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1995
Governor's Award
Recipients |
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)
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| Business/Industry/Trade/Professional
Organizations: |
 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.
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 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.
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 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.
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| 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.
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 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.
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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.
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 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.
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 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.
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| VTANR Award for Exemplary P2
Planning: |
 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.
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| Governor's Awards Program
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