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Small Business Best Practice AwardTrifecta Construction Solutions
The construction industry – not unlike many others – is most often driven by the bottom line. But, when it comes to building green, many are under the impression that “it’s too expensive” or “that it’s too complicated.”
Trifecta Construction Solutions, under the leadership of Dr. Jennifer Languell, has set a lofty goal to facilitate the implementation of environmentally responsible practices that result in valuable resource conservation. The plan is working and the industry is taking notice.
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When creating green developments/communities – which can include wildlife corridors and restoring native wildlife habitat – consumers see the environmental benefits for themselves. And while green building is growing in popularity, some builders willing to “go green” don’t have the expertise to move forward. Trifecta Construction Solutions and Dr. Languell are helping to fill that void.
What Can You Do?
- Build up – not out – with a focus on traditional walkable neighborhoods and mixed-use housing and commercial development and town centers.
- Live downtown or closer to city centers.
- Provide incentives for green building with expedited permitting, higher densities and true growth planning.
- Consult with your local Florida Green Building Coalition and U.S. Green Building Council members.
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Government Best Practice AwardPinellas County
If Pinellas County was a country it would have the sixth highest population density of any nation in the world. It’s hard to imagine a leader in sustainability having such demographics. But under the leadership of the County Commission, Pinellas County is becoming just that.
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With a shared vision – that Pinellas County should be a place where families and businesses would want to stay and where children would want to remain – the Board completed Vision Pinellas 2005. They created The Bushnell Office for Urban Sustainability that uses an interdisciplinary approach to address the problems associated with the growth the county has experienced. Efforts focused on comprehensive planning, waste management, environmental management and community education.
The Board also understood that it had to not only encourage but also practice sustainability. With the renovation of the 26-year-old Bushnell center, building an energy saving “cool roof” paid for itself in just four to five years. The innovation saves the county money, reduces its environmental impact, and serves as an example to the entire community.
What can you do?
- Engage the community in designing a regional vision.
- “Green” your purchases of vehicles, paper, electronics,
and cleaning supplies. - Offer recycling in government buildings and schools.
- Build and renovate to green standards.
- Adopt resolutions and ordinances promoting sustainability.
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Green Building Best Practice AwardBonita Bay Group
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Bonita Bay Group has championed sustainable development and environmental stewardship since the company’s inception in the 1980s, creating communities that preserve and enhance a site’s natural attributes. But the timing of its plans for a new development presented an opportunity for the company to take its commitment to the next level with a project called Verandah.
Verandah’s land plan started with a detailed assessment of the site and ecosystems as well as a look at the property’s past, including a historic flow way that was interrupted by prior agricultural use.
They created a series of “Green Commitments,” that called for responsible site development, conservation and green building. That commitment included steps for conservation (letting 70% remain in open space, transplanting more than 200 oak trees and preserving 1.75 miles of river frontage), water (using drought-tolerant landscaping, maximizing the principles of xeriscaping and using treated effluent when possible), wildlife (preserving 128 acres of foraging habitat), and health (nine miles of walking trails and pathways that link to a shopping center, a much-needed commercial component).
The commitment extended to its builders. All of the development’s single-family homes must meet Florida Green Building Coalition standards.
Designing Verandah to exceed new green land development standards resulted in a community that minimizes its impact on the environment, conserves energy and water usage and protects and enhances natural habitat.
What can you do?
- Discover and preserve the most valuable environmental land to
protect habitat and water. - Instead of building on the water, use linear parks to provide access to all.
- Require green building for residential and commercial projects.
- Create sustainable places with higher density and thoughtful design.
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Leadership Best Practice AwardSenator Mike Bennett
The Best Practice Leadership Award seeks to recognize those committed to environmental stewardship and economic progress. Senator Mike Bennett is that sort of person in the Florida Legislature. He has continuously fought for passage of legislation that will create a sustainable Florida that we can be proud to pass along to our children and grandchildren.
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Senator Bennett’s most visible contribution is the creation of the Century Commission for a Sustainable Florida, an organization with the responsibility of envisioning the future of the state as it relates to such issues as transportation, water quality, housing, health care, education and growth. The commission’s objective is to develop and recommend policies, plans, action steps or strategies to assist in achieving its vision. Senator Bennett is one of 15 board members for the commission.
The Commission has been important in working to develop the Cooperative Conservation Blueprint and is working with other institutions in both the public and private sectors to advance its mission.
As a businessman, Senator Bennett demonstrates through his actions that business and environmental goals are not at cross purposes. As he clearly says, “We’re selling the quality of life. We better take care of it.”
What can you do?
- Support the creation of market-based conservation efforts like the Rural Lands Stewardship program.
- Support government funding to purchase environmentally sensitive lands.
- Encourage candidates and elected officials to state their sustainability goals.
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Large Business Best Practice AwardFlorida Power and Light Company
Hybrid vehicles are gaining popularity as passenger cars and light trucks. But what about hybrid-powered engines for huge, multi-ton vehicles?
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George Survant, Director of Fleet Services for FPL, initiated the development of a Hybrid Utility Truck Working Group with WestStart/CALSTART, a non-profit organization that helps companies clean the air, lesson dependence on foreign oil and reduce climate change impact.
The Working Group, which included thirteen utilities from around the country, issued an industry-wide request for proposals for a hybrid large truck engine that would perform identically to existing trucks while reducing fuel consumption, emissions, and providing on-board electrical power generation.
FPL took possession of three trucks from the Army’s National Automotive Center. The impact was immediate. The hybrids, fueled by B20 (20% biodiesel fuel produced from soybeans), showed a 55.3% reduction in fuel consumption as a well as significant emissions-reduction benefits.
Another important feature of the hybrid system is that when the trucks reach the work site, the hybrid system can power the hydraulic pump that operates the aerial device and its tools for up to two hours without running the engine. It is this ability to shut down the engine that helps the truck cut fuel use so significantly.
FPL and its utility partners are committed to advocating the use and advancement of hybrid technology on the state and national levels.
What can you do?
- “Green” your fleet with electric, hybrid, flex fuel and high mpg vehicles where possible.
- Encourage and provide premium parking for carpool, hybrid and ride sharing employees.
- Permit and encourage telecommuting.
- Support funding for mass transit.
- Ride a bike or walk for short errands.
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Large Business Best Practice AwardPublix Super Markets
Publix Super Markets, the largest employee-owned supermarket chain in the United States, recognizes the need to conserve resources by implementing sustainable practices – to make sure that more than just its logo is green.
With Get Into a Green Routine, Publix has developed a thoroughly integrated approach toward reducing waste, increasing recycling efforts, conserving energy and water and eliminating the use of hazardous materials by educating their associates in the part they play in the company’s sustainability.
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In 2006, Publix recycled more than 209,000 tons of cardboard and 7,600 tons of plastic as well as many other materials. The avoided landfill disposal costs (as a result of recycling) exceeded Publix’s garbage costs in 2005 and 2006.
Publix believes that every company has the potential to reduce energy usage and manage its waste to minimize the materials put in their garbage containers (which ultimately end up in a landfill or a waste-to-energy facility). By following the same process, each company can determine how best to achieve energy savings without sacrificing productivity or losing money.
What can you do?
- Measure your electricity usage, emissions, waste and water usage.
- Set measurable benchmark goals to reduce usage.
- Educate and motivate employees and customers about efforts to protect environment and reduce costs.
- Publicly report efforts and progress made.
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Legacy Best Practice AwardBabcock Ranch
Babcock Ranch is a 65-mile environmental corridor stretching from Lake Okeechobee to the Gulf Coast through Lee and Charlotte counties. It is an amazingly beautiful working and natural landscape. Babcock Ranch includes the 17,700-acre Telegraph Swamp, with incredibly valuable groundwater resources and vast timber and ranch lands that provide important habitat for panther, black bear and other protected species.
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Syd Kitson approached the family with an ambitious plan. Kitson & Partners would purchase the company and sell 80% of the ranch – 74,000 acres – for permanent preservation. The State of Florida and Lee County joined together to purchase the lands. The Legislature appropriated General Revenue funds – so that Florida Forever Funds were not impacted. Existing cattle and eco-tourism operations will continue – generating operating revenue to manage the Preserve. Kitson and Partners donated $3 million dollars and land to Florida Gulf Coast University to establish an environmental education program.
With assistance and partnership with the Lee and Charlotte County governments and residents, the Department of Community Affairs and Environmental Protection and the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission – along with the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services – plans for the remaining land were created to permit future sustainable development featuring high density with great design featuring a town center, high school and shopping centers.
The state’s conservation land acquisition program partner with the private sector provides permanent protection. It provides a template for future efforts that would stretch limited taxpayer dollars, preserve pristine conservation lands and allow the development community to build on the land that is most suitable.
What can you do?
- Provide incentives to encourage protection of natural and working landscapes.
- Use market-based tools to encourage private sector
conservation. - Offer opportunity to explore transfer of development rights options.
- Promote the development and use of a Cooperative Conservation Blueprint for Florida.
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Non-Profit Best Practice AwardA gift for Teaching
Every year, on average, teachers spend between $500 to $1,000 of their own money on school supplies for their students and classrooms. Using the old adage “Waste Not – Want Not” as a guide, A Gift for Teaching created a business model that recycles surplus goods from local businesses and puts them in the hands of deserving school children.
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In addition to recycling goods and conserving natural resources, A Gift for Teaching has enlisted prisoners to make school supplies from donated paper, fabric and cardboard. Their annual Bright Kids Book Drive recycles gently used books and collects new ones for distribution at its stores.
All counted, A Gift for Teaching has gathered donations from more than 4,600 businesses and individuals and distributed more than $27 million worth of educational supplies.
What can you do?
- Reduce the amount of resources you consume – turn off lights, conserve water, adjust your thermostat.
- Reuse products instead of throwing them away.
- Recycle paper, plastic and metal.
- Donate used goods to local charities – it will become another person’s treasure.
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Business Partnership Best Practice Awardmyregion.org: How Shall We Grow?
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Public-private partnerships are vitally important as we integrate Florida’s economic and environmental futures. This type of voluntary cooperation is the key to ensuring the best parts of Florida are here tomorrow and opportunity is available for current and future generations.
In the seven-county Central Florida area (including Brevard, Lake, Orange, Osceola, Polk, Seminole and Volusia Counties), myregion.org’s How Shall We Grow? initiative is an example of many parties coming together to find a common vision that they share for their region. The 15-month effort engaged citizens, community leaders and elected officials in the process of regional growth, planning and management. Growth management became much clearer with a cooperative regional perspective.
The practical points of this initiative included community presentations, an interactive website and blog and local television programming. The project goal was to create a 50 year vision for the growth of the 93 jurisdictions included in the area. For the first time, this group of county commission chairs, mayors and county managers is exploring ways to work together as a region rather than as separate entities in order to more effectively tackle the unprecedented growth facing the area.
The initiative received input from more than 20,000 citizens and is perhaps the most successful community engagement effort in the nation. The results indicate a desire by residents and community leaders to conserve green space and natural resources, preserve the countryside by encouraging traditional walkable neighborhoods, create urban mixed-use town centers that build up not out and develop transit corridors that provide options such as light rail.
What can you do?
- Work to develop a regional vision for your community.
- Develop scenarios and engage your neighbors to talk about what they want for their grandchildren.
- Identify the most valuable natural places and protect them.
- Develop multi-modal transportation options for residents and businesses.
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2007 Promising Best Practice Award
The following were nominated and chosen to receive the Council’s Promising Practice Award in recognition for their commendable sustainable efforts.
Arthur R. Marshall Foundation and Florida Environmental Institute, Inc. Centerville Conservation City of Dunedin City of Gainesville City of Tallahassee City of Tallahassee Commission City of Winter Park Collier County Stormwater Management Department Drew Smith, Two Trails, Inc. Florida A & M University Florida Biomass Energy Group, LLC Florida Keys Green Living Gainesville Regional Utilities Green Real Estate Education Indian River Habitat for Humanity Dr. Peter Berry Massey Services, Inc. |
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Nestle Waters North America Plum Creek Low Impact Development Progress Energy Florida Progress Energy Florida Rayonier Biomass Boiler Team Safety-Kleen Solar Direct T.K. Wetherell, Florida State University The Original Florida Tourism The St. Joe Company Titan America Medley Plant Walt Disney World WORKForce plus |