Green 2001

SANTA BARBARA, CA -- The Green Award Consortium announced today winners of the eighth annual Green Awards, which recognize Santa Barbara County businesses and organizations for outstanding environmental efforts. "This year's winners have demonstrated creativity and a strong commitment to protecting the environment even in areas outside their traditional responsibilities," notes Alan Nakashima of the Santa Barbara County Public Works Solid Waste and Utilities Division. Nakashima adds, "Among their efforts, they have developed technological solutions to environmental issues and have educated and encouraged their clients, as well as their employees, to engage in environmentally friendly practices."

The other consortium members are Santa Barbara County Air Pollution Control District, the Community Environmental Council, Santa Barbara County Water Agency, and Traffic Solutions.

A common trait of 2001 Green Award Winners is their willingness to take the initiative to institute environmental programs in new areas. For example, businesses and organizations honored include: a waste hauling company that recognized a local need to recycle computer equipment, and found a way to meet this need; a nursery that became the first in the state to work toward a coveted environmental certification; and a community festival organization that has helped change the way other organizations will conduct festivals here in the future.

Honored this year with Green Awards are: Ever-Bloom (Carpinteria), Thompson-Naylor Architects (Santa Barbara), MarBorg Industries (Santa Barbara), Pacific Scientific EKD (Carpinteria), and the Santa Barbara French Festival (Santa Barbara).

The Green Award recognizes companies and organizations for voluntary activities, above and beyond their primary missions that result in cleaner air or water, less waste, less traffic, conservation of energy and natural resources, or reduced use of hazardous materials. The awards are an annual highlight of Pollution Prevention Week, celebrated nationally during the week of September 17-23. Winners will be honored at a special awards luncheon Friday, September 21.

At the awards luncheon, Southern California Gas Company will be presenting Energy Smart Awards to two of their customers. For information on this award, please see separate press release prepared by Southern California Gas.

Meet the Winners:

A description of the winners with contact numbers follows.

Ever-Bloom

Ed Van Wingerden, 684-5566

Ever-Bloom Nursery is the first nursery in the state applying ISO 14001 standards for superior environmental policies and practices. Through this voluntary program, similar to the renowned ISO 9000 quality management system, all environmental aspects of the facility and operations are controlled and documented in a framework that receives continuous review. The nursery recycles greenwaste, cardboard and scrap metal and uses a closed-loop hydroponics water system, which saves 50,000 gallons of water per day. Ever-Bloom has also built a "biofilter" pond to capture accidental run-off and storm-water runoff. In addition, the nursery actively looks for opportunities to use biological controls such as predacious insects, and to replace hazardous pesticides with naturally occurring products.

MarBorg Industries

Derek Carlson, 963-1852

MarBorg Industries, a locally owned and operated waste hauling firm, provides a number of programs that help keep recyclable and hazardous materials out of local landfills. The company has a free electronics recycling program that collects unwanted fax machines, computers, scanners, and other electronic devices for reuse and recycling. Usable computers are given to the Computers for Families organization for local distribution. In the first month alone, this program recycled over 25,000 pounds of material -- and over 75 high quality computers have been donated locally. In addition, reuse and recycling of computers keeps the heavy metals inside these systems from contaminating our soils and groundwater. MarBorg Industries also operates a construction and demolition waste recycling program. This program processes over 300 tons of material per day, six days a week and recycles extensive amounts of wood, concrete, asphalt, and metal.

Pacific Scientific EKD

Dora McCarty, 576-5000

Pacific Scientific EKD, located in Carpinteria, manufactures high reliability custom electrical generating equipment for aerospace and specialty markets. The company has implemented programs covering a range of environmental areas, including air pollution prevention, hazardous waste reduction, recycling and alternative transportation. Using water-based cleaners, Pacific Scientific successfully eliminated the use of trichloroethane and carbon black, and reduced hexavalent chromium and isocyonate emissions to the air. In addition, the company has a comprehensive facility-wide recycling program. Employees at Pacific Scientific carpool and have staggered shift times and four-day work weeks, which help reduce traffic and air pollution. Pacific Scientific EKD has also adopted a comprehensive environmental planning process to continually reduce the firm’s impact on the environment.

Santa Barbara French Festival

Steve or Laurence Hoegerman, 897-3810

The Santa Barbara French Festival has shown leadership in incorporating environmental awareness into public events in Santa Barbara. The Festival has developed a recycling program that is estimated to divert nearly 60% of the waste generated at the festival from the landfill. Large recycling dumpsters are placed in strategic locations for use by vendors, and smaller containers are placed throughout the park for use by festival attendees. Vendors are required to recycle all cardboard and glass, and are encouraged to use low- impact, lightweight materials for the items that cannot be recycled. The Festival also promotes alternate modes of transportation to event attendees. Steve Hoegerman, the French Festival Organizer, has worked with the City of Santa Barbara to educate other festival directors about this great program. Due in part to his efforts, the City has recently made recycling a requirement for all festivals held in Santa Barbara.

Thompson-Naylor Architects

Dennis Thompson, 966-9807

The firm of Thompson-Naylor Architects has instituted a number of environmentally friendly practices. In its office, the firm takes advantage of available natural light to reduce lighting needs, uses fluorescent lights in desk lamps, and looks for superior energy efficiency when purchasing office equipment. Employees run an extensive office recycling program, and give non-recyclable blueprint paper to local pre-schools for art paper. Employees are also encouraged to bike to work, and bicycle parking is available. In addition to these internal efforts, the firm actively promotes sustainable building practices to other professionals and the public through the firm’s participation in the Green Building Alliance, Parade of Green Buildings, and The Sustainability Project. Thompson-Naylor also encourages clients to choose sustainable products and designs for their projects, and directs clients to other green consultants and contractors.

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Green Award Winners Announced