Awards Honor Individuals, Organizations or Businesses Who Demonstrated Commitment to Environmental Sustainability in 2015
PORTLAND, MAINE – (March 24, 2016) Scarborough High School’s Environmental Club “ECOS” and Portland’s East Brown Cow Management captured the 2016 awards for overall excellence at this year’s eco-Excellence Awards on March 23.
“We are proud to recognize both of these organizations for their notable commitment to environmental sustainability,” ecomaine CEO Kevin Roche said. “Both are fueled by a sense of vision and are walking the talk of the waste hierarchy to leave the smallest carbon footprint in their paths.”
East Brown Cow Management, Inc., the top winner in the Business Category, manages commercial properties in Portland and other southern Maine communities. Through their business practices, they have demonstrated strong leadership in energy efficiency and the use of renewable energy.
Their list of accomplishments is long and grows annually as they implement innovate approaches to save energy and reduce their green house gas emissions. Examples of recent design innovations include:
• LED Lighting: all parking lots and parking garages have been converted to LED lighting. At the Fore Street Garage this has reduced energy consumption by 124,000 kwh of electricity per year.
• Solar: three properties have solar arrays installed to replace electricity from the grid with renewable energy. At another property, EBC replaced electric hot water heaters with a solar hot water heater. This produces nearly 19,000,000 BTUs of renewable heat energy annually and offsets nearly 8,000 lbs of CO2 emissions.
• Co-generation: the new Hyatt hotel has a 10 KW co-generation plant that generates power for use in the building that also heats hot water.
• Electric Car Charging Stations: the company has installed electric car charging stations at the Fore Street Garage.
“As Portland and the surrounding areas continue to grow and be developed for local residents and tourists alike, the need for businesses to demonstrate respect for long-range impacts of their design and operations is essential,” said Jim Gailey, Chairman of ecomaine’s Board of Directors. “East Brown Cow Management is that kind of business, and we are proud to be their neighbor and partner in sustainable business and waste reduction for Maine.”
The Scarborough High School “ECOS” Club is a group of 25 students led by Staff Advisor Terri Eddy and five Student Officers Stephen Blackie, Sarah Mulligan, Alyssa Doherty and Brandon Fleming. The ECOS club logs 500 hours of service each year. These students have walked the talk on the frontlines of Scarborough High School and they have fostered replication across the Scarborough Public Schools. Every week, the ECOS club members split into five recycling teams, working assigned routes, going room-to-room through the high school, collecting bottles, cans and paper materials. The five teams reconvene to collectively empty, sort and bag the materials. The work is dirty and smelly, but highly rewarding to these dedicated students.
In addition to all the paper material that was recycled, in 2015 club members recycled 28,980 returnable bottles, resulting in $1,400 of revenues for the club. Over the years, income has gone toward a bike rack, raised vegetable garden beds for the school garden, a school entry-way bench made of recycled milk bottles, and the front lobby’s water bottle refill station. “The Scarborough High School ECOS club has influenced the Scarborough Public Schools to adopt recycling and composting practices in line with the waste hierarchy by walking the talk to reduce, reuse and recycle in every way possible,” said Erik Street, ecomaine Recycling Committee Chairperson. “For their dedication to educating their peers about the waste hierarchy, and for rolling up their sleeves and volunteering their time to walk the talk of their ECOS mission, we are proud to honor the Scarborough High School Student ECOS club with the 2016 eco-Excellence Award for overall excellence in the community.”
Other 2015 winners include:
• Cape Elizabeth Jamie Garvin
• Falmouth (Business) Peak Dental Health
• Falmouth (Community) Jean Lee of Falmouth Elementary School
• Gorham Carter’s Auto Service
• Manchester Hunter Norwood (age 5)
• Scarborough Friends of Scarborough Library
• South Portland (Community) City of SoPo’s Julie Rosenbach & Afterschool Adventures
• South Portland (Business) Verbena
• Yarmouth Jodi Federle, Kerry Weinrich, Renee Rhoads & Sheri Oliva
• York Dina Dellpasqua
ecomaine is the nonprofit, recycling and waste-to-energy operation that serves 25 percent of the state’s population; it is owned by 20 communities and is located in Portland, Maine.
