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StopWaste Environmental Leadership Awards

This annual awards program honors Alameda County entities for their leadership and innovations in advancing environmental sustainability, waste prevention, and contributions to building healthy, climate resilient communities in Alameda County. Since the inception of the awards program in 2000, well over 100 Alameda County businesses and institutions have been recognized.

The 2024 awards were held during the Alameda County Recycling Board meeting on Thursday, June 13 at 4:00 p.m., at the StopWaste offices, 1537 Webster Street in Oakland.

View press release
View awards presentation

2024 Awardee Highlights: 
 

Vesta Foodservice, Hayward 

Excellence in Food Recovery & Donation

Vesta Foodservice distributes food to restaurants, hotels, hospitals, and other foodservice providers throughout California and beyond. Their Northern California headquarters is in Hayward. Started in 2012, their Chefs to End Hunger (CTEH) program picks up surplus prepared foods from customers during their regularly scheduled deliveries and works with local partner organizations who take the donations from Vesta’s distribution center to vulnerable communities. Free and convenient for their customers, Vesta provides the donation kits—a box, three sheet pans, and labeling—and facilitates all outreach and training for the program. By utilizing the trips drivers already make, no additional carbon emissions are generated. Food recovery organizations like Daily Bowl love the program—since they started collaborating with Vesta, they have received well over 300,000 pounds of high-quality foods.

Sparkl Reusables, Oakland & Spectrum Community Services, Hayward  

Excellence in Reusable Foodware Partnership 

Spectrum Community Services, a nonprofit in Hayward serving nutritious hot meals to seniors, and Sparkl Reusables in Oakland, a reusable foodware service provider, have formed an innovative partnership that prevents some 10,000 pieces of disposable foodware from being wasted each month. At 10 out of 12 distribution sites, seniors receive their meals in Sparkl’s reusable containers, ready to be carried home in reusable bags. On their next visit, they return the empty, rinsed foodware in designated bins for washing and reuse. Sparkl staff picks up the used foodware and delivers freshly sanitized containers daily in a seamless, closed loop operation. Both Spectrum’s and Sparkl’s commitment to sustainability, willingness to experiment, flexibility, and excellent communication have made this successful collaboration possible.

oWOW, Oakland

Excellence in Construction Innovation

oWOW is an Oakland-based design and construction company with multi-family housing projects in Oakland and San Francisco. oWOW’s buildings use mass timber, a wood-based construction material that is stronger, lighter-weight, and less carbon intensive than other building materials and can be made from lower value woods including from burned forests. All of oWOW’s mass timber is sourced from a near zero-waste wood manufacturer in Oregon. Their prefabrication and industrialized construction methods allow oWOW to cut waste on-site while also reducing on-site labor costs and construction timelines. In addition, oWOW integrates development, design, and construction—responsibilities typically fragmented—enabling workflow synergies and more creative solutions. Combined, oWOW’s innovations allow them to build twice as fast and at a cost roughly 20% below traditional construction—a much needed answer to the Bay Area’s housing crisis.

Drake's Brewing Company, San Leandro

Excellence in Waste Prevention and Reuse

Drake’s Brewing Company in San Leandro has brewed craft beer since 1989 and operates three taprooms. At the San Leandro brewery, beer kegs used to be stacked on wooden pallets that break often and were secured with disposable plastic pallet wrap as they were moved between facilities for cleaning and refilling, or for shipment to off-site taprooms. In 2019, Drake’s switched to reusable plastic pallets and replaced the plastic wrap with reusable wraps and rubber bands. In the first year alone, they eliminated 16,000 lbs of pallet wood waste and 290,000 square feet of plastic wrap. In addition to cost savings, the reusable solutions save time because they are easier to apply and have improved worker safety.

Mohr Elementary School, Pleasanton

Excellence in Sustainability at School 

Mohr Elementary School in Pleasanton has been a StopWaste partner school and 4Rs—that stands for Reduce, Reuse, Recycle and Rot—champion for years, with a tireless and committed Green Team made up of students, their families, and school faculty. In 2020, they helped the Pleasanton Unified School District become the first district in the county to pass a resolution that prioritizes food waste reduction and recovery districtwide. Mohr teaches environmental and climate literacy in meaningful and hands-on ways, guiding students to not only properly sort lunch waste in the cafeteria and manage the school’s food share table, but also to develop and hone leadership skills: they teach younger students about the school’s green initiatives, lead litter cleanups, and assemblies on sustainability topics and even created their own “skip the spork packet” school-wide marketing campaign. Practicing their advocacy skills, students are working with Nutritional Services on designing waste, such as disposable water bottles and condiment packets, out of the system.

 

 

Previous Award Winners

 

2023

2022

2020

2019

2018

2017

2016

  • Corning Life Sciences
  • Felson Companies, Inc. 
  • Foods Co
  • Lola's Chicken Shack  
  • Mobile Mini
  • Oracle Americas, Inc.
  • Richard Avelar & Associates Architects
  • SMART Modular Technologies 

2014

  • America’s Best Coffee Roasting Company
  • Carriage House Apartments
  • The Home Depot
  • Kaiser Permanente Livermore Medical Offices 
  • Recology Grover Environmental Products(RGEP)
  • Reliance Metalcenter
  • The Republic Services
  • The Sacred Wheel
  • South Shore Center 
  • TraX
  • WM EarthCare is Waste Management
  • Zero Net Energy Center (ZNEC)

2013

  • Balentine Plaza Shopping Center
  • Cagwin & Dorward
  • CBRE, Inc.
  • FreshPoint San Francisco
  • McDonald's - Pacific Sierra Region
  • Pete's ACE Hardware
  • Tesla Motors, Inc.
  • The John Stewart Company
  • Truitt & White
  • UC Berkeley, Cal Dining
  • VF Outdoor, Inc.
  • Western Garden Nursery

2011

  • Amtrak Operations & Maintenance Facility
  • Chabot Space & Science Center
  • Dublin Corporate Center managed by Tishman Speyer
  • Finelite
  • GSC Logistics
  • Holy Spirit Church
  • Kaiser Foundation Health Plan
  • Kaiser Greater Southern Alameda Area (GSAA)
  • SYNNEX Corporation
  • Unigen
  • US Foods

2010

  • A.G. Ferrari
  • Berkeley Repertory Theater
  • Coca Cola Bottling Company, San Leandro
  • Dobake Bakeries, Inc.
  • Emeryville Public Market, by TMG Partners
  • Novartis
  • Peerless Coffee & Tea Company
  • Telecare Villa Fairmont Mental Health Rehabilitation Center
  • The Clorox Company
  • University of California Office of the President
  • Washington Hospital Healthcare System
  • Wente Family Estates

2009

  • Bayer Healthcare, LLC
  • Boston Scientific
  • Carl Zeiss Meditec
  • Costco Wholesale Livermore
  • Emerald Packaging Incorporated
  • Golden Gate Fields Racetrack
  • Heat and Control, Inc.
  • La Terra Fina
  • Peterson Tractor
  • Save Mart Supermarkets
  • The Shorenstein Building at 555 12th Street
  • The United States Postal Service's Processing and Distribution Center

2008

  • Alpha Innotech Corporation
  • Columbus Distributing Company
  • Dreyer's Grand Ice Cream
  • Fremont Marriott Silicon Valley
  • Ghirardelli Chocolate
  • Goodwill Industries of the Greater East Bay
  • Kerry Sweet Ingredients
  • Lake Merritt Plaza
  • North Face
  • Peterson Power
  • Pleasanton Corporate Commons
  • Walters & Wolf
  • Watergate Towers
  • Whole Foods Markets

2007

  • Amtrak
  • Clif Bar & Company
  • Eastmont Town Center
  • Finelite
  • Mills College
  • Quaker-Tropicana-Gatorade (QTG)
  • Service West
  • U.S. Foodservice San Francisco Division

2006

  • American Licorice
  • Bay Street Emeryville
  • Emeryville Public Market
  • IKEA Emeryville
  • Metro
  • Scios
  • Sconza Candy
  • Trans Pacific Centre

2005

  • Degussa Construction Chemicals
  • Golden Gate Fields
  • Pacific Gas & Electric
  • Pacific Steel Casting Company
  • Rogers Family Company
  • Sara Lee Coffee and Tea
  • The Society of St. Vincent de Paul of Alameda County
  • U.S. Pipe
  • Washington Hospital
  • Westgate Shopping Center/SKB Properties

2004

  • Children's Hospital Oakland
  • Clif Bar, Inc
  • Ghirardelli Chocolate Company
  • Oakland Arena & Network Associates Coliseum
  • Orcon Corporation
  • Toyota Logistics Services

2003

  • Cal State University at Hayward
  • CertainTeed
  • East Bay Regional Park District
  • IKEA, Emeryville
  • LAM Research
  • Oakland Hilton Hotel
  • Powerlight Corporation

2002

  • AC Transit
  • American Licorice Company
  • Oakland International Aiport
  • Yoshi's

2001

  • ANG Newspapers
  • Cal State University at Hayward
  • Compaq
  • East Bay Regional Park District
  • Peerless Coffee Company
  • Peet's Coffee & Tea
  • The Oakland Zoo

2000

  • Bay Area Rapid Transit District
  • Bayer Corporation
  • Fleischmann's Yeast
  • New United Motor Manufacturing, Inc.
  • United States Postal Service, Oakland District
  • University of California, Berkeley
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