The 2013 MVP2 recipients represent a broad range of backgrounds including academia, industries, non- profits, and individuals that have demonstrated significant accomplishments in pollution prevention. Together, these programs and projects reduced hazardous materials by 757,000 pounds, non-hazardous materials by 7.8 million pounds, water use by 484 million gallons, air emissions by 137 million pounds, and energy use by 484 million kWh.

P2 Project/Program Award:  Associated Air Center, LP  (Dallas, TX)

Chromate Reduction/Elimination

P2 Project/Program Award:  Denyo Manufacturing Corporation  (Danville, KY)

Catching the Environmental Sustainability Fever

Denyo’s 128 employees work in materials, paint, assembly, testing, quality, and shipping areas to assemble diesel engine-driven generators that range in capacity from 10 KVA to 300 KVA. Since 2005, Denyo has continually undertaken extensive data collection to measure all aspects of its production processes to find opportunities for improving environmental performance.

Denyo has used the process data to put in place well-developed pollution prevention and energy efficiency programs that span the social, environmental and economic aspects of sustainability.

The company’s award-winning efforts have resulted in reduced water and natural gas consumption, improved wastewater treatment operations, better management of process chemicals, lowered air emissions and significant cost savings.

Reductions include almost 240,000 gallons of water/month, 70 tons of air emissions/year, and a 78% reduction (or 154,000 pounds) of solid waste all while seeing a 400% increase in production.

P2 Project/Program Award:  IBM Vermont  (Essex Junction, VT)

Greenhouse Gas Reductions from Through Silicon Via (TSV) Semiconductor Process

P2 Project/Program Award:  Illinois Sustainable Technology Center  (Champaign, IL)

Illinois Conservation of Resources and Energy

P2 Project/Program Award:  Kentucky Pollution Prevention Center  (Louisville, KY)

Kentucky Pollution Prevention Center American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) Projects

Three of the Kentucky Pollution Prevention Center’s (KPPC) major programs that were partially or wholly funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and successfully completed by KPPC are the Kentucky Energy Efficiency Program for Schools (KEEPS), the Kentucky Industrial and Commercial Sustainability Program (KICSP) and the Kentucky Save Energy Now program (KY SEN).

With help from KPPC, 131 school facilities in Kentucky became partners in the US EPA Energy Star program, the highest state percentage in the nation.

And Kentucky schools and businesses were able to save over $12 million from January 2011 to June 2013 through KPPC's program initiation, training, and technical assistance for energy, water, and waste reduction.

P2 Project/Program Award:  Liberty Bottleworks  (Union Gap, WA)

100% Recyclable Aluminum Bottle

• Built a ‘zero waste’ manufacturing facility in Washington State in 2010 using all domestically produced machinery.

• Produces reusable water bottles made of 100% recycled aluminum.

• The insides are powder coated without use of phthalates or BPA in a closed-loop process, part of the company’s zero-waste philosophy.

• Water is retreated and reused on site. The infrared lamps that cure the powder are 800 percent more efficient than conventional curing ovens.

• Liberty’s are the only American-made metal bottles in the marketplace, and the first housewares product that Whole Foods NW has been able to promote as “locally made".

• Potentially 80 million plastic bottles eliminated from landfills.

P2 Project/Program Award:  Norchem  (Los Angeles, CA)

Ultrapure Water Recycling System

The Norchem Ultrapure Water Recycling System is a metal oxide membrane filtration system for the industrial laundry industry which filters water to the 0.01 micron level.  The filtered water is recycled back into the washing process allowing a portion of the laundry chemicals to be recycled as well reducing the amount of raw materials required to make wash chemistry. And the Ultrapure process reduces natural gas usage by filtering hot wastewater and recycling it back to the process.

The implementation of the Ultrapure Water Recycling System also significantly reduced water and sewer costs by reducing 26.1 million gallons of water use per year and:

• 93% reduction in BOD (Biological Oxygen Demand)

• 98% reduction in FOG (Fats oils and Greases)

• 99% reduction in TSS (Total Suspended Solids)

P2 Project/Program Award:  Owens Corning  (Newark, OH)

Sustainability:  Conversion to EcoTouch Fiberglass

EcoTouch™ insulation is a new fiberglass wool insulation product that is 99% natural and certified to have at minimum of 58% recycled content.  

The substitution of the natural, starch-based binder from a phenolic/formaldehyde binding process eliminated or significantly reduced the hazardous air pollutants (phenol, formaldehyde, methanol) along with ammonia emissions associated with the old resin formula. EcoTouch™ is the first fiberglass insulation to be certified by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) as a bio-based product. EcoTouch™ insulation also 1) achieved GREENGUARD Children & Schools Certification, 2) is verified to be formaldehyde free- meeting stringent certification standards for indoor air quality, and 3) carries the UL Environment Ecologo CCD016 preferable designation.

In addition, the Kansas City Owens Corning plant helped start a local glass recycling program and increased their fiberglass recycled content from 50% to 58%.  And they teamed up with others to start a program in 2009 for recycling roofing shingles.  Currently there are 45 major cities with roof shingle recycling locations.

P2 Project/Program Award:  SABIC  (Mount Vernon, IN)

Waste Minimization Through a New Extruder Purge

Purging usually requires the use of significant amounts of acrylic material to adequately clean the extruder, which takes a substantial amount of time. In addition, purging often involves the use of costly, abrasive, and nuisance odoriferous purge compounds to chemically degrade resin left inside the machine, and the processes for using those compounds present potential ergonomic hazards to operators. Saudi Arabia Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC) recently submitted patent applications for a new purge resin composition that allows our melt processing machines to be cleaned effectively and changed over in a much shorter period of time, often less than 15% of the time previously needed to clean the same machine.

• Reduced use of raw materials by 600,000 lbs/yr

• Reduced energy usage by 90,750 kWh/yr

• Reduced solid waste by 90%

While these reductions might be modest, the technology is being implemented at SABIC facilities across the globe. These reductions in the use of abrasive material have business benefits in greater manufacturing flexibility and reduced excessive labor requirements. However, the greatest benefits are those that are not easy to measure: the improvements to employee ergonomics and in employee morale due to the removal of the abrasive purge compounds.

P2 Project/Program Award:  Toyota of West Virginia  (Buffalo, WV)

False Bottom Roll Off Kaizen

• Designed a roll off box with a sloped false bottom to drain coolant off chips used in the process, to flow down through the filter and collect in the bottom of the roll off, eventually being recycled back into the central coolant system.

• Reduced 92,000 gallons of coolant and water waste each year, saving $92,000 each year.

• Total payback was less than 5 months.

P2 Champion Award:  Scott Butner

Scott Butner has been involved in the Pollution Prevention (P2) movement for more than 25 years and is one of the early leaders to help advance P2 in the United States. He was a Senior Research Scientist in the Knowledge Discovery and Informatics Group at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) and the "heart and soul" of the Pollution Prevention Roundtable for his creative and thought-provoking career. Scott was involved in a wide array of renewable energy, pollution prevention and sustainable technology research projects for the Laboratory and its clients.  Many of his research projects examined ways of better utilizing information technologies to improve environmental decision making by businesses and policy makers.

Scott has helped the community of P2 practitioners through P2Tech, numerous presentations over 20 years of national P2 conferences, P2Rx support, building P2 capacity in South Korea, serving on the Board of the NW Pollution Prevention Resource Center, photography, and fishing on the Columbia River.

"He is a wonderful ambassador for pollution prevention and the future we all want."

P2 Volunteer Award:  Rick Bossingham

Rick Bossingham has spent over 28 years in the environmental field. He has held the position as the Vice-Chair of the National Pollution Prevention Roundtable and served as the program advisor to Purdue University's Division of Ecological and Environmental Engineering. Rick spent 12 years at Wabash National Corporation, starting as Environmental Director and eventually as the Corporate Director of Environmental and Safety Affairs. He also directed the Pollution Prevention Technical Assistance program at Purdue University. In addition, Rick provided consulting for air permitting, environmental management systems, compliance auditing, and pollution prevention and has served as a regulator at the state and local levels in Colorado.

P2 Volunteer Award:  Donna Walden

Donna Walden recently served as the Executive Director of the Sierra Green Building Association where she promoted sustainability, environmental design, and building practices in the Sierras. She is the current program manager at the Western Sustainability and Pollution Prevention Network. Donna is committed to sustainability and the green movement. With over 20 years of experience in global marketing and experience with non-profit organizations, she is able to connect with volunteers and motivate them towards a common goal.

Honorable Mentions

Community Closet - Redefining Philanthropic Second-hand Sales:  Integrating Pollution Prevention with Market-driven Trends

StandardAero - Enterprise Environmental Management System (EMS)

The Green Building - Saving Energy and Resources

Toyota of West Virginia - Toyota of West Virginia High Bay Lighting Project

Washing Systems - Pure Solutions Chemical Line for Laundries

Watson Furniture Group - Manufacturing Sustainably