EPA
Honors New York State Environmental Leaders
Contact: Elizabeth Myer, (212) 637-3860,
myer.elizabeth@epa.gov
(New York, N.Y.) The U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency today announced that it has honored 26 individuals, organizations and
businesses from across New York State with Environmental Quality Awards for
their achievements in protecting public health and the environment. EPA
also recognized a student from Jericho, N.Y. who is one of ten students selected
from across the country to receive the President’s Environmental Youth Award.
EPA Regional Administrator Judith A. Enck was joined by Mayor Dana Redd of
Camden, New Jersey to present the awards to this year’s recipients at a ceremony
at EPA’s offices in Manhattan.
“Change that will create a healthier and more sustainable future begins
with people like those the EPA is honoring today,” said Regional Administrator
Judith A. Enck. “They give of themselves and set a high bar in their actions to
protect public health and the environment.”
EPA presents Environmental
Quality Awards annually during Earth Week to individuals, businesses, government
agencies, environmental and community-based organizations and members of the
media in EPA Region 2, which covers New Jersey, New York, Puerto Rico, the U.S.
Virgin Islands and eight federally-recognized Indian Nations. The awards
recognize significant contributions to improving the environment and public
health in the previous calendar year. For information about the Environmental
Quality Awards in EPA Region 2, visit
http://www.epa.gov/region02/eqa/.
Attached is a
list of the award winners.
2012 ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY AWARD
WINNERS
Individual Citizen
Anahita Williamson
Anahita Williamson is the Director of the NYS Pollution Prevention Institute,
a statewide research and technology transfer center that helps businesses across
the state successfully reduce their carbon footprints. Together with the NYS
Pollution Prevention Institute, Anahita has helped to ensure the transformation
and development of sustainable businesses and organizations in New York. Anahita
also has extensive experience in the field of environmental engineering and in
performing life-cycle assessments that evaluate the complete environmental
performance of a product or system.
Daniel Lefkowitz
Daniel Lefkowitz has successfully raised public awareness about the presence
of polychlorinated biphenyl compounds (PCBs) in building caulk that was applied
to public buildings, most notably schools.
Dr.
Lefkowitz is the parent of a child that attended the French Hill Elementary
School where he discovered, through testing, PCBs in the window caulking of his
son’s school in 2004. As a result, Dr. Lefkowitz created a website that
contains studies on PCBs in caulking, contact information for PCB blood
analyses, various PCB sampling reports (for caulk and soil), links to EPA
resources and other useful links to raise awareness about the
issue.
Edward Michalenko
Edward Michalenko serves as President of the Onondaga Environmental
Institute, a non-profit organization dedicated to public education, scientific
research, planning and restoration of the environment. As Town Supervisor of
Dewitt NY, Dr. Michalenko designed the town’s tiered Solid Waste Removal System,
which promotes recycling and waste reduction. He is actively pursuing alternate
energy technologies for town facilities and is working to acquire parklands and
green space, among a range of other impressive sustainable initiatives.
James Cataldi
James Cataldi left his job as a Wall Street computer programmer to realize a
more meaningful calling: the cleanup and restoration of the North Cove of the
Harlem River. Instead of waiting for the city and other organizations to do it,
he began his own cleanup and restoration effort. After approximately three years
of work, the North Cove is returning to its natural state. Mr. Cataldi conducted
99% of this cleanup on his own without any funding and few resources. He
continues to reach out to the local community to educate people about the
importance of environmental stewardship of the North Cove.
Ogonnaya Dotson-Newman
Ogonnaya Dotson-Newman has spearheaded a number of public health education
and research actions that have improved both the Northern Manhattan community’s
knowledge of hazardous exposures and its ability to eliminate them. In promoting
health education, she has organized community education events, public health
education outreach campaigns and community research conferences. Ogonnaya was
also the driving force and primary author of the pioneering Northern Manhattan
Environmental Health Report Card. She has partnered with various academic
researchers from prestigious institutions to conduct studies that address
pressing public health problems facing minority and low-income communities.
Ronald Urban
Ron Urban has made significant and long-lasting contributions to New York
State’s fish and their habitat through his exemplary service, leadership and
dedication. His leadership in addressing the flooding disasters that have
visited the Catskill Region is especially noteworthy. He has also undertaken
significant measures to help preserve the official state fish, the brook trout.
Under his direction, volunteers across the state have waded into streams to find
“brookies,” detail the conditions of their existence and report and record those
finding in the official record.
Business and
Industry
Cayuga Compost
Cayuga Compost is a local company that provides collection, processing and
marketing services for source-separated organic materials including food scraps
and associated compostable-disposable products and yard waste. Under the
leadership of Mary and Jim Proctor and in partnership with Tomkins County Solid
Waste Management, Cayuga Compost helped achieve a 59% waste diversion rate in
2010. Cayuga Compost has experienced a great deal of success in diverting food
waste from landfills in local school districts. Students in the 24 participating
schools are taught the importance of recycling nutrient-rich materials in an
off-site commercial compost setting, saving the schools thousands of dollars in
waste disposal costs.
EcoLogic Solutions Inc.
Anselm Doering founded EcoLogic Solutions in 2001 after seeing a poster in a
New York Thruway rest stop bathroom that bragged about being cleaned with toxic
chemicals. Since that day, EcoLogic Solutions’ entire product line, sales and
business practices have all been 100-percent focused on sustainability. Most
recently, Doering pioneered game-changing Electro-Chemical Activation technology
that allows users to make their own all-natural cleaners and disinfectants using
only tap water, salt and electricity. EcoLogic Solutions continues to lead the
way in all-natural, plant-based cleaning chemicals and technologies for offices,
schools, hotels, hospitals and more.
Ecovative Design
Ecovative Design co-founders Eben Bayer and Gavin McIntyre created a
completely compostable polystyrene substitute using a technology that they
developed during their senior year at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. The
packaging alternative, called EcoCradle, is made from mushroom “roots”, called
mycélium. By pioneering the use of this innovative polystyrene packaging
alternative, Ecovative Design prevents marine debris, reduces waste in landfills
and decreases emissions associated with packaging production. Ecovative Design
successfully challenges the paradigm on how materials are manufactured and
used.
Monroe Litho
Monroe Litho is an environmentally sustainable commercial printing
partnership. In addition to being 100% wind powered, Monroe uses paper that is
10% post consumer waste made with 100% green e-certified renewable energy. In
2011 alone, the company saw a carbon footprint reduction of 9.5% from the
previous year while annual VOC chemical emissions were reduced by 35%.
Additionally, the company recycled thousands of pounds of consumer batteries, IT
equipment, florescent bulbs, cardboard and other items.
Environmental
Education
Consortium for Worker Education
The Consortium for Worker Education is a private, non-profit agency that
provides a wide array of employment, training and education services to over
75,000 of New York City workers annually. The organization is implementing a $4
million green jobs “Pathways Out of Poverty” grant that will help local green
businesses flourish by providing support and development services for businesses
involved in clean energy provision, energy saving retrofitting,
pro-environmental manufacturing, materials recycling and reuse and
deconstruction.
Robert Hayes
Robert Hayes is an environmental educator whose curriculum synthesizes an
increasingly rare naturalist education that has a focus on place-based
scientific observation of wildlife and landscape ecology with real-world,
hands-on occupation skills. Mr. Hayes develops programs that are carefully
matched to a range of student ages and aptitudes, while meeting key state
educational standards.
Federal, State, Local and Tribal Government or
Agency
Hempstead Harbor Protection Committee
Comprised of nine municipal members, the Hempstead Harbor Protection
Committee was able to improve water quality in Hempstead Harbor to the extent
that, on June 1, 2011, New York State re-opened approximately 2,500 acres to
shell fishing for the first time in over 40 years. This great feat, which met
the highest standard for water bodies, has also provided employment
opportunities, with as many as 80 boats observed in the harbor on opening day
alone. It has reassured the public that their efforts have and will continue to
provide environmental benefits.
Hudson River Estuary Program
Under the guidance of its coordinator, Fran Dunwell, the Hudson River Estuary
Program is a model of how government can work cooperatively with diverse
partners to achieve robust environmental and economic growth and health in
communities along the entire river corridor. The Hudson River Estuary Program
brings private and public sector partners together to coordinate projects that
help protect the natural beauty, safety and ecological balance of the river’s
estuarine system while improving water quality and fostering smart growth in
both rural and heavily urbanized waterfronts.
Martin Doster
As a professional engineer with the New York State Department of
Environmental Conservation in Buffalo, NY, Martin Doster was a major contributor
to the “Brownfields to Greenfields” manual. Mr. Doster oversees brownfields
redevelopment by bringing together community organizations, business
representatives and preservationists in Western New York. Through his efforts,
numerous neighborhoods in and around the city of Buffalo have become models of
successful community partnerships. Martin Doster is also overseeing a large
portion of the remedial work that is slated to remove tons of contaminated
sediment from the Buffalo River.
NYS Environmental Facilities Corporation
Suzanna Randall, Infrastructure Coordinator at the New York State
Environmental Facilities Corporation, and its Green Infrastructure Team have
developed and are implementing the state’s Green Innovation Grant Program, which
uses clean water state revolving funding to provide grants for green
infrastructure projects. Their efforts have spurred New York's municipal,
engineering and design communities to reconsider how they manage stormwater.
Most recently, they integrated the program into Governor Cuomo's Regional
Economic Development Initiative, leveraging the resources of this massive
statewide effort to further spread the word about green infrastructure
techniques to the wider business community.
Rye Sustainability Committee
On December 7, 2011, The City Council of Rye, NY voted unanimously for a
retail shopping bag ordinance, banning the use of plastic shopping bags. The new
law is the first of its kind in Westchester County, NY and was part of a broader
campaign by five members of the Rye Sustainability Committee to educate the
public about unnecessary single use disposables, encourage the Rye community to
use reusable bags and inspire other communities to follow suit. Gretchen Kaye
Crowley, Brigit Townley, Annalise Stack and Melissa Brown-Greico volunteered
their time over the past year to educate merchants and advocate for the law.
Town of Hempstead
The town of Hempstead has taken several measures to reduce its energy
use while saving its residents money in the process. Town Supervisor Kate Murray
spearheaded the town’s Clean Energy Project, which focuses on energy savings and
cost reducing projects including a solar panel field, a hydrogen fuel station, a
solar house and a solar and wind-powered shellfish nursery. Supervisor Murray
has elevated the town of Hempstead to a higher environmental standard, promoting
sustainability throughout the community and, ultimately, setting an example for
others.
Non-Profit Organization, Environmental or Community
Group
Civics United for Railroad Environmental Solutions
Civics United for Railroad Environmental Solutions is a coalition of 14 civic
associations from Maspeth, Middle Village, Ridgewood, Glendale, Elmhurst,
Woodside, Forest Hills, and Woodhaven in Queens, NY. Since forming in 2009, the
coalition has made vast strides in environmental improvements including reducing
emissions from diesel powered locomotives, making certain that rail yards are
free of hazards and threats to neighborhood health and safety, and ensuring that
plans to increase the number of freight portals into and out of the city are
implemented by sustainable means.
"Clean + Go Green," Columbia University, Facilities
Operations
Columbia University has made great strides in promoting recycling and
reducing waste through its annual “Clean + Go Green” event. Sponsored by the
facilities operations of the Columbia University Morningside campus, Clean + Go
Green is an event that enables and promotes community members to donate or
dispose of their unwanted items in an environmentally responsible manner. In the
six years since the first Clean + Go Green event, over 83 tons of items such as
electronics, clothing, books and furniture have been diverted from landfills and
donated to charity.
Community Foundation for Greater Buffalo
In recent years, Community Foundation for Greater Buffalo has been a champion
for environmental initiatives throughout Western New York, coordinating with
over 150 environmental organizations to implement a regional agenda for the
environment. Through their collaborations they eliminated lead poisoning risks
for hundreds of children through the green and healthy homes initiative. The
Community Foundation for Greater Buffalo also launched GrowWNY.org, a website
that is designed to connect regional environmental experts and organizations to
the general public.
Jamaica Bay Eco Watchers
The mission of Jamaica Bay Eco Watchers is to protect and restore Jamaica
Bay, a salt marsh that covers 25,000 acres. Since its inception, Jamaica Bay Eco
Watchers has spearheaded a variety of efforts from documenting nitrogen loading,
algae blooms and marshland in Jamaica Bay, to preventing city-owned wetlands
from being auctioned off for development, to engaging the NYC Department of
Environmental Protection in monitoring and testing sites identified as poor
water quality areas.
Residents for a More Beautiful Port
Washington
Residents for a More Beautiful Port Washington is a non-profit
organization dedicated to protecting and preserving the environment of Port
Washington, NY and its surrounding areas on Long Island. Together the members
work to improve their community by implementing programs in four main areas:
environmental education, policy and planning, environmental health and quality
of life. In 2011, the group launched a number of initiatives including hands-on
environmental education activities for elementary school students and volunteer
community cleanups and beautification days.
Rocky Point Marsh Makers
For over a year, Shervin Hess, along with other volunteers known as the Rocky
Point Marsh Makers, removed tons of lumber and debris from the Rocky Point Marsh
in Queens, NY, completely by hand. He recruited hundreds of volunteers and, at
times, worked alone or in small groups. Together with the Rocky Point Marsh
Makers, Shervin Hess has demonstrated how inspiration, dedication and hard work
can result in real environmental improvements.
Sustainable CUNY
Last June, Sustainable CUNY of the City University of New York launched the
NYC Solar Map, an online interactive tool that estimates the solar power
potential of the one million rooftops in the five boroughs of New York City. The
15 billion points of data that back up the map prove that enough solar power can
be generated on the city's rooftops to offset costly upgrades to the grid, or
the use of dirty generators during the city's peak usage periods. As a result of
the tens of thousands of hits the map has received, the New York City Department
of Buildings has received an influx of applications to install this clean,
renewable power.
THE POINT Community Development Corporation
THE POINT Community Development Corporation is a non-profit
organization dedicated to developing youth programming focused on cultural and
economic awareness in the Hunts Point section of the South Bronx. THE POINT has
been instrumental in bringing environmental justice to this historically
disenfranchised neighborhood. From developing open green space to creating
meaningful platforms for community engagement, THE POINT has shaped the policies
that impact the neighborhood daily and in the process, has created a long-term
strategy for environmental sustainability.
2011 PRESIDENT’S ENVIRONMENTAL YOUTH AWARD
WINNER
Christopher J. Yao
High school Sophomore Christopher J. Yao is confident that young people
have the power to change the world and he believes in harnessing that power to
combat environmental problems that exist today. Christopher started
Kids Change the World (
www.planetgreen.kidschangeamerica.org) as a means to
empower young people with start-up grants, websites and other grassroots
services and resources to start charitable/nonprofit programs to benefit the
environment. Since its inception, Kids Change the World has dedicated its
efforts to creating generations of young “doers” to change the world for future
generations.
For more details, visit:
http://www.epa.gov/region02/eqa
Follow EPA Region 2 on Twitter at
http://www.twitter.com/eparegion2 and visit our
Facebook page,
http://www.facebook.com/eparegion2.
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