2011 California Stewardship Arrow Award Winners

This awards program was funded by a grant from the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery (CalRecycle).

Awards Selection Panel

Selection Panelist Bios

Awards Presented

Custom-designed awards made of recycled materials, by Bay Area artist Ellen Blakeley, were presented at an event on August 2, 2011, at the California Resource Recovery Association Annual Conference in San Diego, attended by more than 600 local and state government representatives, state legislators, and industry representatives.

Pictured: Heidi Sanborn, CPSC Executive Director, presenting 2011 Product Stewardship Arrow Awards Photo credit: Rajesh Lathigara	Awards Overview Video credit: Green Technology Smart Media

Awards Day Video

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2011 Golden Arrow Award: For Overall Excellence in Product Stewardship

	Pictured: Karen Solomon accepting award for Opportunity Green Photo credit: Rajesh Lathigara
From left to right: Frank Ferral and Doug Wilhoit, Greater Stockton Chamber of Commerce, 2010 Golden Arrow Award winners; Karen Solomon (Opportunity Green), Rob D'Arcy, CPSC Board Chair. Video credit: Green Technology Smart Media

Opportunity Green is the recipient of the 2011 Golden Arrow Award for their efforts in bringing together leading companies and visionaries to createopportunitiesand innovations to drive today’s sustainability movement.

In all of their work, they focus on balancing the triple bottom line: people, planet and profit. Their conference in Los Angeles brings these groups together and in addition to fostering vital changes on how businesses approach product development they have also integrated these philosophies into the conference itself by having the whole event be carbon neutral. Specific ways they integrate their organizational values include:

• Engaging Conference Sponsors in their conference beyond just providing monetary participation.
• Providing conference attendees with reusable water bottles and water refill stations throughout the event.
• Greening volunteers work to educate attendees and manage the resource recovery stations.
• The Conference food supplies Tender Greens and Border Grill, use primarily organic ingredients and depend heavily on local farmers.
• Ranked the #1 Green Conference on Google and brings attendees from around the world, public and private sector.  
• Conference is in Los Angeles to highlight the existing and future potential of sustainable business in entertainment and manufacturing and be the nexus for sharing innovations.

Beyond their conference, Opportunity Green inspires the businesses they engage with to embrace sustainable practices in their own work. In their location at Los Angeles Center Studios, they have encouraged the studio to make responsible changes in their energy uses, provide integration of electric vehicles with their production companies and using compostable products in their onsite catering and cafeteria. They are also active in the Los Angeles business community through their work with the LA Area Chamber of Commerce, where their CEO serves as the co-chair of the Environmental Sustainability Policy Committee. For all their outstanding efforts we are proud to honor Opportunity Green with the 2011 Golden Arrow Award.

Green Arrow Award for System Design and Innovation

	Pictured: Leanne Pomellitto accepting award for Savory & Sweet Photo credit: Rajesh Lathigara
Pictured from left to right: Neil Mohr, Republic Services; Leanne Pomellitto, Savory and Sweet; Rob D'Arcy, CPSC Board Chair. Video credit: Green Technology Smart Media

Savory and Sweet Catering, located in Sunnyvale, California, is the winner of the 2011 Green Arrow Award for System and Design Innovations.  

Savory and Sweet Catering has integrated Green Thinking into their entire business model with their goals to have a minimal impact on the environment by emphasizing conservation of resources, energy efficiency and a healthful environment.

They have achieved these goals by recycling all the products they use in their jobs including cans, plastic gallon containers and paper and separating them on site and arranging pallet pick up from their vendors.  They were the first US company to purchase a composting tub from Korea and bring all the food scraps back to their offices for composting into a soil amendment every 24 hours. 

Over the past ten years, Savory and Sweet has modified and changed their business practices on all levels to lower their carbon/overall footprint with the goal of having 95% of everything they bring to any catering event be edible, reusable, compostable or recyclable.

The model they have developed provides a blueprint for other food service and catering businesses to follow to reduce waste and maximize use of all their resources.   

Bow & Arrow Award for Coalition Building

	Pictured: Ron Perkins accepting award for ACRC Photo credit: Rajesh Lathigara
Pictured fom left to right: Ron Perkins, ACRC; Brad Bittleston, Interstate Ag Plastics Inc.; Arun Malik, AMVAC; Rob D'Arcy, CPSC Board Chair. Video credit: Green Technology Smart Media

Ag Container Recycling Council is the 2011 Bow & Arrow Award for Coalition Building.

The recycling program in California is operated by Interstate Ag Plastics (IAG) based in Buttonwillow, California. The Ag Container Recycling Council is the oldest continuously running voluntary industry funded product stewardship program in the nation.

ACRC members consist of companies that formulate, produce, package and distribute crop protection and other pesticide products. The pesticide industry has led the way in embracing product stewardship through their recycling efforts.

The results of their efforts in California alone yielded the recycling of20,000,000 pounds of containers, an energy saving of over 45,000gallons of gasoline and saving 100,000 cubic yards of landfill space. These reductions create fewer potential hazards to public health and the environment.

Their internalizing costs in the product price, and pro-active role in being responsible stewards of their products through the entire supply chain makes them a model for other industries to follow. 

Infinity Award for Service and Take-Back

	Pictured: Bob Smith accepting award for US Air Conditioning Distributors Photo credit: Rajesh Lathigara
Pictured fom left to right: Bob Smith, US Air Conditioning Distributors; Rob D'Arcy, CPSC Board Chair. Video credit: Green Technology Smart Media

US Air Conditioning Distributors, based in City of Industry, California, is the 2011 Infinity Arrow Award winner for Service and Take-Back.  

US Air Conditioning implemented a “Cash for Clunkers” Mercury Thermostat take back program to incentivize the contractor they work with to collect and properly recycle mercury thermostats. They placed recycling bins at

all their branches and collected 55.24 pounds of mercury in 2010. They won a Waste Recycling Award from the California Department of Resources, Recycling and Recovery (CalRecycle). In addition they saved $85,000.00 in fuel costs by switching to natural gas trucks, recycled 500 pounds of electronic waste, 12,320 pounds of corrugated cardboard, and 73,180 pounds of scrap metal and 3,360 pounds of white paper in the same year.

When as a State in 2010 we only recycled 3% of waste mercury thermostats, the pro-active efforts by US Air Conditioning in working with their client contractors and in product take-back for mercury thermostats make them a leader in the nation in these efforts and a champion for the environment.

2011 Awards Timetable

Nominations	May 18 - July 4
Awards Ceremony	August 2 at the CRRA Conference in San Diego