Several Johnson County, Kansas businesses and four elementary schools will receive Johnson County's Green Business Award for success in waste reduction.
To recognize new, as well as ongoing efforts of businesses to "go green," the Johnson County Solid Waste Management Committee has selected 10 recipients of its annual Green Business Award.
The 10 recipients diverted a combined total of 1,227 tons of waste from landfills to recycling and composting. Awardees include manufacturers, schools and a hospital. The 2011 recipients of the top Emerald Award are:
Farmers Insurance HelpPoint, Olathe- Shawnee Mission Medical Center, Merriam
- ITW Dymon, Olathe
- ITW Labels, Gardner
- LaserCycle, Inc., Lenexa
- Tomahawk Elementary School, Overland Park
- Brookwood Elementary School, Leawood
- Briarwood Elementary School, Prairie Village
- Bluejacket Flint Elementary School, Shawnee
- WaterOne, Lenexa
A few of the EMERALD Level Winning Companies include:
- ITW Labels - They began with a facility that did no recycling and upgraded to a zero solid waste facility. By designing an innovative recycling program that includes 20 different waste streams ITW went from sending 30 tons each month to the landfill to zero within a nine month period.
- Brookwood Elementary - Brookwood implemented a composting program for all food, paper napkin, paper plate, and milk carton waste with Missouri Organic, a local commercial composting company. This program reduced lunch waste from eight (8) bags each day to less than one (1) bag.
- LaserCycle, Inc. - They implemented a program where trash cans were removed from individual cubicles and offices and placed them in central locations for collection. This provided greater awareness of sorting materials into recycling and residual trash.
- Farmers Insurance HelpPoint - Farmers Insurance refurbished 368 desktop computers that were given back to the vendor and reinstituted to service elsewhere. Additionally, they sent 24 broken computer items to an EPA approved disposal service.
- Briarwood Elementary - Briarwood performed a Recycling Rodeo for all their students. The Rodeo had each classroom collecting, measuring and graphing paper and mixed recycling daily for five weeks. Updates were placed in the Briarwood Brief to keep students and parents informed of their progress.
- Tomahawk Elementary - Tomahawk has fully integrated their "Green" programs into the school. They Changed their concept of conservation and environmental education from just something the school "did" to truly being a part of their everyday culture. The result has been greater participation in the school's after school environmentally focused HiP team.
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