Contra Costa Leadership in Sustainability

Award Winners Honored

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Over 200 local leaders came together to celebrate the sustainability movement in Contra Costa at the 3rd Annual Sustainable Contra Costa Awards Gala. The Awards honor those who demonstrate outstanding commitment, leadership and contributions toward a more sustainable Contra Costa.

Winners were selected by a team of 16 judges on how well their actions contribute to environmental and social health, local economic prosperity. The winners also demonstrate community/organizational involvement, a wide impact in the community, uniqueness, being a model for others, and partnerships and collaboration with others.

We celebrated with wonderful local food and wine donated by our sponsors at the beautiful, green Lafayette Veterans Memorial Building.

 

Congratulations 2011 Winners!

Small Business: Food Service Technology Center (FSTC)

FSTC is a sustainability program serving Contra Costa County. Focused on energy efficiency and water conservation, the FSTC’s mission is to provide practical, actionable, research-based guidance to the entire commercial food service industry.

Community: Sustainable Lafayette

Sustainable Lafayette is a non-profit organization with a mission to provide the community of Lafayette with the information, inspiration, tools and assistance needed to facilitate the adoption of sustainable practices.

Community: RYSE Center

The RYSE Center contributes to the Richmond/West Contra Costa County community by supporting the healthy development of youth through holistic approaches, engaging participants in programs grounded in youth leadership and social justice.

Individual: Cindy Egan

Ms. Egan is a true community champion, encouraging students to work in partnership with the Town of Danville on clean water, e-waste and other environmental projects that benefit the local community.

Large Business: Allied Waste Services (AWS)

AWS became a Certified Green Business in November 2009, the first solid waste company in Contra Costa County to earn this certification. AWS’s sustainability initiatives include: powering all of their route trucks with clean natural gas, the use of methane from the Keller Canyon Landfill to generate power, annually hosting 4th grade students from the Pittsburg Unified School District at the wetlands project at Keller Canyon Landfill, and partnering with the Contra Costa Solid Waste Authority and East Bay Municipal Utilities District’s (EBMUD) Commercial Food Waste-to-Energy Project, which collects approximately 30 tons of restaurant food waste for anaerobic digestion at EBMUD’s Oakland facility.

Government: Eastern Contra Costa Transit Authority (ECCTA)

ECCTA was certified by Contra Costa County as a Green Business in April 2005 and has been recertified until April 2012. They have a policy forbidding engine idling, which reduces emissions and saves fuel.

School: The Meher Schools, Lafayette

The Meher School’s community garden program encourages experiential learning by offering classes in the garden during the regular school year and summer sessions, providing students with the opportunity to grow and prepare high quality, locally grown produce.

Lifetime Achievement Award Recipient: Mary Lou Laubscher

Retired teacher Mary Lou Laubscher has had a life-long passion of advocating for social justice, health and food security in the low-income, densely populated, largely immigrant Monument Corridor in Concord, California. Mary Lou has been a resident of the Monument Corridor for 55 years, and is a leader for engaging residents to create sustainable programs in the community.

Mary Lou founded and became Executive Director of the Cambridge Community Center to provide resources to the surrounding community, and collaborated with the Contra Costa/Solano Food Bank to start food distribution for hungry people in the Monument Corridor. This program first distributed food to 80 people a week, later becoming the Monument Crisis Center, which now distributes food to 7,000 people a month. Ms. Laubscher successfully lobbied the City of Concord to add a community garden to the Markham Nature Area, which is still in existence after 30 years. She created the Monument Community Partnership (MCP) Community Gardens Action Team, and worked with Cambridge Elementary School, UC Cooperative Extension’s Master Gardeners’ Program and local residents to install and run a raised-bed, bio-intensive garden behind Cambridge Elementary.

Diablo Magazine recently recognized Mary Lou as a “Threads of Hope” award recipient for the hope she instills in her community, and her amazing ability to bring people together to achieve a dream. She is a visionary who, upon seeing a need, does not ask whether a solution is possible, but, instead, brings people together to create one.

 

See the 2011 Awards Booklet here

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