By Elizabeth Saunders, Massachusetts Director
This weekend, Clean Water Action honored Ken Geiser, Co-Director of the Lowell Center for Sustainable Production at UMass Lowell on the occasion of his retirement.
Ken was a primary author of the Toxics Use Reduction Act (TURA), which was enacted by the Massachusetts legislature in 1989 and made Massachusetts a national leader in reducing the use and release of toxic chemicals. Then served as the founding director of the Toxics Use Reduction Institute, which was created by the law. In it's 20+ years of existence, the TURA program has worked with Massachusetts companies to reduce 40% of their use and 80% of their release of toxic chemicals, all while saving million of dollars.
As a professor at the University of Massachusetts, Ken deeply influenced many students and helped to inspire them to go on to achieve great accomplishments in the environmental health movement. At a reception in his honor over the weekend, all of his former students present in the room were asked to stand. Among those who rose were internationally renowned experts on toxic chemicals policy, leaders of national non-profit organizations, and government officials, including EPA Administrator Nominee Gina McCarthy.
Beyond the borders of Massachusetts, and even the United States, Ken is a widely recognized expert on environmental and occupational health policy. He has served as an advisor to many governments develop toxic chemical policy including the States of California and New York and the European Union. He has also helped to found numerous NGOs--including the National Toxics Coalition, Healthy Building Network and Clean Production Action--and multi sector collaborations--such as the National Pollution Prevention Roundtable and Interstate Chemicals Clearinghouse.
In September 2012, in anticipation of his retirement, Clean Water Action Massachusetts presented Ken with a Lifetime Achievement Award. We have been honored to work with him on so many campaigns and to have been influenced by his sharp strategic sense and his warm heart in all of our work. Ken is a visionary, a policy innovator, a people motivator and a coalition builder. The ripple effects of his accomplishments will be felt across the globe for many years to come, perhaps forever.
