Educational Resources
Here you will find:
- Recipes and curriculum that IES provides at our community workshops
- A downloadable wallet card for a quick reference to contaminants of emerging concern (CECs) when shopping
- The chemical footprint (CFP) water cycle game
- Summaries and papers of graduate capstone projects in collaboration with IES
- Our reference books.
Reduce your chemical footprint with the tools available below! These resources will inform consumers about personal care and household products to use that reduce the amount of contaminants entering our waterways. To make a larger impact, we encourage you to share our educational resources with others in your community. For more information on specific activities or if you have questions, please email Solutions@i4es.org.
Videos
Helpful Smartphone Applications
The following smartphone applications educate users on potentially harmful ingredients in personal care and household products when shopping and cleaner options.
Watch a Think Dirty tutorial video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wi2GU03b44
Watch a Healthy Living tutorial video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rUAV3qm3uQ
Handouts
1. Wallet card
Download, print, fold, and store this card in your wallet or purse for a quick and easy way to remind yourself of common CECs to avoid when shopping for personal care or household products!
2. Ten Effective Ways to Reduce Your Chemical Footprint!
Download the document to learn about ten simple and effective ways to reduce your chemical footprint and protect environmental and human health!
3. For Teachers
CFP Water Cycle Game (Elementary – Middle School)
Download the documents below to obtain all the materials necessary for conducting the fun, educational, and interactive CFP Project water cycle game. The game is well suited for elementary and middle school students. The activity will enable students to model the water cycle and how pollution from houses can permeate the entire system. Students will travel to different locations in the water cycle based on the roll of a die.
4. IES Chemical Footprint reading and viewing list
The Chemical Footprint (CFP) Reading and Viewing List includes easily available information about Chemical Footprint and alternatives to Contaminants of Emerging Concern (CECs). Special thanks to the Jefferson County Public Library in Golden.
5. Guide to Contaminant-Free Shopping
This buyer’s guide will help consumers avoid exposure to harmful contaminants through making informed shopping choices. This guide includes a glossary of CECs and information covering the categories of food and personal care products. The guide provides information about each CECs to watch out for, where it is found, alternative product choices, and local stores to purchase the safer items. Consult this buyer’s guide when you are making your shopping list or bring it along to the store to consult for safe product purchases.
6. IES Chemical Footprint Contaminant-Free Beauty Products Guide
This guide and recipe resource is intended to help consumers avoid exposure to harmful contaminants through making informed shopping choices and making your own contaminant-free beauty products. It includes a glossary of CECs, and provides information covering the essential oils that are great for skin and hair care. The guide provides information about how to use natural oils, along with some easy recipes to make a variety of non-toxic skin and hair care products with simple ingredients. Consult this guide and recipe list to protect yourself and your family from contaminant exposure and to reduce your “chemical footprint”.
Reference Books
The Institute for Environmental Solutions has created two reference books that teach about CECs and how to reduce chemical footprints: The Contaminants of Emerging Concern Guidebook and the Reduce Your Chemical Footprint Handbook. Both of these educational tools are anticipated to be publicly released sometime in 2022. Please check back soon for the free downloadable documents.
- The IES Contaminants of Emerging Concern Guidebook is a compilation of peer-reviewed scientific research on selected contaminants of emerging concern (CECs). CECs are unregulated and potentially toxic substances that pose a threat to human and environmental health and can be found in many personal care and household products including bug repellant, air fragrances, toothpaste, and hand sanitizer amongst many others. Each chapter focuses on a specific contaminant that is found in household or personal care products. Chemical relevance, human and environmental health impacts, environmental persistence, regulatory status, and alternatives to CECs are researched for each contaminant. Contaminants in the Guidebook are targeted based on their ability to be detected and analyzed, and the possibility of reducing prevalence by behavior change in users.
- The IES Reduce Your Chemical Footprint Handbook provides an overview of the chemical exposure challenge, detailing the nature of the problem and the options for properly responding. Each chapter can be individually assessed.
Graduate Student Capstone Projects
Below are the project papers produced through collaboration between CFP Project and University of Colorado Denver graduate students for their final year capstone projects and summaries of each. These projects enable students to enhance their professional and research skills while helping IES better achieve its goals and objectives.
- Mimi Mahan – GIS Analysis of Sheridan Regional Water Transport: Where does your water come from?
- Reducing Chemical Footprints in the Front Range
Other Publications
Other publications including reports and notes on previous CFP Project educational presentations and workshops can be downloaded from our CFP Project presentations and publications webpage.