Sustainability Champions
In This Section
FY 2010 Sustainability Champion Winners
EPA congratulates the winners of the Sustainability Champion awards for their leadership in reducing EPA's environmental footprint during fiscal year (FY) 2010. These sustainability champions include facility managers, building operations and maintenance personnel, green team members, and other EPA staff who have demonstrated exceptional effort and achievement in energy and water efficiency and other sustainability areas.
- Rick Dreisch of the Environmental Science Center in Fort Meade, Maryland, received a Btu Buster Award for helping the laboratory to achieve energy intensity savings of 10.5 percent in FY 2010 compared to FY 2009, due to close monitoring and optimization of boiler operations and active administrative management of capital equipment.
- Joe Pernice of the Region 2 Laboratory in Edison, New Jersey, received a Btu Buster Honorable Mention for helping the laboratory to achieve energy intensity savings of 6.2 percent in FY 2010 compared to FY 2009, due to several construction projects implemented to renovate both administrative and laboratory spaces.
- Marshall Gray of the Research Triangle Park (RTP) Campus in RTP, North Carolina, received a Carbon Cutter Award for providing valuable information about EPA’s tools and processes for inventorying chemicals used for laboratory research and development. With this information, EPA was able to accurately quantify the portion of EPA’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from laboratory chemicals and refrigerants.
- Don Pace of the Region 2 Office in New York, New York, received a Carbon Cutter Award for providing excellent employee commuting data and thorough supporting information for EPA’s Region 2 Office. This commuting data accounted for nearly 700 EPA employees, enabling EPA to more accurately quantify Scope 3 GHG emissions from commuting and establish the Agency’s FY 2008 Scope 3 GHG emissions baseline.
- Rick Pittman of the National Exposure Research Laboratory in Athens, Georgia, received a Carbon Cutter Honorable Mention for his work on a photovoltaic array and solar hot water heater at the National Exposure Research Laboratory, which helped reduce the laboratory’s carbon footprint by offsetting energy demand with onsite renewable energy.
- Tom Ashmore of EPA Headquarters in Washington, DC, received an Energy Partner of the Year Award for designing the complex, multi-building heat recovery project for EPA’s RTP campus. Once the heat recovery project is completed, EPA projects it will provide energy consumption savings of nearly 28 billion Btu, or a reduction of 7 to 9 percent compared with FY 2008.
- Greg Eades of the RTP Campus in RTP, North Carolina, received an Energy Partner of the Year Award. Although he was not the only person at the RTP campus involved in energy efficiency, in FY 2010 Greg was instrumental in coordinating multiple ongoing energy and water conservation projects, including Laboratory Controls Optimization Project 2 (LCOP-2) contracting and implementation and new onsite solar energy systems. In addition, he effectively coordinated with the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences on complex central utility plant issues.
- Primo Knight of the Western Ecology Division Laboratory in Corvallis, Oregon, received an H2Overachiever Award for helping to achieve water intensity savings at the laboratory of 37.7 percent in FY 2010 compared to FY 2009, due to improvements to the irrigation system. Projects included reducing use of supplemental irrigation, replacing broken sprinkler heads, and adjusting sprinkler head delivery.
- Jonathan Aplin of the National Air and Radiation Environmental Laboratory in Montgomery, Alabama, received an H2Overachiever Award for helping to achieve water intensity savings of 6 percent at the laboratory in FY 2010 compared to FY 2009, due to leadership in implementing many of the projects in the facility’s water management plan. Projects included connecting the air handler condensate recovery system to the cooling tower; fixing an operational issue with the cooling tower; modifying the reverse osmosis system to run only on demand; and installing high-efficiency fixtures.
- John Kappa of the Andrew W. Breidenbach Environmental Research Center (AWBERC) in Cincinnati, Ohio, received an H2Overachiever Award for helping to achieve campus-wide water intensity savings of 19.8 percent in FY 2010 compared to FY 2009: 27.3 percent at T&E, 16.6 percent at AWBERC, 17.5 percent at Center Hill, and 6.3 percent at Child Development Center. steam sterilizer tempering water improvements and vacuum pump replacement help achieve these savings.
- Rick Dreisch of the Environmental Science Center in Fort Meade, Maryland, received a Leading Edge Award for facilitating the implementation of a major water-saving project that re-pipes air handler condensate from air handling units to feed cooling tower water, reusing water that would have drained into the sewer system. The completion of this project helped the Environmental Science Center achieve water intensity and cost savings of 8 percent in FY 2010 compared to FY 2009.
- William Daniels, Tammy James, and Joseph Chisholm of the Region 8 Office in Denver, Colorado, and Mark Burkhardt and Gregory Saunders of the Region 8 Laboratory in Golden, Colorado, received a Leading Edge Award for their continued work investigating energy management tools and energy reduction equipment and methods during facility projects, modifications, remodels, and utility usages. Specific projects include: implementating for electrical submetering; identification and cost analyses for replacement of individual occupant task lighting to LED table top fixtures; data center/server room sub metering and tracking; investigation of renewable energy solar equity purchasing; and electric car charging/outlet station feasibility.
- Alex Montilla, Greg Eades, Elizabeth DeLoatch, Billy Morris, and Pete Schubert of the RTP Campus received a Leading Edge Award for facilitating installation of a new 52.5 kilowatt (kW) polycrystalline photovoltaic (PV) system on the roof of Building B; organizing Duke Power’s installation of a 476-panel, 169 kW PV system on the roof of the First Environments Early Learning Center (FEELC); and collecting wind speed and directional data through a sonic anemometer to inform a vertical wind turbine feasibility study.
- Art Zimmerman of the National Exposure Research Laboratory in Athens, Georgia, received a Reporter of the Year Award for consistently submitting timely, accurate invoice packages and energy data reporting forms and being attentive to any necessary follow-up items.
- Greg Eades of the RTP Campus in RTP, North Carolina, received a Reporter of the Year Award for consistently submitting timely, accurate invoice packages and energy data reporting forms and being attentive to any necessary follow-up items.
- John Begley of the Science and Technology Center in Kansas City, Kansas, received a Reporter of the Year Award for consistently submitting timely, accurate invoice packages and energy data reporting forms and being attentive to any necessary follow-up items.
- Joe Pernice of the Region 2 Laboratory in Edison, New Jersey, won a Sustainable Sites Superstar Award for helping to implement a rainwater capture system in the laboratory's Building 210 boiler room. The system reuses three 1,500-gallon tanks from a former laboratory project to collect rainwater from five downspouts. After filtering, the captured rainwater is supplied as feed water to the laboratory cooling tower, the facility’s largest water consumer in summer, saving an estimated 250,000 gallons of water per year.
- Kim Bartels, Virginia Till, Elizabeth Rogers, Kate Gregory, Joseph Chisolm, Whitney Trulove-Cranor, Linda Walters, Katie Romero, Patty Provencher, Michelle Reichmuth, Tammy James, Christopher Razzazian, Nat Miullo, Blake Huff, William Daniels, John Brink, Ted Lanzano, John Campbell, Tim Rehder, Christopher Ayala, and Barbara Conklin of the Region 8 Office in Denver, Colorado, won a Waste Warrior Award for developing and implementing a compostable waste collection program. The team modified the facility's U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) lease to include composting services; purchased and installed new bins and biodegradable bags; created and installed new signage; and educated and trained employees about the new waste diversion process. The composting team estimates that this program has boosted the facility's recycling rate from 65 percent to 85 percent.
- "Team Narragansett," the staff of the Atlantic Ecology Division Laboratory in Narragansett, Rhode Island, won a Waste Warrior Honorable Mention for having the highest diversion rate, 88.6 percent, of the EPA facilities that reported waste and recycling data in FY 2010.
- Dorothy Richards, Ruth Schenk, Jim Wright, Jan Adam, and Greg McCrumb of the National Vehicle and Fuel Emissions Laboratory (NVFEL) in Ann Arbor, Michigan, won a Waste Warrior Honorable Mention for having the second-highest diversion rate, 86.9 percent, of the EPA facilities that reported waste and recycling data in FY 2010.
- Jack Berges, Roberto Gutierrez, and Jennifer Mann of the Region 9 Laboratory in Richmond, California, won a Waste Warrior Honorable Mention for having the third-highest diversion rate, 82.7 percent, of the EPA facilities that reported waste and recycling data in FY 2010.