The applicants and nominees listed below were recognized by the Governor 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:

IBM’s Surface Prep Manufacturing Engineering Team - At IBM, two high volume process steps in semiconductor manufacturing are involve the removal of organic and inorganic residuals. To accomplish this IBM has commonly used various mixtures of sulfuric and nitric acid. The bath life of the sulfuric-nitric mixture has been limited due to drag out and boil off of the nitric acid which is associated with the nature of the open bath tank tools utilized for the cleaning process. Extending the bath life was difficult since an improper mixture often resulted, making the bath unusable. In order to increase the life of the chemical bath and to improve process characteristics, a team consisting of process and equipment engineering staff evaluated replacing the oxidizer, nitric acid, with a different oxidizer, ozone gas. This allowed for local production and continuous addition of the oxidizer to the sulfuric acid bath and resulted in a substantial increase in the bath life, with an additional reduction in process chemical usage, as well as other benefits. Total savings as a result of this project are approximately $134,797 per year in chemical usage, floor space and energy savings.

IBM’s Resist Track Engineering and Cleaning Technology Development Team - At IBM, it was a collaborative effort that resulted in the development of a unique Coater Bowl Cleaning Operation. Coater bowls are where coatings are applied to microchips. The new cleaning process uses glacial acetic acid instead of more traditional organic solvents. Use of glacial acetic acid has three primary benefits. It reduces the quantity of chemical required to clean the bowls by 97%, it reduces the quantity of waste generated by the cleaning process -- also by 97%, and it allows for process wastes to be treated on-site in an existing biological wastewater treatment system. The process change and chemical input substitution prevents the use of and the need to dispose of 87,000 gallons of solvent a year. In addition, as compared to the former cleaning process, this process achieves annual savings of about $16,000 in waste disposal costs and about $280,000 in chemical costs, as well as $64,000 in reduced processing and space costs. Since the acetic acid and resist byproduct waste can be broken down by bacterial action on-site at the biological wastewater treatment system, the new process eliminates the need to ship this a hazardous waste off-site for treatment and disposal.

Stratton Mountain Resort - Stratton is a four-season destination resort that attracts nearly 600,000 visitors each year, and employs a full-time staff of between 225 and 1,150 people. Completed for the 1999-2000 ski season, Stratton spent $250,000 to remove the old cobblestone Village Walkway and replaced it with an innovative underground radiant heating system. The heated walkway helps protect upland streams and fish habitat by preventing the release of sand and salt into these sensitive and fragile ecosystems. In total, construction of the walkway has reduced the use of salt by approximately 1,500 pounds and they no longer need 63 tons of sand. With these reductions Stratton has reduced sediment and chemical loading to nearby surface waters. In addition, the project is estimated to have saved more than $60,000 in fuel costs associated with the snow-removal activities of plows, backhoes and bucket loaders. Now, when it snows on the mountains at Stratton, it never stays for very long on village sidewalks.

Tivoly, Inc. - The environment has always been of key concern to this tool-maker in Derby Line -- evidenced by this return to the State House for its second Governor’s Award. In efforts to go beyond compliance with regulations part of the Clean Air Act, Tivoly decided in 1998 to invest $600,000 to not simply reduce, but prevent the generation of barium exhaust from its salt bath operation, used to harden metal pieces. Making prevention the strategy of first choice, the company decided to eliminate its salt bath heating process entirely -- which consequently eliminated its use of barium -- and to install a modern vacuum furnace that now serves to harden the metal pieces. The vacuum furnace is safer, more energy-efficient, and far cleaner than the salt bath system it replaced. Where the salt bath system consumed 1,200,000 kwh/yr., the vacuum furnace requires only 132,000 kwh/yr. to operate. Additional savings are realized due to the avoidance of 30,000 pounds of salts -- which eventually required disposal as a hazardous waste, 25 drums of sand blasting material, and many gallons of cooling water no longer necessary with the vacuum treatment system.

Small Businesses:

Eastview Enterprises, Inc. - Eastview is a small manufacturing company located in East Hardwick that makes and markets Sylvacurl, a natural wood curl packaging product. Sylvacurl is an environmentally superior option to the ubiquitous petroleum-based styrofoam packing peanut. Over 300,000 cubic feet of styrofoam peanuts are produced annually using petroleum products, ozone-depleting CFCs, and hazardous Volitile Oranic Compounds. Research has shown that up to 40% of landfill space is taken up by waste packaging. Sylvacurl is manufactured from Aspen, a low-grade wood grown sustainably and in abundance throughout Vermont. The packaging product is biodegradable, thus it can be composted, it’s made from a renewable resource, and its final disposition need not be a landfill. Eastview uses a low-tech manufacturing process to make the wooden curls and uses whatever waste it generates in creative ways. For example, the sawdust generated by its drying operations is sold to another company which uses it as an ingredient for a gardener’s hand soap. Other fines and sawdust end up as bedding for animals and as mulch to be used by landscapers. Sylvacurl is a Vermont product that comes from the Earth – and ultimately goes back to the Earth.

Vermont Ware, Inc. - Vermont Ware is a 50 year old locally owned family company located in St. George. The company currently produces lawn and garden equipment, and provides powder coating services to other companies in Vermont and upstate New York. The company began operating its $700,000 powder coating operations in 1998. Vermont Ware decided to avoid more traditional wet, solvent-based surface coatings and opted instead for a powder coating system; a more technologically advanced system for applying a coating to metal and other surfaces. The powder consists of finely ground particles of pigment and resin. When electrically charged, these dry particles "cling" to the surface of the product, which is then sent by conveyor to the cure oven where a durable finish is baked on. Unlike wet coatings, powder coating doesn’t require venting, filtering, and solvent recovery systems to control the emissions of volatile organic compounds. As a result, powder coating eliminates the liquid and air pollutants typically produced by solvent-based paints. Vermont Ware applies the pollution prevention strategy as a cost-effective and environmentally superior alternative to solvent-based wet coating.

Wall/Goldfinger - Wall/Goldfinger is a small manufacturer of fine Executive Corporate Furniture located in Northfield. In a review of its operations, the company recognized process inefficiencies and decided to address them in order to prevent and reduce waste. The plan they developed focused primarily on improving manufacturing flow and reducing the environmental consequences of manufacturing operations. By consolidating duplicate furniture finishing rooms, they were able to reduce their inventory of flammable finishing products by more than 225 gallons, to centralize the hazardous waste collection area, and to reduce their generation of hazardous waste by 20%, or 744 pounds annually. By investing in High Volume & Low Pressure spray guns, coating efficiency is increased and waste generated by clean-up operations is reduced by one-third. Similarly, new fuel-efficient furnaces drastically cut fuel costs, prevent wood dust and moisture problems, and avoid the generation of waste oil. Wall/Goldfinger’s commitment to environmental training as a way to prevent pollution means that employees are informed and educated about the newest environmental technologies, the latest regulatory requirements, and the best way to create a safe and accident-free workplace.

For-Profit/Non-Profit Partnership:

WPTZ-TV, Key Bank and the Lake Champlain Basin Program - The power of a true partnership is in what is possible when people synergize. According to the dictionary, a synergism involves the action of two or more individuals to achieve an effect of which each is individually incapable. Champlain 2000 is an innovative and synergistic partnership that is gaining national attention as a model for how television stations, non-profit government organizations, community advisory boards and corporations can work together to raise public awareness about environmental issues. The program, which began airing in 1999, is actually a series of long format, in-depth news stories which run each Monday on WPTZ-TV’s 6:00 news show. With technical expertise brought to the partnership by WPTZ-TV and the Lake Champlain Basin Program, and with the funding of Key Bank, Champlain 2000 has already expanded to include vignettes highlighting positive, community-oriented environmental success stories. WPTZ has backed Champlain 2000 with an aggressive on-air promotion schedule – running more than 4,000 spots in less than a year. The most conservative estimate of the value of that time is well over $500,000. Videotapes of the program are distributed free of charge to more than 100 schools within the WPTZ viewing area.

Individual Citizens:

Steele and Teresa Griswold - The Onion River Farm, situated on the banks of the Allen and Muddy Brooks in Williston, is owned by Steele and Teresa Griswold and has been a large farm operation for more than a century. Most recently the farm has been used for cattle and horse ranching and has produced crops of corn and alfalfa, which are planted in rotation. The Griswolds are now semi-retired, but for the past two decades they have managed their farmland in a way that epitomizes good land stewardship. They have instituted conservation crop rotation on 7 acres of farm land. They created 30 acres of wetlands, they protected 3 acres of soil from erosion by planting trees and shrubs, and they actively manage 60 acres of open fields for hay. With more than a mile of farmland stretched along both the Allen and Muddy Brooks, the Griswolds have long recognized the importance of maintaining vegetated streambanks for wildlife, for flood control, and for water quality. Since July 1997, with the help of the Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the Vermont Youth Conservation Corps., more than one mile of flood damaged stream banks were repaired and revegetated using 300 woven brush rolls and 1,400 trees. Through their efforts, the Griswolds have helped create a healthy buffer strip that provides habitat and a travel corridor for wildlife as well as stable streambanks that reduce soil erosion, capture runoff from agricultural lands and protect water quality. Even in retirement, the Griswolds remind us of what it means to create a legacy we can all be proud to pass on to future generations.

David Blittersdorf - David Blittersdorf bought his Charlotte home five years ago. After making extensive energy efficiency improvements, taking advantage of passive solar heating opportunity in his garage and sunroom, and using solar energy for some of his home’s water heating, David decided to make further use of clean, renewable energy sources to generate his own electricity. In June of 1999, he installed an 80-foot high 10-kilowatt windmill in his backyard and solar photovoltaic panels on south-facing roofs. The solar portion of his home energy system was expanded to 5 kilowatts this past summer. With the solar expansion, David Blittersdorf’s wind and solar energy system is able to meet all of his home electrical needs and he no longer requires the energy typically supplied by his local electric utility. Each year, the wind and solar system of David’s home avoids the release of 24,000 pounds of carbon dioxide, 120 pounds of oxides of nitrogen, and 103 pounds of sulfur dioxide – emissions that would have been generated if coal had been the fuel source used to produce the electricity. Over its 30-year life, it is estimated that the home energy system will prevent the release of 360 tons of carbon dioxide, 1.8 tons of oxides of nitrogen, and 1.5 tons of sulfur dioxide. David Blittersdorf recently received net metering approval for his wind turbine from the Vermont Public Service Board. This will allow him to receive a credit from his local electric utility for any excess power his system generates. David is president and CEO of NRG Systems, a company that designs and manufactures wind measurement systems; he serves as chair of Renewable Energy Vermont; and is president-elect of the American Wind Energy Association.

Institutions and Municipalities:

University of Vermont Environmental Safety Facility - As part of a larger hazardous waste pollution prevention program at the University of Vermont, staff at the Environmental Safety Facility worked with professors and students using the 534 laboratories on campus to swap mercury-containing thermometers for environmentally safe, mercury-free thermometers. As early as 1997, the University’s Environmental Safety Facility technicians had expressed concern about the increasing number of mercury spills on campus related to broken thermometers. These spills represented potential health risks to students, staff and spill response personnel, and the cost of cleaning up and then disposing of the mercury and contaminated debris came to represent an ever-larger part of the hazardous waste clean-up budget. In response to these concerns, staff of the Environmental Safety Facility designed and implemented the Mercury Thermometer Swap program. The one-time investment of $16,535 for the 18-month program made possible the swap of mercury thermometers for green oil-based and red alcohol thermometers – at no cost to the labs. The Environmental Safety Facility collected 1,700 mercury thermometers, or about 15.17 pounds of mercury. Avoided waste disposal and clean-up costs are estimated at $8,700 per year, meaning the program will virtually pay for itself in two years.