The applicants and nominees listed below were recognized by the Governor in 1995 for their efforts to protect and enhance the environmental quality of Vermont by conserving natural resources and preventing pollution before it is generated. Where there are multiple award recipients in a single category, the panel of judges did not make a distinction between first, second, and third place winners. Thus, the award recipients are listed alphabetically.

Business/Industry/Trade/Professional Organizations

Large Businesses:

International Business Machines (IBM Chemical/ Environmental Programs) (Essex Jct., VT) - IBM manufactures semiconductor memory and logic components for computers. A third-time award recipient, IBM is recognized in 1995 for its reduction of greenhouse gas usage and emissions. Acting once again on its commitment to pollution prevention and to environmental protection, IBM engineers developed a process change in a critical microchip cleaning process that halved the use of hexafluoroethane gas and avoided the use of nitrogen trifluoride - both identified as harmful, greenhouse gases. In addition, cleaning cycle time was reduced by 25% with resultant energy savings. More precise control of the cleaning operation has also reduced tool damage avoiding the purchase of expensive, consumable machine parts. It is anticipated that hexafluoroethane gas usage will be reduced by 1.2 million liters in 1995 at a cost savings of $265,000 and that 38,600 liters of nitrogen trifluoride will be avoided at a cost savings of $41,000. Overall wafer processing costs for this cleaning step were reduced from $7.65 per wafer to $2.87 per wafer. The work undertaken by the IBM process and tooling engineering staff will be presented at an upcoming Advanced Semiconductor Manufacturing Conference.

Sheraton Burlington Hotel & Conference Center (Burlington, VT) - The Sheraton of South Burlington is Vermont's largest hotel and conference center with 309 guest rooms, numerous conference rooms, dining areas, and a spa. They employ between 225 and 300 full and part-time employees. Recognized for its source reduction and recycling efforts, the Sheraton Burlington has shown itself to be a leader within the hospitality industry. Having already received recognition as a "Partner in Recycling" by the Chittenden County Solid Waste District this Governor's Award recognizes not only their efforts to recycle wastes, but also to conserve resources, to source reduce, and to involve staff and guests in waste reduction efforts. The Sheraton Burlington has reduced energy consumption (and costs) by upgrading to high-efficiency fan and pump motors and lighting systems, conserved water by retrofitting with low-flow fixtures, created practical and charitable reuse options for what might otherwise be disposed of as waste, and composted kitchen fruit and vegetable scraps in a pilot project with the University of Vermont's farm.

Small Businesses:

Hubbardton Forge (Castleton,VT) - Hubbardton Forge, formerly Glennbrook Manufacturing Corp., employs 42 people to manufacture fine quality hand-forged wrought iron lighting and home accessories. Beginning in 1991, Hubbardton Forge began investigating the use of an electrostatic powder coating system to address a number of problems caused by its use of a solvent-based spray coating. Product quality concerns, process control concerns, and concern for the environment all pointed to the need to switch to a different finishing technology. After trying out a small pilot powder coating system in 1993, Hubbardton Forge invested in a new cleaning system, an automated line, and a large process oven, funding half the project cost internally and securing the balance from its bank. After almost two years of operation now, the electrostatic powder coating system has largely eliminated VOC emissions and 98% of the company's hazardous waste generation. Air quality within the plant is vastly better and product quality is improved due to a more uniform and durable finish. Combining 100-year old blacksmith forging techniques with state-of-the-art powder coating technology has allowed the company to prevent pollution, produce a quality product, and prosper economically -- all at the same time.

J. K. Adams Co. (Dorset, VT) - J. K. Adams employs 60 people to manufacture fine wood products. As part of the manufacturing process, wood is coated with protective finishes such as sealers and lacquer topcoats. These finishes are often spray-applied and solvent-based. Being solvent-based, they generate volatile organic compounds, or VOCs, which are a basic ingredient in the formation of low level ozone or smog. In the spring of 1994, J. K. Adams became one of the few companies to successfully make the transition from solvent- to water-borne materials in its finishing operations. This transition is not an easy one as it typically takes months, if not years, working with coatings suppliers, equipment vendors, and customers to implement the change. Because the finish is water-based, the company had to invest in expensive drying equipment. In addition, water-borne finishes are currently more expensive than their solvent-based counterparts. This project could not, therefore, be justified by cost savings, a common yardstick for change, as there were none. Instead, J. K. Adams affixed value to the environmental benefits of making the transition, to the likelihood that the effort would help them to achieve exempt small quantity generator status, and to the improved worker health and safety conditions that would result.

Southworth-Milton, Inc. (Richmond, VT) - Southworth-Milton employs 21 people who sell, repair, and provide preventative maintenance services for Caterpillar heavy equipment. Two years ago, Southworth-Milton generated over 21,000 pounds of hazardous waste. In 1994, Southworth-Milton shipped less than 2,700 pounds of hazardous waste to treatment and disposal facilities. This dramatic reduction was the result of toxics use and hazardous waste reduction efforts. The company's most significant wastestream is spent absorbents from the cleanup of oil and antifreeze spills on the shop floor. This wastestream was virtually eliminated by training employees how to prevent spills and by investing in two air-powered wet vacs - one designated for oil and fuel spills, and the other for antifreeze. Any residue left on the shop floor after vacuuming is wiped up using launderable rags. In addition, they've instituted oil testing to reduce premature changeouts, replaced their hazardous solvent-based cleaners with citrus-based cleaners, installed an aqueous jet-spray parts washer to replace solvents, and constructed a state-of-the-art, zero-discharge floor drain and closed-loop washwater recycling system in order to eliminate all wastewater discharges to the environment.

Individual Citizens

Irene Sawyer - Irene Sawyer is the recycling coordinator for the Northeast Kingdom Waste Management District. She has been there since 1987. The Northeast Kingdom District is made up of 27 towns - representing a vast area with a limited human population of around 20,000. Irene has been the driving force behind the district wide composting project. Eight schools now have a total of 4 three-bin composting systems and 7 worm farms. She has also started 3 recycling stations at their recycling aggregation facility and collects food from local sources for composting. Each composting system was made out of reused wooden pallets serving three purposes; recycling, saving money, and building bins that really work. Irene arranged teacher workshops on composting at the Recycling Center and has introduced school recycling projects at each of the secondary schools in the district -- and a few outside the district as well. Irene has demonstrated an ability to infect people with her enthusiasm and to take limited local resources and use them to their best advantage. This causes a synergistic effect, where her own enthusiasm and commitment to environmental protection and resource conservation is multiplied again and again by the people whose lives she touches - and forever changes.

Public Agencies

United States Postal Service - Springfield District (Springfield, VT) Throughout Vermont, in the 268 Post Offices and the 2 Processing and Distribution Facilities, there has been a quiet revolution of environmental reform and leadership. With the goal of achieving a 25% reduction in the quantity of both solid and hazardous waste generated in 1995, with 1992 as the base year, the United States Postal Service has instituted a comprehensive waste minimization and pollution prevention program. To achieve their 25% reduction goal staff, supervisors, and managers of the Springfield District have instituted pollution prevention initiatives related to vehicle maintenance and servicing, affirmative procurement of environmentally preferred products, environmental management of all wastes and environmental media that strives to surpass mere compliance with regulations, and a mixed paper recycling program that allows for recycling of all its undeliverable bulk business mail. This undeliverable bulk business mail represents from 50 to 70 percent of the waste generated at Post Offices nationwide and the Springfield District was the first district in the nation to achieve 100% undeliverable bulk business mail recycling. Approximately 900 tons of this mail now gets recycled in Vermont each year. The district is also the first to recycle out-dated computers containing lead solder and mercury switches at an electronic de-manufacturing facility. In addition, a Postmaster's Environmental Compliance Guidebook was released in January. The guidebook provides detailed information about each of the environmental initiatives and is an important training tool for new postal employees. The U. S. Postal Service serves us all twice, by seeing that our mail is delivered in a timely and cost-efficient manner and by practicing pollution prevention for a safe and healthy environment.

Vermont Department of Liquor Control - "Boxes to Bags" somewhat cryptically sums up an answer to the question, "What do you do with 216,000 pounds of corrugated waste?" Prior to passage of the bottle deposit law, empty corrugated packing boxes were given away to the public, but eventually found their way into landfills as discarded waste. With passage of the bottle deposit law it became necessary to reuse these corrugated boxes for shipping empty bottles back to the warehouse for recycling. Today, the glass is sorted by color, crushed into cullet, and sold to a recycler. The corrugated boxes are compacted into half-ton bales and shipped to a paper mill where the cardboard is remanufactured into liquor bottle bags. Purchased and used by the Vermont Department of Liquor Control, these bags are testimony to how you can close the loop on waste. It has been said that waste is simply a resource we haven't yet found a use for. The Vermont Department of Liquor Control's Boxes to Bags program exemplifies how ingenuity and environmental leadership can net both positive environmental and economic results.

VTANR Award for Exemplary P2 Planning

Yankee Corporation - About 225 Vermont companies that generate hazardous waste in sufficient quantities were required to develop pollution prevention plans beginning in 1992 and 1993. The Yankee Corporation, in Fairfax, a manufacturer of precision cutting tools, developed an exemplary plan in all aspects. While these pollution prevention plans are not public records and are more typically retained at the facility, the Yankee Corporation voluntarily submitted its plan to the Agency of Natural Resources for review. The plan was developed entirely with in-house resources with much of the actual work being done by Elmer Baker, the company's hazardous waste manager. The plan will serve as an excellent baseline document for evaluating new technologies and for using a broad assortment of pollution prevention strategies to reduce and, in some cases, eliminate their generation of hazardous wastes. The Yankee Corporation's plan will also serve as a valuable tool for measuring progress due to the implementation of pollution prevention measures. Through the planning process, the Yankee Corporation was able to identify several measures for reducing its metalworking fluid wastestream. These pollution prevention strategies, if successfully implemented, could combine to achieve anticipated reductions of close to 6,000 pounds annually.