NEWS RELEASE

Contact:
Michelle Fay
Tel (510) 891‐6500
mfay@stopwaste.org

12 Alameda County Companies Recognized for Waste Reduction Excellence

SAN LEANDRO, Calif. – March 14, 2014 – At a recognition event on March 13, StopWaste acknowledged the recipients of the 2014 StopWaste Business Efficiency Awards, given for outstanding achievements in waste reduction and efficiency. The winners—twelve companies from around Alameda County—represent a wide range of industries and were selected for their proactive and innovative waste reduction efforts, waste prevention, recycling and composting, the promotion of recycled content products.

Speaking to an audience of close to 150 business leaders, elected officials and guests, StopWaste Executive Director Gary Wolff praised the award winners for their achievements, emphasizing economic benefits. “The companies we celebrate today are improving their environmental performance as well as the bottom line, but they also boost our local economy,” Wolff said. “When bales of paper are sold or organic materials composted instead of landfilled, that brings money into the county. And that money gets spent, fueling more economic activity,” he elaborated.

StopWaste estimates that reducing compostable and recyclable materials left in the garbage can add as much as $140 million to Alameda County’s economy each year. Dubbed “good stuff” by StopWaste, compostable and recyclable materials still made up 32% of residential garbage in 2013, down from 38% in 2012 and 60% in 2008. For the commercial sector, the amount of “good stuff” in the garbage in 2013 ranged from 23% to 55% depending on the industry. StopWaste is charting a course to bring that amount down to 10% countywide and across all sectors by 2020.

This year’s awardees included The Home Depot’s nine stores in the county for the promotion of recycled content building materials, among other waste reduction efforts. Several companies were recognized for their work on preventing waste from food service ware, including The Sacred Wheel, a restaurant in Oakland and social media platform traX. Recology Grover Environmental Products, Republic Services Newby Island Compost facility and WM EarthCare also won awards. All three companies process plant debris, food scraps and compostable paper from throughout the county and bring it back as high quality organic compost.

The event was held at the Zero Net Energy Center (ZNEC) in San Leandro. Completed last year, the ZNEC is the largest building in California that produces enough renewable energy on‐site to meet its own electricity demand. Recognizing the connection between energy efficiency and waste reduction, a special award was presented to the IBEW and NECA for their leading‐edge work at the ZNEC. Please see below for the full list of winners with their award categories.

The award categories and winners are:

Waste Reduction Excellence in Food Processing:
America’s Best Coffee Roasting Company (Oakland)

Waste Reduction Excellence in Residential Property Management
Carriage House Apartments (Fremont)

Waste Reduction Excellence by a Building Material Supplier
The Home Depot (for nine locations in Alameda County)

Waste Reduction Excellence in Healthcare
Kaiser Permanente Livermore Medical Offices (Livermore)

Excellence in Quality Compost Production
Recology Grover Environmental Products

Waste Reduction Excellence in Manufacturing
Reliance Metalcenter (Union City)

Excellence in Quality Compost Production
Republic Services Newby Island Compost Facility, Super Humus Compost

Waste Reduction Excellence by a Restaurant
The Sacred Wheel (Oakland)

Waste Reduction Excellence in Commercial Property Management
South Shore Center (Alameda)

Excellence in Social Media Innovation
TraX (Berkeley)

Excellence in Quality Compost Production
WM EarthCare

Energy Excellence in Commercial Construction Operations
IBEW & NECA for the Zero Net Energy Center

More information about each awardee’s achievements is available at www.stopwaste.org/preventing-waste/business-efficiency-awards. 

The StopWaste Business Efficiency Awards honor Alameda County businesses and institutions whose continuous efforts to improve environmental performance and business efficiency have achieved outstanding results. Since the inception of the awards program in 2000, well over 100 Alameda County businesses and institutions have been recognized.

####