EPA will present national awards in Chicago next Tuesday for exemplary environmental outreach and performance to nine members of its National Environmental Performance Track program. EPA will also welcome 73 new Performance Track members and honor the program's first three Corporate Leaders.
"By definition, Performance Track members are among the nation's top environmental performers, and we are pleased to welcome the 73 new members to the program," said Stephanie Daigle, EPA acting associate administrator for Policy, Economics and Innovation. "The facilities and companies that we will recognize at this event as award winners have demonstrated truly outstanding environmental results over the last two years."
EPA is honoring Performance Track members' achievements with the following awards and recognition:
Environmental Performance Awards -- These awards will be presented to the following four facilities that have demonstrated especially outstanding performance: 3M, Nevada, Mo.; Durango- McKinley Paper Company, Prewitt, N.M.; Ideal Jacobs Corp., Maplewood, N.J.; Rohm and Haas, La Mirada, Calif.
Outreach Awards -- These awards recognize the following members for extraordinary efforts in communicating the benefits of membership in Performance Track to their employees and other facilities: 3M ESPE Dental Products, Irvine, Calif.; International Paper, Franklin, Va.; Motorola GTSS Ocotillo, Chandler, Ariz.; Pfizer Inc., Terre Haute, Ind.; 3M Corp., headquartered in St. Paul, Minn. (which will receive the first corporate-level Performance Track Director's Award for Outreach within and outside the company)
Performance Track Corporate Leaders -- Although Performance Track has historically been a facility-based program, EPA added a Corporate Leader designation to recognize companies that have multiple facilities in Performance Track and that demonstrate an exceptional corporate-wide commitment to environmental stewardship and continuous improvement: Baxter Healthcare Corp., headquartered in Deerfield, Ill.; Johnson & Johnson, headquartered in New Brunswick, N.J.; Rockwell Collins, headquartered in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
At the Chicago ceremony, EPA's New England Regional Administrator Robert W. Varney will unveil the "2005 Performance Track Progress Report: Growth and Renewal," a detailed view of the program and its members' achievements. Since the program's inception, Performance Track members have reduced their water use by more than 1.3 billion gallons, cut their generation of solid waste by nearly 600,000 tons, and decreased their energy use by more than 8.4 trillion British Thermal Units (BTUs), enough to power more than 80,600 homes for a year.
The April 12 ceremony, taking place at the Fairmont Hotel, is being held in conjunction with the 2005 National Environmental Partnership Summit, a merger of the National Pollution Prevention Roundtable Spring Conference, the National Compliance Assistance Providers' Forum, and the Performance Track Participants' Association's annual meeting. For information on the Summit and the sponsoring organizations, visit: http://www.environmentalsummit.org.
With the addition of the new members, Performance Track now has 351 facilities in 46 states and Puerto Rico. More information about the program is available at: [website].
Mark's Remarks
Gee, where is Greenpeace to highlight these companies helping out? Where are the environmentalists who preached for responsible industry? Wait, it isn't really about the environment. It is about the ego and about control. Silly me!
