2003 Governor's Award Recipients

Environmental Excellence in
Pollution Prevention
Projects in this category reduce or eliminate the generation of pollutants and wastes at the source. The award category also includes toxics use reduction (TUR) efforts.

Efficiency Vermont/Village of Essex Junction | Wastewater Treatment Facility Methane Cogeneration Project

Underscoring the benefit of creating strategic alliances and partnerships the first award in this category goes to the Village of Essex Junction and Efficiency Vermont, the nation’s first statewide energy efficiency utility. Working in concert, the two entities installed microturbine technology to convert waste methane gas at its municipal wastewater treatment facility into electricity and usable heat. Application of this innovative technology at a small wastewater facility is the first of its kind in New England. Prior to this project, the facility was only able to use about 55% of its methane waste as fuel. With the microturbine technology installed the facility now is able to convert nearly 100% of its methane waste into approximately 450-500,000 kWh of electricity annually, which otherwise would have been purchased from the local utility. This represents an energy cost savings to the Village of nearly $32,000 annually. The facility's new cogeneration system will also prevent approximately 600,000 pounds of power plant carbon dioxide emissions each year. This is equivalent to taking approximately 200 cars off the road each year.

The Essex Junction facility is a pioneer in the use of this energy-efficient technology for a small wastewater facility. The plant is the first in New England to implement the microturbine technology and serves as a model for any processing facility, large or small. Prior to this application, microturbines had only been used at very large wastewater facilities. While the Essex Junction facility is one of the ten largest in Vermont, it is considered relatively small by national standards. By implementing this project, the Essex Junction plant has provided the wastewater industry with first hand evidence that microturbines provide both economic and environmental benefits for both large and small facilities.

 

International Business Machines Corporation | Ethylene Glycol and Hydrofluoric Acid Reduction

A giant in the world of the exceedingly small, IBM Burlington continues to exemplify how an ongoing commitment to pollution prevention and continuous improvement helps reduce chemical use and waste generation in semiconductor manufacturing operations.

A critical process step in Burlington manufacturing consists of cleaning and etching computer wafers with a mix of hydrofluoric acid and ethylene glycol. This unique combination of an organic chemical and a corrosive inorganic presented many challenges in handling waste discharges, as most facility’s systems are designed to treat either organic or inorganic applications, but not both. IBM Burlington process, environmental and facilities engineers recognized the wasteful nature of existing operations and undertook a project to optimize chemical use, to reduce waste generation, and to tighten process parameters. A team effort resulted in chemical use reduction through equipment redesign and process optimization. Additionally, the hazardous waste that was once generated and shipped off-site for treatment can now be treated on-site using a biological treatment system.

The project has resulted in significant cost savings, improved process stability in a critical semiconductor manufacturing process step, and created environmental, health and safety benefits extending beyond IBM to the worldwide semiconductor industry. IBM Burlington has realized an overall chemical use reduction of approximately 4,250 lbs/year and reduced the off-site hazardous waste shipments by approximately 48,000 lbs/year with more than 145,000 lbs treated since 2001. Cost savings from this project have totaled $86,550 to date in chemical and hazardous waste disposal costs with on going annual savings anticipated to be approximately $22,000.

Once again, IBM displays through its actions its firm commitment to achieving environmental excellence – on an on-going basis. This is the eleventh year now that IBM has been recognized for its contributions to a vibrant economy and an environment we can all live with.

 

Jeffrey Turner - Jeff’s Auto & Salvage | Environmental Best Management Practices at an Auto Salvage Yard

Since 1980, Jeff Turner has been in business for himself. What began, however, as an autobody shop has since evolved into a small auto salvage operation that exemplifies what creativity, ingenuity, and an eye toward minimizing the environmental consequences of operations can achieve. Jeff’s Auto & Salvage is a one man operation that manages no more than 500 used vehicles at one time on 3 acres buffered by an additional 17 acres of woodland.

In a business that has a somewhat tarnished reputation what we’ve come to term “junk yards” have been literally redefined by the work of Jeff Turner. Jeff has shown that a one-man salvage yard can be operated fully compliant with environmental regulations by incorporating pollution prevention and resource recovery strategies into everyday business practice. His has been an investment not only in equipment, but in a way of looking at the world that allows him to visualize how one person’s trash can be managed to become his treasure.

Turner understands the “keep it off the ground” stratagem behind waste fluids management and has devised several ingenious devices to help him do this. He created and built an innovative mobile fluids removal unit largely from parts taken from his own salvage yard. This machine allows Turner to pull right up to a wrecked vehicle and suctions out three different fluids; oil, antifreeze, and windshield washer fluid that he bulks for reuse centrally. Gasoline is siphoned from vehicles using a separate device. He also built a special dismantling stage to further ensure that vehicle fluids do not contaminate soils.

Jeff Turner is living proof that a “one man” salvage operation can provide service to a community while remaining compliant with environmental regulations, incorporating pollution prevention strategies into all that he does, and still making a living. While many other small auto salvage yard owners said it simply couldn’t be done, Turner has proved them wrong, for all the right reasons.

 

Environmental Excellence in
Environmental Stewardship & Resource Protection
Projects with measurable and direct benefits to air, land or water - or fish, wildlife and human communities dependent upon a clean and healthy environment.

Northern Vermont Resource Conservation & Development Council | Better Backroads: Clean Water You Can Afford

Sedimentation of surface waters is a major cause of water quality problems and aquatic habitat loss in Vermont…and unpaved backroads have been a source for much of that sediment getting into Vermont’s lakes, ponds, rivers, and streams. In Vermont, more than 65% of local roads have unpaved surfaces.

Working to help those responsible for maintaining Vermont’s backroads in a manner that prevents soil erosion and sedimentation has been a priority for The Northern Vermont Resource Conservation & Development Council. Since 1974, The Council has promoted the wise use and development of natural resources to improve the local economy and people’s standard of living in the northern eight counties of Vermont. And since 1994, the Council has administered and coordinated a statewide called The Better Backroads Program. This program is a joint effort of the Northern Vermont Resource Conservation & Development Council, the Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation, the Vermont Local Roads Program, the Vermont Agency of Transportation, and the George D. Aiken Resource Conservation & Development Council.

The Better Backroads Program provides technical and financial assistance to municipal road managers to maintain unpaved backroads in a manner that minimizes soil erosion and thus protects Vermont waterways. Proper road maintenance techniques are cost effective and are proven to protect water quality. The Program goals are accomplished through the development and distribution of guides, handbooks, and the Vermont Better Backroads Manual, now in its second printing due to high demand and popularity. Town road crews, private road maintenance and construction companies, selectboards, lake, river and watershed associations, and Vermont property owners all have benefited from use of these educational materials.

A small grants program helps fund erosion inventories and erosion control projects. Since 1997, the Program has awarded 119 grants to 93 Vermont towns and organizations. In addition “Road Doctors” provide advice, lending many years of experience and expertise to Vermont towns. By addressing non-point source pollution using cost-effective strategies, The Northern Vermont Resource Conservation & Development Council has elevated the Better Backroads Program as a model for what can be done to ensure that we all have clean surface waters we can afford.

 

City of South Burlington Planning & Zoning Department | Stormwater Pollution Prevention and Reduction

The City of South Burlington Planning & Zoning Department administers the municipal land use regulations for 15,800 people over an area of about 16 square miles. The Department manages the local zoning regulations, writes or oversees municipal plans and special studies, and provides technical support to the city council, development review board, design review board, planning commission, and natural resources committee.

Stormwater runoff from the many impervious surfaces of urban areas has impaired surface water quality of receiving waters. Realizing the extent of the problem in South Burlington and the need for a comprehensive rather than a “respond as problems arise” approach the Planning & Zoning Department sought and acquired funding to build state-of-the-art stormwater management facilities, they wrote stormwater watershed management plans, collected water quality monitoring data and developed a long term plan for management of the stormwater infrastructure. The Department, with public input and involvement, has corrected deficiencies in its zoning regulations and expanded the scope of those regulations to allow for better stormwater management.

The City of South Burlington Planning and Zoning Department has already implemented many stormwater management projects and been able to claim measured success in the Bartlett and Potash Brook Watersheds. Water quality monitoring of the Bartlett Brook Stormwater Treatment System show a 50% reduction in sediment, 70% reduction in phosphorus and a 90% reduction in E.coli bacteria. As additional stormwater control structures are installed over the next several years similar pollutant load reductions are likely to occur in the city's other watersheds. In 2003 the Department initiated, in cooperation with other municipal departments, the development of a municipal stormwater utility which will eventually provide a stable and dedicated revenue source for managing the City of South Burlington's entire stormwater infrastructure. Recently, the Department lobbied successfully for approximately 1.3 million dollars in federal decentralized wastewater funds to design and construct stormwater treatment structures.

The Department's proactive role in addressing the impacts of urban stormwater runoff already has and is likely to continue to achieve significant improvments in water quality in the city's streams, rivers, beaches and the waters of Lake Champlain. South Burlington is the first municipality in Vermont to consider adopting a comprehensive stormwater utility approach. Such initiative is in itself commendable, but the efforts are especially satisfying when environmental monitoring data consistently show improved water quality.

 

White River Partnership | River Bank Restoration & Tree Planting Programs

By definition, a steward is someone who takes care of something that doesn’t belong to them. That is exactly what the members and volunteers of the White River Partnership do. Stream Team members, Green Up Day volunteers, and others are helping to take care of a river and watershed that does not belong to any one individual. The White River belongs to us all: farmers, business owners, residents, fish, wildlife, birds, visitors, and future generations. It is in this spirit that the White River Partnership practices stewardship of the White River and it’s watershed.

The Partnership was formed in 1995 as a collaboration between citizens, community groups and organizations, and state and federal agencies. The Partnership operates from a basic premise that citizens, businesses and governments can and should collaborate to make informed, responsible decisions that improve and protect the cultural, economic and environmental qualities of the watershed for present and future generations. Currently, the Partnership has over 200 dues-paying members and six stream teams located in each of the White River Basin’s six sub-watersheds. With the help of Partnership staff and consultants, stream teams work in their communities to assess stream corridor conditions, make contact with private landowners, identify restoration and tree planting projects, and rally partners and volunteers for work parties.

The stream restoration and tree planting programs of the White River Partnership are made possible by maintaining strong ties with the local communities of the watershed, and the many relationships that have been fostered with local, state, and federal groups and authorities. In 2003, more than 300 volunteers planted over 2,000 native trees and shrubs to restore 6,641 feet of riparian buffer. The Partnership is at the very forefront of current bioengineering and natural channel design techniques that mimic and work with rather than fight nature. Their work involves collaboration with state, federal and other partners to ensure that streambank restoration plans take full advantage of the latest research findings.

Vermonters working together as partners, to take care of something that doesn’t belong to anyone in particular…but to everyone. It’s a novel concept that hopefully catches on in communities throughout the state.

 

Environmental Excellence in
Resource Conservation
Projects that conserve resources and protect the environment by minimizing resource consumption or by applying the strategies of reuse or recycling.

Rutland County Solid Waste District/Rutland Natural Resource Conservation District | Commercial Food Waste Composting Program

Supporting the notion once again that by working in concert with others we can accomplish far more than had we gone it alone, the Rutland County Agricultural Compost Project is a unique partnership between the Rutland Natural Rescources Conservation District, the Rutland County Solid Waste District, a local farmer, and several commercial produce vendors. The Compost Project was begun in 1997 in order to divert compostable material from the landfill waste stream and redirect it to a local farm site. The material is then mixed with animal waste and other organic ingredients to procure a very rich composted fertilizer for application to fields.

The Rutland County Solid Waste District is a union municipal district in Vermont chartered to manage solid waste on behalf of its members. The District provides recycling, hazardous waste management, waste reduction, composting and reuse programs for residents and local businesses from 16 member towns. The District employs 8 full-time and 2 part-time personnel. The Rutland Natural Rescources Conservation District is a political subdivision of the State of Vermont. The District works with farmers, other landowners, other conservation organizations and city, town, state and federal agencies to encourage and assist with conservation efforts.

Since its inception, the Program has been instrumental in diverting a total of 4,373,806 pounds (approximately 2,187 tons) of food waste from landfills. Hannaford Foods and Price Chopper both of Rutland and Black River Produce of Ludlow have been particularly supportive of the program and in aggregate report cost savings of from $44,628 to $91,039. The District's overall general expenses in running the program have been approximately $28,000 to $36,000 a year.

Like other forms of recycling, composting takes a linear system of taking resources, making products, and generating waste into a cyclic system that takes resources (in this case nutrients), makes products (in this case food of various sorts), and rather than wasting the food that doesn’t get eaten – converts it into compost or nutrients that can be used to grow more food. By mimicking nature the two Districts and their partners help us all to better envision what it means to live more sustainably.

 

ReCycle North | Building Materials Reuse Enterprise

ReCycle North was established in 1991 with the premise that precious human and material resources could be better utilized to protect the environment and improve human dignity. The founders saw overflowing landfills and recognized the potential opportunity this waste represented if only a market for reusable and repairable household items could be created. In the ranks of the homeless and other long-term unemployed, ReCycle North’s founders saw a different type of waste: Lost dreams and demoralized souls seeking purpose and opportunity.

From a small thrift store/fix-it shop in 1991, ReCycle North has grown to encompass two reuse locations in Burlington with 31 employees, and a broad selection of goods and services available to Vermonters, especially low-income community members. ReCycle North accepts items that would otherwise go to the landfill, repairs them if necessary, and sells them at a low cost or gives them away at no charge to people in need. In addition to the Building Material Reuse enterprise, ReCycle North handles large and small appliances, consumer electronics, computers, furniture, and many household goods.

After just two years of operation, ReCycle North’s Building Materials Reuse enterprise, housed in a formerly abandoned building, has established itself as an attractive and viable option for diverting construction and demolition debris from the landfill. ReCycle North’s Building Materials Center accepts, resells, or distributes without charge, building materials from individual donors, overstock and trade-ins from contractors and retailers, and whole structures that have been systematically disassembled by ReCycle North’s Deconstruction Crew.

The Deconstruction Crew works year round on jobs ranging from "soft strips" where interior moldings, doors and cabinets are removed, to multi-building, complete dissassembly, leaving nothing but the bare earth behind. Reusable materials are sorted and displayed at the Center in a manner that is attractive and easily accessed by shoppers. Materials that are beyond reuse are recycled whenever possible. Clean, unusable wood is brought to the McNeil wood cogeneration plant in Burlington's Intervale, scrap metal is recycled, and asphalt shingles are recycled when possible by a local road builder. Other raw materials are reconditioned and fabricated into furniture and housewares. All of these activities support the organization's ability to give away building materials to people in need and to nonprofit organizations such as Habitat for Humanity. It has also permitted the creation of 8 full time jobs that pay livable wages, and training opportunties to disadvantaged youth enrolled in the YouthBuild Burlington program.

The Deconstruction Service has proven to be economically competitive with traditional "crunch and dump" demolition methods and has become an attractive alternative for building owners. It is estimated that the project diverted 220 tons of construction & demolition waste in 2003 alone.

ReCycle North is a member of the Used Building Materials Association and has presented its work at national conferences. The organization has also been hired to train start-up deconstruction crews in other states and provided on-site training to a Washington, DC neighborhood of public housing residents who wanted to learn how to dismantle and rebuild their substandard housing. ReCycle North regularly receives, and replies to, inquiries from other organizations that wish to replicate its programs. In 2003 visitors came from as far away as Cincinnati and Turkey.

With an eye to a triple bottom line that focuses not only the economic value they add to the community, but also on the environmental and social value they add, ReCycle North strives to capture the whole set of values, issues and processes that organizations must address in order to minimize any harm resulting from their activities and to create economic, social and environmental value.

 

Environmental Excellence in
Land Use & Land Use Planning
Projects that preserve or conserve land to create ecological and environmental benefits or that advance smart growth alternatives.

Apple Island Design & Planning | Morningside Farm Agricultural Land Protection

Jeff Sikora is a fifth generation Vermonter whose ancestors have lived on the Champlain Islands since the early 1800s. Jeff is principal of Apple Island Design & Planning; a land planning, real estate, and residential design and build company dedicated to promoting agriculture, preserving Vermont’s working landscape, and fostering planned development that supports and coexists with local farmers.

In 1992 Jeff noticed a for-sale sign on a South Hero agricultural field overlooking Lake Champlain to the east. This land has some of the most beautiful views of the Inland Sea islands. You can see Canada to the north, all the way down the Green Mountains with Mt. Mansfield in the middle and southwest to the Adirondacks. The for sale sign was placed atop a hill that the Vermont Department of Tourism & Marketing photographed and featured in a 1966 promotional called, "The Beckoning Country". Indeed, the property seemed fated to become the island’s next node for intensive development.

Instead, working with landowners, Edward and Elizabeth Sweeney, Jeff was able to recreate Morningside Farm as a 200-acre, 18-lot rural residential community with shared ownership of lakefront and agricultural lands. Tim Maxham, a local farmer, maintains the agricultural land and the property owners pay the taxes on the land thus creating a symbiotic relationship that keeps the land both open and productive. A Home Owners Association, created in 2000, was made responsible for the land held in a perpetual conservation easement that guarantees continued agricultural use, the shared lakeshore, and miles of walking and cross country ski trails that traverse the property.

The homes, making up this community, all surround the agricultural fields on the less productive soils. The homes are fairly close together in relation to the size of the project decreasing the length of utilities and service roads. Besides the developed lands Morningside Farm consists of more than 60 acres of active agricultural fields, 70 acres of forested areas, and 15 acres of wetlands identified with help from staff of the Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation’s Water Quality Division.

The shared ownership of active agriculture by several property owners who share their benefit with a local farmer does not appeal to everyone. It requires a commitment and understanding of the importance of long-term stewardship of the land. Morningside Farm lends critical evidence, however, that preservation of Vermont’s working landscape can be framed as mutually advantageous for landowners, local farmers, and homeowners. At Morningside Farm not only were lakeshore and agricultural lands preserved, so too were the community’s traditional sliding hill and the place for the annual Easter Sunrise Service.

 

Town of Manchester | Planning & Zoning Program

Vermont towns grapple with many of the same issues and problems. This being the case, there is ample opportunity to learn from one another’s experiences. The Town of Manchester has a lot to teach us about land use strategies that bring parties together to identify and achieve shared goals, to protect historic resources while remaining sensitive to current and future needs, and to simultaneously focus commercial development downtown and protect sensitive outlying lands and natural areas.

Manchester’s Planning & Zoning Department serves its community by offering ideas, advice, and guidance with regard to what’s become more popularly termed, “smart growth”. A vital and vibrant downtown is encouraged by applying design review to buildings and signs so that new or rehabilitated buildings and sites can meet current needs while fitting appropriately into the community. Rather than a fix-it-as-you-go approach, the Department strives to encourage patterns of development that foster more livable conditions. A good example of this is the town’s roundabout. Rather than widening the road, which would harm community character, or adding a traffic light with its attendant delays and frustration, the Department created a roundabout that keeps traffic flowing, calming traffic entering town, and providing a tangible gateway into the pedestrian-oriented commercial core.

The Department implemented a comprehensive “park and walk” strategy throughout the downtown to help motorists and pedestrians coexist safely. Wherever possible, they narrow and consolidate curb cuts and clearly mark walkways and crosswalks. Development along streams, ponds, wetlands, and on steep mountain slopes is restricted in order to protect these important natural resources. A Town Green was created in the heart of downtown, on the historic Mill Pond and the Batten Kill River by in effect “undeveloping” a former auto dealership.

Manchester’s Planning & Zoning Department has instituted a comprehensive approach to land use planning that values the past, the present, and the future. It involves citizens intensely in creating that preferred future and it applies creative solutions to resolve small problems -- before they become larger problems.

 

City of Burlington Community & Economic Development Office/Vermont Smart Growth Collaborative/Burlington Community Land Trust/Burlington Electric Department/Housing Vermont | Waterfront Housing

While the City of Burlington has been quite successful in developing and maintaining good public access on its waterfront, including a bike path, park, science center, community boathouse and fishing pier, housing development has remained fairly exclusive. Two citywide votes in 1988 and 1999 confirmed strong support for the inclusion of affordable rental housing on the waterfront. With such a mandate the city's Community and Economic Development Office identified public property appropriate for this purpose and allocated resources to support cleanup and infrastructure improvements to the site.

Looking for partners for this venture, the City early identified Housing Vermont and The Burlington Community Land Trust. Housing Vermont, a nonprofit syndication and development company founded in 1988, creates permanently affordable rental housing for Vermonters through partnerships with local organizations, public agencies and the private sector. This highly successful partnership has produced more than 3,500 affordable apartments in 104 different developments.

The Burlington Community Land Trust is a non-profit, member-based organization working to ensure access to affordable homes and vital communities for all people through the stewardship of land. This land trust was the first municipally funded community land trust and today is the largest community land trust in the United States, with over 2,500 members. Burlington Community Land Trust properties include over 300 rental apartments and 370 shared-appreciation single-family homes and condominiums.

The site is that of a former industrial facility that required remediation before construction could begin. Construction was completed in September 2004 on Lake Street at the northern fringe of the urban zone of the city's waterfront. Burlington's Waterfront Housing includes 40 apartments providing sustainable mixed-income rental housing. According to the City of Burlington Community & Economic Development Office, "79% of the city's residents could afford to live on the waterfront in this project". The project demonstrates a very real commitment to sustainability by requiring environmentally responsible building design and construction, and long-term energy conservation. Waterfront Housing meets the Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design, or LEED, standards established by the U.S. Green Building Council and surpasses the 5-Star Energy Star rating set by the U.S. Department of Energy.

An additional environmental benefit of the project has been correcting a problematic storm water runoff situation and reintroducing native plant species to prevent further soil erosion on a steep slope behind the building. A storm water treatment system is designed to remove 80% of the average annual post development total suspended solids and 40% of the average annual post development total phosphorus. A significant portion of the building materials were sourced from local suppliers; a minimum 20% of the building materials were manufactured regionally within a radius of 500 miles, and building materials with recycled content were used wherever possible.

Waterfront housing offers itself as a model of public/private cooperation to remediate a former industrial site for reuse as attractive and affordable lakefront housing that strives to create as small an ecological footprint as possible.

 

Environmental Excellence in
Education & Outreach
Projects that inform and educate others about environmentally responsible practices or that empower citizens to enhance the quality of the environment for local, regional or global communities.

 

Barry King | Outstanding Educator and Steward of Vermont’s Natural Resources

If there’s truth to the assertion that we’re all of necessity crew -- not simply passive passengers -- on Spaceship Earth, than the importance of environmental education becomes imminently clear. A crewmember has duties and responsibilities for maintenance and care of a ship. Barry King has made it her life’s mission to teach and inspire us to learn what we need to know to become environmental stewards who are committed to caring for our Spaceship Earth.

Barry was trained as a naturalist and devoted more than three decades – so far – to outdoor and environmental education. After 20 years training students, teachers and staff at the Keewaydin Environmental Education Center on Lake Dunmore in Salisbury, she has or continues to serve on the Board of Directors for Vermont’s Statewide Environmental Education Programs (SWEEP), the Envirothon, the Otter Creek Natural Resources Conservation District, and the Middlebury Natural Foods Co-op. Barry also serves on the Ripton Conservation Commission.

Barry King edits the Statewide Environmental Education Programs’ newsletter; organizes written materials, testers and judges for the State Envirothon; and was on the Steering Committee of the 2004 Annual Conference of the New England Environmental Education Alliance. Living on the Earth as if the future mattered is evidence of one for whom Gandhi’s words have meaning beyond simple recognition. It was Gandhi who once said that, “We must become the change we wish to see in others”. To become that change we wish to see in others it is clear that we must walk the talk by diminishing the difference between word and deed. Barry King strives to reduce her ecological footprint – and to help others to do the same. A naturalist, an environmental educator, an Earth steward; Barry King through both her words and her deeds reminds us that when we heal the Earth, we heal ourselves – and prepare the way for a more sustainable future – for this and for generations to come.

A stronger public understanding of environmental science and related issues is a growing necessity and comprehensive environmental education is the only answer that makes complete sense. I am delighted that Barry King decided so many years ago to make environmental education her passion – and delighted that she has taken her passion and made it happen.

 

UVM Environmental Council/Burlington Legacy Project | Tracking UVM: Environmental Report Card, 1990-2000

More than 2,000 organizations worldwide voluntarily publish environmental reports, but only a small number of colleges and universities report periodically on their own environmental performance. The University of Vermont, with approximately 10,000 students and 3,000 employees, is in the vanguard of those institutions of higher learning that collect and report out campus-wide data and information regarding the environmental consequences of their operations and activities. Spearheaded by the UVM Environmental Council, this effort was begun in the late 90s and resulted in a report entitled “Greening UVM” which was released in 1998. This report’s successor, released in December 2002, was called “Tracking UVM: An Environmental Report Card for the University of Vermont”.

Collaboration with the Burlington Legacy Project brought about a campus-community dialogue that served to identify misperceptions and to focus attention to major problems where there is the greatest opportunity to make a difference. Major findings of the report are presented in three sections; Land and Water Use, Energy and Air Pollution, and Solid and Hazardous Waste. Each section includes a resource map, information about campus resource use, trends in resource use, UVM programs designed to reduce the environmental consequences of its operations, best management practices, community concerns, and next steps. The report, beyond identifying and quantifying environmental impact, can be used to guide management decisions to reduce that impact.

The Board of Trustees have already used the report to justify their investment in green building design that incorporates goals for energy-efficiency with goals for buying building materials with recycled content and procured locally. Faculty and students working together with committed staff have helped to reduce waste, conserve energy, monitor water and air quality, and promote public transportation. Tracking UVM will prove a powerful tool for directing action to strategies that move environmental indicators in the right direction – and toward a more sustainable future.

 

Efficiency Vermont/Williams Hardware/Village of Poultney/Green Mountain College | Vermont Community Change-A-Light Challenge

In the fall of 2003, a diverse coalition of Vermonters committed to a project designed to post impressive wins for both consumers and the environment. The Village of Poultney, Williams Hardware and Green Mountain College worked together with Efficiency Vermont to challenge residents in each and every Poultney household to replace at least one incandescent light bulb with an energy-efficient bulb within a one month period. Part of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's national Change A Light/Change The World campaign, the Poultney effort was designed to inform and educate local and statewide residents about the positive impact that one person can have on energy use and the environment. Committed individuals from local business, government and schools conducted a multi-faceted campaign to encourage participation, educate, and publicize the event's success. By the end of this 22-day event, 96% of the households of the Village of Poultney -- 473 households -- had replaced at least one incandescent bulb with an efficient ENERGY STAR® qualified compact fluorescent bulb. Newspaper, radio and television coverage brought information about this event to Vermonters throughout the state, resulting in greater knowledge, increased purchases of energy-efficient lighting, and widespread interest in replicating this event in other Vermont communities.

The challenge was launched on October 4, 2003 on the Village green. One free bulb was provided to each household, through Poultney’s Williams True Value Hardware store and Westinghouse. Students from nearby Green Mountain College played a key role; posting signs, and talking about the effort with residents on front porches throughout the Village. In all, Villagers replaced more than 4,500 incandescent light bulbs with energy-efficient ones. Organizing partners were on hand to announce that a free energy-efficient light bulb was to be provided to each household in the Village. The bulbs, donated by Westinghouse and True Value Hardware, were available at Williams Hardware on Main Street. Speakers provided information about the environmental and economic benefits of energy efficiency, as well as about the technology and performance of energy-efficient lighting.

In addition to picking up one free energy-efficient light bulb, Poultney residents purchased an additional 3,284 energy-efficient bulbs using discount coupons provided by Efficiency Vermont. If every household in the U.S. replaced one light bulb with an ENERGY STAR qualified light bulb, the amount of pollution prevented would be equal to removing one million cars from the road. If every household in Vermont changed just one bulb, Vermonters would save enough electricity to light 14,500 homes for a year.

The Poultney Change a Light event was the only community-wide response to the US Environmental Protection Agency's national Change A Light/Change The World challenge. The success of the event was largely due to a multi-faceted campaign conducted by a committted group of local partners and carried to fruition by the businesses, schools, government officials, and by the residents of nearly every household in the Village of Poultney. This was truly a community-wide success, bringing cutting-edge energy-efficient lighting techology into homes and into public awareness while providing citizens with an understanding of how investments in energy efficiency can net cost-savings, environmental benefits, and a strong sense of community.

 

John Rapoza | Providing On-Site Renewable Energy Generation
And Educational Enrichment at the Danville School

The Danville skyline today sports a relatively new piece of kinetic art – one that satisfies a portion of the electrical energy demand of the Danville school. Technology teachers are supposed to talk about technology, but John Rapoza makes such talk really come alive in his school and in the broader community. Energy education can be presented as a mind-numbing drill of memorizing technical terms like joule, BTU, Mega – and even Nega-watt, or it can be presented as an exploration into how appropriate technology can be applied to address real human needs. John takes the latter approach.

Making energy education come alive in Danville has meant thinking BIG and finding the support necessary to make BIG things happen. As energy costs at the school continued to climb, John was determined to find a way to use technology to reduce them. A successful grant application with the State Departments of Public Service and Education meant that John had the support to erect a pole-mounted wind turbine at the school. This 90-foot-tall, 10-kilowatt, grid-connected wind turbine, located above the freshly installed playground behind the tennis courts next to the school, is expected to generate enough power to save the school $2,000 or more in annual electricity expenses.

In addition to using the turbine as a tool to explore renewable energy sources, John has integrated related weather data with his science and technology curriculum. Students are able to access computer displays on wind speed and other meteorological data feeding into the school. Data from the windmill will also be reported on the school Web-based weather center, available to the public.

The wind turbine reduces school dependence on non-renewable sources of electrical energy, serves as a tool to educate young Vermonters about alternative renewable and sustainable energy sources, and avoided the generation of greenhouse and other gases associated with the incomplete combustion of fossil fuels. John’s efforts are those of someone who chooses to lead by example.

 

Charlie Wanzer | Cabot School Gymnasium Lighting Project

Charlie Wanzer is a high school science teacher at the Cabot School, a pre-K through 12th grade public school with approximately 240 students. Working in 2002 with energy efficiency experts from Efficiency Vermont and the Vermont Energy Education Program, the group discovered that their 25-year old gymnasium lighting was highly inefficient; costing more than $5000 a year to run! Charlie Wanzer's physics students analyzed lighting options, interviewed manufacturers, visited a facility using energy efficient lighting, consulted electricians, and developed a plan to replace existing mercury vapor gymnasium lighting with a bank of energy efficient T5 high ouput fluorescent lamps and fixtures.

The Cabot students presented a lighting proposal to the Cabot School Board which eventually agreed to finance the project with the next school budget. Cabot School's cost for the lighting project was $7,790, after a cash incentive of $3500 from Efficiency Vermont. The investment will pay for itself in under 2½ years. On an annual basis, this project will save the Cabot School $3000. Over the last five years, Charlie Wanzer's students have reduced the school's electricity bill by 10%, including a photovoltaics project that put solar panels on the roof of the school. Another successful physics-related, hands-on learning experience involved a streambank stabilization project in the Winooski River, where the students planned and planted vegetated buffers and revetments to address a serious bank erosion situation.

Charlie Wanzer has taken an aspect of his physics curriculum and offered students a real-world practical application that not only advanced specific scientific skills, but also concretely demonstrated the environmental and economic benefits of such a project. Students were given a tremendous sense of accomplishment and appreciation for how applied science can improve the quality of life in their own community.