2011 EARTH Award winners announced


Who: San Diego Earthworks, nonprofit organizers of San Diego's EarthFair in Balboa Park; County Supervisor Pam Slater-Price, Air Pollution Control District Board; San Diego City Councilmember Todd Gloria

What: 21st Annual E.A.R.T.H. (Environmental And Restoration That Helps) Awards, VIP (Very Important Planet) Reception, Air Pollution Control District Clean Air Award, EarthFair Volunteer Leadership Awards (5-, 10-, 15- and 20-year awards).

When: Wednesday, May 11
6:00 PM - Buffet & Silent Auction
8:00 PM - Awards Program

Where: The City of San Diego Department of Environmental Services "Green Building," 9601 Ridgehaven Court, San Diego, CA 92123.

Tickets: available at the door or by calling 858-272-7370: $50 single, $90 couple, $10 youth; buffet dinner included.

More Info: http://www.earthdayweb.org


2011 EARTH Award Wnners
Ms. Smarty Plants (Pam Meisner)
U.S. Green Chamber of Commerce
San Diego Veterans Administration Healthcare Medical Center
City of San Diego's No Time To Waste, No Water to Waste Campaign
Bill Toone, ECOLIFE Foundation

Ms. Smarty Plants (Pam Meisner)
Pam's motto is, "Change the World With Your Own Two Hands." She teaches children that they can personally make a difference and that kids are her heroes because they are the ones who will make a difference and change the world for the better.

This message sets the stage for children to become empowered to create change and be the ones to carry conservation into the future.

Ms. Smarty-Plants is an exceptionally caring, engaging and personable teacher who has developed relationships with many schools, teachers and community members. She makes learning fun and entertaining! She helps kids feel that they are important and are her heroes because they ultimately will change the world.

School programs on Water Conservation Garden grounds can serve up to 70 school kids and 10-12 adult chapperones per program, while assemblies for an entire school may have as many as 800 or more total participants. In the spring the Garden has school children every day of the week. More than 20,000 children have interacted with Ms. Smarty-Plants in the last year.

U.S. Green Chamber of Commerce
The US Green Chamber of Commerce (USGCC) launched itself as a national organization out of its San Diego headquarters in February, following its remarkable success as a local nonprofit. The organization's ultimate goals are to empower the community through environmental sustainability, which in turn affects economic and social aspects of society in a positive way.

The USGCC allows anyone to join, so long as they make a "green commitment." All businesses that join work with the USGCC to reduce their carbon footprint. As a part of this commitment, members designate at least one person in the organization to coordinate sustainability efforts and to implement waste reduction, energy efficiency, water conservation, pollution prevention, and so on. The USGCC provides educational tools to assist members reach these goals.

The USGCC also advocates for crucial environmental policies and legislation. One example is the strong stance it took against Prop 23 in 2010, fighting big oil companies from counteracting California's greenhouse gas reduction initiatives.

The tools the USGCC provides its members help them reduce their carbon footprint while reducing costs. USGCC also advocates for crucial environmental policies and green job creation. Increasing their presence to a national level will help implement sustainability in other chambers, businesses, and corporations lacking green initiatives.

San Diego Veterans Administration Healthcare Medical Center

The San Diego Veterans Administration Healthcare Medical Center (VASD) is more than 900,000 square feet, has an annual utility bill over $5 million, and uses enough energy to supply 2,000 homes. Their new co-generation technology enables the Center to unplug from the electricity grid by generating more than 95% of its own electrical demand.

The Cooling Tower upgrade, chiller and lighting retrofits yielded Annual Savings of $577,488. Annual Energy Savings for two chiller retrofits is 2,255,083 kWh. Annual Energy Savings for more efficient lights is 200,611 kWh

The VASD also did extensive research and testing to find a "drop-in" replacement non-ozone-depleting refrigerant, which yielded a 13.9% improvement in efficiency for domestic refrigerators, ice machines, drinking fountains, and kitchen equipment.

Parking lot lighting was replaced and lighting levels were increased to illumination levels required by code using high-pressure sodium fixtures that provided the optimum energy use for the design requirements.

A building automation control system is used to turn off air conditioning equipment in administrative areas after hours, track and adjust temperature set points to provide environmental control while minimizing energy use, and to monitor energy consumption.

City of San Diego's No Time To Waste, No Water to Waste Campaign

Providing reliable drinking water for the City of San Diego (the City) has been a geographic challenge since the 1940s. The City primarily relies on importing water (up to 85%) from Northern California and the Colorado River via aqueducts and pipelines; this water is subject to natural, environmental, and regulatory factors. Recent regulations, climate change, and a projected population growth create new challenges to the City's ability to provide a safe and reliable water supply for the citizens of San Diego.

In response to these factors, water conservation is a major component of the City's overall strategy to rely less on imported water. When drought conditions necessitated a Level 2 Drought Alert and mandatory water-use restrictions, the City developed and launched its No Time to Waste, No Water to Waste campaign in June 2009.

During voluntary conservation implemented prior to June 2009, the City's existing water conservation program and messaging were resulting in only a 3% to 5% reduction in citywide water consumption. With imminent water allocation reductions by the City's water wholesaler (San Diego County Water Authority), and the prospect of significant fines to the City for not meeting mandatory reductions in water use, the City developed a special campaign to generate the behavior change necessary to meet the conservation goals set by the reduced water allocations.

Overall, the City reduced billing by 11% in fiscal year 2010 compared to fiscal year 2009, exceeding its targeted conservation goal of 8%. The Water Conservation Program achievement is equivalent to a reduction of 29 gallons per capita per day in overall citywide usage. Using the 29 gallons of water saved per capita per day number, the energy saved equals to 0.3 kWh per capita per day. (Conversion obtained from California Energy Efficiency and Conservation's Flex Your Power campaign: 8.9 kWh saved per 1,000 gallons of water saved in Southern California.) Citywide, the water savings amounted to 412,200 kWh per day of energy saved.

With 0.3 kWh of energy saved per capita, there was 0.2 lbs of CO2 greenhouse gas reduced per capita per day. (Conversion obtained from California Energy Efficiency and Conservation's Flex Your Power campaign: 805 lbs. of CO2 reduced from the atmosphere per 1,000 kWh saved.) That's 274,800 lbs of CO2 greenhouse gases reduced per day in the City.

Bill Toone, ECOLIFE Foundation
Bill Toone, ECOLIFE Foundation will accept the first "Stand for Sam" EARTH Award in honor of Sam Murray and Sam Murray's Future Farm Foundation.

ECOLIFE Foundation is dedicated to resolving conflict between conservation needs and community needs. For example, ECOLIFE looks for a sustainable balance between conserving a forest and providing local communities fuel wood or construction supplies for survival. Their approach to conservation and humanitarian work is holistic.

ECOLIFE believes that there is still space and resources for all people and wildlife that hold this fragile web of life in place. We believe conservative use of our resources will allow more people to improve their quality of life, better manage family sizes and ultimately allow us to live in greater harmony.

Executive Director William (Bill) Toone, ECOLIFE Foundation's founding trustee and renowned conservation biologist, has been a successful spokesperson for endangered birds, insects, plants, and mammals for over 30 years. He has felt a connection with each species he has worked with and studied. Bill began to realize that many environmental scientists were compromising human needs or putting them second rather than treating them as equal to the needs of the animal species. He felt that conservation programs based on this approach would ultimately fail as important human needs were addressed. Bill experienced this firsthand on April 4, 2000, when Cyclone Hudah struck Madagascar, a country in which he had worked for many years studying its flora and fauna. Cyclone Hudah, combined with poor soil management, resulted in the deaths of many people-some of them Bill's friends. The conservation teams supporting Bill's work backed away in the face of human crisis.

This reaction to the crisis galvanized him and his colleagues to take action. In 2003, the ECOLIFE Foundation was established to help fill this important gap by using conservation as a tool-not only to protect our remarkable natural world but also to protect and improve human life.

ECOLIFE's core mission is to provide ecologically sustainable water, food, and shelter to communities through education applied programs. ECOLIFE solves natural resource issues using science, education, and strategic partnerships. Through applied programs, ECOLIFE provides immediate access to clean water, food, and shelter. Through conservation education, ECOLIFE teaches about understandable connections to the natural systems supplying these essential needs. Ultimately, our activities provide communities with measurable health benefits, greater economic stability, and higher standards of living.
About Sam Murray's Future Farm Foundation
Sam Murray, 19 year-old son of organic farmers Scott and Laura Murray died April 5, 2011. His passionate intent was to help nature and people through planting 1 million more trees here in San Diego and around the world. Sam was a devoted participant in many Earth Day fairs, other youth projects and he was learning to farm alongside his father. He had many more ideas that will be a part of his legacy carried on by Sam Murray's Future Farm Foundation. We invite individuals and groups to "Stand for Sam" and carry on his spirit and legacy. ECOLIFE reflects the kind of integrated, people and nature approach that Sam loved.

Thanks to our V.I.P. Reception sponsors and supporters: San Diego Gas & Electric, Solar Turbines, The Office of Supervisor Pam Slater-Price, County of San Diego, The County of San Diego Air Pollution Control District, Marshall Merrifield, and the City of San Diego Department of Environmental Services.

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