Performance Track Awardees, 2006
Performance Track recognizes all members for their outstanding commitment to continuous environmental improvement, but the program provides special recognition to a select few facilities each year in honor of their superior achievements in environmental performance and outreach.
Performance Track Environmental Performance Awards
Performance Track Outreach Awards
Performance Track Appreciation Awards
Performance Track Environmental Performance Awards
Performance Track’s 2006 Environmental Performance Awards recognize members that have demonstrated exemplary environmental performance during their participation in the program, particularly during the 2004 calendar year. Through an analysis of the annual performance reports of the more than 250 facilities that have been in the program for at least two years, Performance Track staff selected award winners for the categories of Large Facility, Small Facility, and Public Facility.
The principal evaluation criteria for this award are progress made toward performance goals and the breadth and challenge level of the member’s performance goals. This evaluation is supplemented with consideration of the member’s annual performance report quality, compliance history, and community outreach efforts. This year, there are three recipients of the Performance Track Environmental Performance Award.
Large Facility Category
Rohm and Haas Electronic Materials
Marlborough, Massachusetts
Rohm and Haas Electronic Materials, LLC, of
Marlborough, Massachusetts, supplies specialty chemicals
to the electronics industry. During its charter
membership and again in its second term, this facility
demonstrated its dedication to reducing pollution at the
source. In 2004, the facility made major reductions in
the use of hazardous materials. Through process mapping
and other pollution prevention approaches, Rohm and Haas
improved its per-batch use of acetone by a third, and
improved its per-batch ethyl lactate use by 16 percent
through more efficient cleaning schedules and internally
recycling the material. The facility also reduced
greenhouse gas releases by nine percent on a normalized
basis by retrofitting lighting fixtures and installing
more efficient cooling units. In its first three years of
membership, the facility achieved impressive improvements
in water use, energy use, hazardous materials use, and
hazardous waste generation.
Small Facility Category
Norco Cleaners
Dolton, Illinois
Norco Cleaners is a drycleaning, wetcleaning, and
laundering operation in Dolton, Illinois. As a small
business, Norco Cleaners needed only to commit to two
environmental performance improvements. However, this
facility elected to make four challenging goals on
key environmental issues, including hazardous materials
use, VOC emissions, and energy use during charter and
renewal membership periods in Performance Track. Between
2001 and 2003, the facility used a pre-filtering system
to reduce hazardous waste by 25 percent in normalized
terms and to stretch the use of a cleaning solvent by 47
percent. In that same period, Norco improved energy
efficiency by nearly 50 percent—and then, in its
renewal application, committed to further reducing energy
use by another four percent. In 2004, the first year of
Norco’s second term of membership, the facility
used a wetcleaning process to clean a higher percentage
of textiles. This led to a 41-percent drop in the use of
napthol spirits and a similar reduction in VOC emissions
in terms of pounds of textiles cleaned. The annual
performance reports that Norco Cleaners prepared for
Performance Track provided many details about the
activities that it conducted to achieve improvements,
thus aiding other facilities in their environmental
benchmarking efforts.
Public Facility Category
Naval Air Engineering Station
Lakehurst, New Jersey
The Naval Air Engineering Station of Lakehurst,
New Jersey, provides program management, logistical,
engineering, prototyping and testing services for the air
launch, air recovery, and aviation support systems used
by naval aviators, sailors, and marines. This facility
was accepted to Performance Track in 2001 and is now in
its second term of membership. Its current commitments
are notable for aggressive goals to reduce nitrogen oxide
(NOx) emissions and water use. In 2004 alone, the
facility reduced NOx emissions by 21 tons (a 43-percent
reduction) and water use by 7.4 million gallons (an
eight-percent reduction). In its first three years of
membership, the Naval Air Engineering Station reduced
water use by nearly 53 million gallons, solid waste
generation by 20 tons, and NOx emissions by 14.6 tons. It
also created 123 acres of grassland bird habitat.
Performance Track Outreach Awards
Performance Track Outreach Awards recognize current members of Performance Track who, in addition to being exemplary environmental stewards, make special efforts both internally and externally to inform employees and other organizational groups about the benefits of membership and participation in EPA’s most comprehensive partnership program. This year, there are four recipients of the Performance Track Outreach Award.
Colonial Acres Golf Course
Glenmont, New York
Colonial Acres is a nine-hole, semi-private golf
course situated on 33.5 acres. Colonial Acres has an
environmental information board in its pro shop, where
members, employees, and guests can learn about the
facility’s membership in Performance Track. It also
publishes an annual newsletter with updates of
environmental improvements related to the
facility’s goals under Performance Track. In
2005, Colonial Acres gave a presentation about the
program to the New York Turfgrass Association, and hosted
an awards ceremony in the fall of 2004 with EPA Regions 1
and 2 at the Area Superintendents’ Tournament to
encourage participants to join Performance Track.
Following Colonial Acres’ lead, another golf course
has started the Performance Track application process.
Colonial Acres’ membership has also led to
partnerships with Audubon International and New York
Environmental Leaders.
Johnson & Johnson World Headquarters
New Brunswick, New Jersey
Johnson & Johnson is the world’s most
comprehensive and broadly based manufacturer of health
care products for the consumer, pharmaceutical, and
professional markets. A Performance Track Corporate
Leader, Johnson & Johnson regularly distributes news
about Performance Track electronically to keep member
facilities (and other Johnson & Johnson facilities
that are interested in joining) engaged and reminded of
the value of Performance Track membership. The
Performance Track flag and membership materials were
displayed at Johnson & Johnson’s Global
Environmental Health and Safety Summit Conference held in
2005. Presentations were made and information about
Performance Track was provided to a number of other
businesses, both directly and through recruitment
workshops. Business cards that promote Performance Track
are also provided to Johnson & Johnson member
facilities.
Rockwell Collins—C Avenue
Operations
Cedar Rapids, Iowa
Rockwell Collins’ C Avenue facility, which
is also the company’s headquarters, manufactures
advanced communication and aviation electronics for
military markets and for aircraft manufacturers and
airlines. Rockwell Collins, a Performance Track Corporate
Leader, has developed a strategic plan to encourage other
facilities to join Performance Track and provided
guidance to internal facilities that are certified by the
International Organization for Standardization. The
corporate office provides additional guidance during the
Performance Track application and annual performance
reporting processes. Performance Track facilities receive
special recognition during the company’s annual
Environmental Safety and Health conference, and press
releases are issued each time a Rockwell Collins facility
joins Performance Track. Rockwell Collins, represented on
the Performance Track Participants’
Association’s board of directors, works closely
with EPA and states to address Performance Track policy
and program issues. The facility also is formally
represented on the Multi-State Working Group Policy
Academy board of directors and informally through the
National Environment, Safety, and Health Training
Association. Several facility managers have volunteered
to serve as mentors for other facility managers who are
interested in joining Performance Track. The Performance
Track logo is prominently displayed on both the Rockwell
Collins external and internal websites, and Performance
Track flags have been presented to each Rockwell Collins
Performance Track facility.
U.S. Department of Energy & DynMcDermott
Petroleum Operations Strategic Petroleum Reserve
New Orleans, Louisiana
The Strategic Petroleum Reserve is a U.S.
Department of Energy complex of four sites created in
deep underground salt caverns along the Texas and
Louisiana Gulf Coast that hold emergency supplies of
crude oil. The reserve, headquartered in New Orleans and
managed by DynMcDermott Petroleum Operations Company, is
a charter member of Performance Track. DynMcDermott has
given presentations about Performance Track to the Energy
Facility Contractors’ Organization, promoted
Performance Track at important industry events, and
participated in regional outreach events to promote the
program to prospective members. DynMcDermott is largely
responsible for helping at least one other facility join
Performance Track. Each of its sites proudly flies the
Performance Track flag, and hard hat stickers bearing the
Performance Track logo were issued to all employees in
2005 to remind them of their commitment to the program.
DynMcDermott displays the Performance Track logo on its
website, and in 2005, its Performance Track membership
was highlighted when the company won the Malcolm
Baldridge National Quality Award. DynMcDermott Petroleum
Operations Company continues to be a champion of
Performance Track and has committed to 100 percent
participation in Performance Track for all its
facilities.
Performance Track Appreciation Awards
The 2006 Performance Track Appreciation Awards recognize state media programs that have been outstanding in their support of EPA and Performance Track, particularly in the testing of innovative approaches to achieve better environmental performance and greater public transparency while also striving to become more efficient. This year, there are two recipients of the Performance Track Appreciation Award:
Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality, Air
Permits Branch
The Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality
(ADEQ) Air Permits Branch is receiving this award for
being innovative in its approach to accommodate business
operational needs while ensuring environmental protection
and encouraging pollution prevention through the use of
flexible air permitting techniques.
State of Missouri Department of Natural
Resources, Division of Environmental Quality, Air
Pollution Control Program
The state of Missouri’s Department of
Natural Resources (DRN), Division of Environmental
Quality, Air Pollution Control Program is also receiving
this award for being innovative in its approach to
accommodate business manufacturing flexibility needs
while ensuring environmental protection and encouraging
pollution prevention through the use of flexible air
permitting techniques.
Missouri DNR’s Air Pollution Control Program
helped a Performance Track member, the 3M Company’s
Nevada, Missouri facility, to obtain a new flexible air
permit. The permit is designed to enable 3M to make rapid
operational changes to respond to shifting market demands
in the graphics industry without the need to reopen the
permit for modifications, while ensuring that all
applicable regulatory requirements are addressed.
Missouri DNR was particularly helpful, responsive,
creative, and willing to explore innovative permitting
approaches as part of this pilot project. 3M aims to use
the permit to continuously improve the facility’s
operational efficiency and to facilitate additional
activity as part of the company’s Pollution
Prevention Pays program.