas:
•Education and outreach to industry and to communities
•Developing and implementing practical, environmentally-preferred processes
The world is complex and multifaceted; we are convinced that education
is crucial to environmental improvement. Certainly, we continue
to educate ourselves.
Education is important for industry, including fabrication
and rework, in order to understand the benefits and limitations of
environmentally-preferred
processes
and also to enable such processes to be adopted.
We consider education of communities impacted by industrial
activities to be crucial. Communities near industrial sites
may find either
a complete lack
of information, or they may be deluged by weighty, incomprehensible
reports. In order for communities to respond effectively
industry and governmental
reports, community members need a working understanding of
the basics of industrial
activities.
Our activities also include worker safety issues, because, while regulations typically distinguish environmental problems from worker safety problems, industry has to consider both worker safety and environmental requirements before adopting a new process.
Practical, environmentally-preferred processes
SQRC fosters the development and use of practical, environmentally-preferred
processes through education, developmental research,
and direct partnering/demonstration projects with manufacturers.
We are
concerned that all too many “environmental” processes
don’t actually get used. The process may be ignored ( using the “if
it’s green, it can’t be any good” rationale), inappropriately
utilized, or inadequately adopted. An inefficient process that is labeled as “environmental” but
wastes resources is likely to have a negative net impact on both the environment
and on the manufacturer’s product line. Many “environmental” processes
could be adopted with a bit more development and education.