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E-mail This StoryThe City of Plano hosted its annual Environmental Community Awards Thursday at the Conference Center at Collin County Community College/Spring Creek. The awards are designed to recognize and celebrate successful environmental projects and the organizations that have improved the community. Recognition was given to area businesses, individuals and schools who have lead the community in sustainability efforts.
Mayor Pat Evans hosted the event with Councilmember Lee Dunlap acting as the Master of Ceremonies. Expressions, Collin College vocal jazz ensemble, performed. The invocation was given by Don Underwood, Senior Pastor of Christ United Methodist Church, the first LEED certified church sanctuary in Texas.
Nancy Nevil, Director of the Plano Sustainability and Environmental Services Department, addressed the Green State of the City.
“Today is a celebration of… the people that are in this room that have come alongside the City of Plano to lead in this effort, to lead in changing behavior, attitude, processes and programs in order for us to have a more sustainable community,” she said.
Nevil said over the past year, the city has given 50 group presentations, reaching about 1,600 people. Since the inception of the city’s Live Green Volunteer program, 100 residents have been trained and now volunteer with the city.
Michele Carey-Dave, Daffron Elementary PTA Environmental Chair, delivered the keynote address. She stressed the importance of allowing children the opportunities to take part in sustainability practices.
“With the collaboration between the City of Plano and Plano ISD, students have the opportunity in their everyday habits to achieve an understanding of science and civics while doing the right thing for the planet,” she said. “Sixty-eight schools have single stream recycling in place and 33 are currently taking part in the organic recycling program, a program that covers the basic tenets of science and the virtues of citizenship.”
Carey-Dave leads Daffron students in the Kids for Saving Earth program.
2008 Environmental Community Awards
Community Involvement School Awards
Outstanding School Composting Award n Daffron Elementary
Outstanding Elementary Environmental Awareness Group n Beverly Elementary
Outstanding Secondary Environmental Awareness Group n Wilson Middle School
Outstanding Campus Beautification Award n Wilson Middle School
School Recycling Incentive Award Winners
First place winners were awarded $1,500, second place received $1,200 and third place received $1,000.
Elementary:
1st Hunt
2nd Dooley
3rd Weatherford
Secondary:
1st Bowman Middle School
2nd Wilson Middle School
3rd Armstrong Middle School
Outstanding Single Stream n Shepton High School
Outstanding Organic n McCall Elementary
Most Improved n Daffron Elementary
2008 Environmental Star of Excellence Awards
All 10 Environmental Star of Excellence Award winners were awarded $500 to designate toward community environmental projects or programs.
Environmental Community Partner - Dr Pepper Snapple
Dr Pepper Snapple demonstrates its commitment to the community and environment through its employee volunteer program. Each quarter volunteer projects for employee involvement are selected. Last year they were involved in three projects encouraging sustainable lifestyles: door-to-door delivery of Live Green in Plano starter kits; improvements to and expansion of the Plano Community Garden; and the Spruce-up Day for Senior’s homes. Their employees donated over 810 volunteer hours to these three projects.
Honorable Mention n Pioneer Place Senior Housing and First United Methodist Church
Non-Profit - Collin County Association of Realtors
The Collin County Association of Realtors’ Leadership Class III, comprised of 22 members, chose as their required legacy project a “Go Green” theme. The project will be in existence for the lifetime of the organization and includes the following actions: replacing Styrofoam food service items with dishes and silverware; replacing conventional light bulbs with compact fluorescents; and, providing energy efficient fields as search criteria for their Multiple Listing Service (MLS).
Honorable Mention n Prairie Creek Baptist Church
Multi-Family - Pioneer Place Senior Housing
Pioneer Place Senior Housing is a HUD-subsidized complex of 62 apartments for low-income senior residents. To defray the food expenses of the residents, they developed a community garden with 18 raised cedar planting beds, two handicap beds with a work table, an irrigation system, a creek bed with a bio-retention pond/rain garden, a potting table/podium for garden club meetings, compost bin, picnic tables, several arbors and four concrete benches. Obstacles they overcame included lack of funding for the project, the need to communicate to residents in five languages, and an unacceptable garden site.
Neighborhood Group/HOA - Creekside North Home Owners Association
Under project name, The BIG Sweep, the Creekside North Home Owners Association (CNHOA) accomplished a cleanup and landscaping of the entry with drought-tolerant plants, installed a drip irrigation system, and provided naming and signage for the Cottonwood Creek Greenbelt Park. These green initiatives provided an environmental benefit to the neighborhood and created a stronger, unified community among the families who worked side-by-side.
Honorable Mention n Wentworth Estates
Individual - Susan Norton
Susan spearheaded efforts to develop a garden at Pioneer Place Senior Housing for seniors to raise vegetables to defray their living expenses. She encouraged green practices with Creekside North HOA projects such as landscaping with Xeriscape and Waterwise principles in communal areas. Susan continues to be an exceptional “green” community activist!
Honorable Mention n Debra Saxon and Maria Gant
Educational Institution - John Paul II High School
The leaders of John Paul II High School shared a vision that their school’s location, a former office building, could not only be a first class educational institution, but one that was constructed with the environment in mind. They reused 95 percent of all plumbing. All concrete removed was sent to Garland Concrete Recycling Plant. They used 100 percent of all existing electrical, heating, venting and air conditioning material. The water for their practice fields is 100 percent reclaimed runoff water.
Green Building - Rogers-O’Brien Construction
Since 1969, Rogers-O’Brien Construction Company has offered clients specialized knowledge to tackle a wide variety of construction projects. For Billingsley Development’s International Business Park n Phase 15 Project located in Plano, the firm’s work began with a change of mindset. About 95 sub-contractor team members were involved in the overall success of the project, which included recycling 99 percent of the construction debris resulting in a mere one percent being landfilled! The end goal is to become the City of Plano’s first LEED Gold Certified building.
Honorable Mention n Frito Lay, Intuit and Bob Moore Construction
Organic Recycling - Whole Foods
Whole Foods has participated for over seven years in the City of Plano’s organic recycling program by recycling food waste. When the store’s involvement faced suspension due to site and internal concerns, employees rallied and the store installed a 30-yard compactor dedicated to collecting organic material. Whole Foods’ commitment stands even at a cost to haul the organic materials to the City’s compost site in Melissa, Texas. Whole Foods n Plano has recycled over 600 cubic yards of material in the last six months and is the only store in the Whole Foods Southwest Region which participates at this level in an organics recycling program.
Honorable Mention n Asia World Market
Single Stream - Perot Systems Corporation
The company’s Project Green Program involves employee education and participation by the site’s landscapers, vendors and contractors. The Plano facility recycles commodities ranging from wood, batteries, computer equipment, toner cartridges and landscape trimmings. Among the range of items collected for recycling in 2007, Perot Systems recycled 514 tons of general waste, 36 tons of metal, 200 tons of organics and 368 tons of landscape materials.
Outstanding Environmental Commitment n Frito Lay
At the Plano headquarters, home to 2,800 associates, Frito Lay increased its general sustainability education and efforts. A solar hot water system reduced energy use, eliminating 33,000 pounds of greenhouse gases in its first three months of operation. Through single-stream recycling, the company diverted 484 tons (36 percent of its waste stream) from the landfill. Frito-Lay recycles 100 percent of its landscape materials through composting and their kitchen participates in the City of Plano’s organic recycling program.
Honorable Mention n Texas Instruments/Spring Creek and Dr Pepper Snapple
