2010 Sustainability Showcase Award Recipients

The Alliance is pleased to announce the winners of the 2010 Sustainability Showcase Awards! Each year, the Showcase Awards recognize businesses and organizations in California who are leading the way towards a less energy intensive, low carbon future and provides a platform for the honorees to share their success stories and best practices.

This year’s award recipients (and award categories) are: Balboa Park Cultural Partnership (Commercial Buildings), Eden Housing (Multifamily Housing), the City of Chula Vista (Local Government), and the Santa Clara Valley Water District (Water Agency). EAH Housing and the City of Tulare received honorable mentions.

Each of the above organizations is dedicated to advancing sustainability goals internally and in the broader community. In addition to achieving emissions reductions and water and energy savings, a number of these organizations have also realized significant economic savings. Their successes this year are proof that in spite of—or even because of—the recent economic downturn, sustainable practices are important to economic as well as environmental well-being.

In the coming months, we will be posting online showcases featuring each of these organizations. But in the meantime, we’d like to share with you a few of the best practices that make this year’s Showcase Award winners such leaders in their fields:

• Balboa Park Cultural Partnership - Commercial Buildings

  The Balboa Park Cultural Partnership—a coalition of 26 art, science, and cultural institutions—is working to educate, promote, and implement sustainability best practices in park buildings and operations through its Environmental Sustainability Program. The Program has fostered greater collaboration among the Park’s institutions, developed social and environmental metrics to measure success, and implemented a number of energy saving, renewable resource, and waste reduction measures. The San Diego Natural History Museum, for example, is the oldest museum in the country to obtain LEED-EB: O&M certification.

• Eden Housing - Multifamily Housing

  Eden Housing has built and maintained high quality affordable housing in Northern California for over 40 years. The company is focused on making all of its business practices more sustainable, from committing to exceed California Title 24 energy efficiency standards by at least 15% on all new construction, to securing millions in grants for solar, lighting, water conservation, and energy-efficiency retrofits for its existing properties. The company does active outreach to residents, and has implemented recycling programs in all of its properties.

• City of Chula Vista - Local Government

  The City of Chula Vista—the second largest city in San Diego County—has implemented a comprehensive Climate Change Protection Program across all City departments to promote energy efficiency and renewable energy, foster alternative fuel vehicle use, improve water use efficiency, and design walkable, transit friendly communities. The program has helped to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from municipal operations by 47% and has reduced per capita community emissions by 27% compared to 1990 levels.

• Santa Clara Valley Water District - Water Agencies

  Anticipating a future of increasingly constrained water supplies, the Santa Clara Valley Water District is doing its best to prepare for the worst. The District, a certified green business, has an award-winning water use efficiency and conservation program. Additionally, its greenhouse gas emissions reduction program provides a framework for continuous improvements to fuel, energy, and water efficiency, including the implementation of alternative energy generation, all in an effort to ensure the future water needs of Santa Clara are met in a sustainable way.

Honorable Mentions

• EAH Housing (Multifamily Housing)

  EAH Housing is committed to providing the 20,000 families, students, people with disabilities, and seniors it serves with high quality design and sustainable, livable communities. The organization is one of the largest multifamily recipients of California Solar Initiative incentives and has installed the largest multifamily affordable solar project in the US (Crescent Park in Richmond, CA). Its company-wide sustainability initiative covers all areas of operation, from new development, acquisition and rehab to property management and corporate operations.

• City of Tulare (Local Government)

  The City of Tulare, located in central San Joaquin Valley, is committed to ensuring sustained economic and environmental vitality for future generations of residents. As part of this effort, Tulare has implemented extensive building retrofit and residential solar programs, developed a 900 kw fuel cell system, installed 1 MW of solar power at the City’s wastewater treatment plant, and will soon complete a citywide Climate Action Plan.