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Businesses for the Bay (B4B), a voluntary program promoting pollution prevention at facilities throughout the Chesapeake Bay watershed, held its annual meeting to recognize outstanding environmental accomplishments on November 13, at the Patuxent Wildlife Refuge in Laurel, Md. The Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE) gave awards to organizations within the Chesapeake Bay watershed including industry, non-profit groups, government facilities, schools, and businesses of all types.
More than 700 organizations participate in B4B, including 227 from Maryland. B4B continues to expand its membership and post greater pollution prevention results each year. Since the program's inception in 1996, program participants throughout the Chesapeake Bay watershed have reported the reduction and recycling of 8.2 billion pounds of waste and materials at a cost savings of $516 million. These wastes ranged from specific chemicals to air emissions and solid waste.
The Maryland Five
MDE Assistant Secretary Stephen Pattison presented awards to 18 organizations including five from Maryland. “These waste diversion numbers are the result of your hard work and dedication to finding ways to avoid creating waste rather than relying on treatment, control or disposal technologies,” said Pattison. “And we applaud you for that,” as he presented the awards based on members’ annual results.
The following organizations were award winners from Maryland. The complete list of award winners and information on how to join the program can be found on the Businesses for the Bay website.
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Volvo Powertrain (Hagerstown) - Outstanding Achievement for Pollution Prevention, Large Facility: Recognized for revamping an aging factory to a new, state-of-the-art manufacturing facility. Improvements include a new heating system, which has the ability to burn renewable fuels, and more efficient lighting and wastewater recycling systems. As a result, electricity consumption at the facility has been reduced by 50 percent per engine built between 2004 to 2005.
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Alliant Techsystems (Elkton) - Outstanding Achievement for Pollution Prevention, Large Facility: Recognized for reductions in electricity and thermal energy usage as well as gasoline consumption. They have made physical changes to the plant, but have also relied on employee involvement. An entertaining training video on energy conservation strategies has proven successful in gaining employee awareness.
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The Brick Companies (Edgewater) - Outstanding Achievement for Pollution Prevention, Medium-Sized Facility: Recognized for environmentally-aware development and management of their commercial properties, including golf courses and marinas. Activities include green-building features, environmental procurement, promotion of ride-sharing and the offsetting of carbon dioxide emissions.
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USDA, Henry A. Wallace Beltsville Agricultural Research Service (Beltsville) - Outstanding Achievement for Nutrient Reduction, Federal Government: Recognized for practices and research supporting Chesapeake Bay Program's goals, including the goal that fertilizer used on state and Federal lands be from poultry litter or animal manure sources within the Chesapeake Bay watershed.
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Lynne Forsman, Nautical Destinations (Annapolis) - Mentor of the Year: Recognized for promoting environment responsibility in boating and for advocating the adoption of green practices in the hospitality community. Also recognized as the founder of Green Drinks Annapolis, a chapter of Green Drinks International, which encourages communities to create an opportunity for people working in the environmental field to meet and share information in an informal setting.
The following Maryland companies were also recognized at the Businesses for the Bay Annual meeting for successful completion of an Environment’s Environmental Management System (EMS) Implementation Program:
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Coca-Cola, Baltimore Production, Baltimore
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Freedom Electronics Recycling, Inc., Hagerstown
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General Dynamics Robotics Systems, Westminster
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Lorch Microwave, Salisbury
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Standard Register, Salisbury
The EMS program, offered by MDE and Maryland Technology Extension Service, assists manufacturers in implementing an EMS based on the global ISO 14001 standard. EMSs steer facilities toward addressing both regulation and unregulated environmental impacts through pollution prevention. "There are many reasons for considering the environment in all that we do, but ultimately, it's about taking care of the planet for the future,” said David Smith, Supervisor of Environment Affairs. Volvo Powertrain.
MDE congratulates all the award winners and encourages Maryland organizations to join this team of forward-looking organizations in their commitment to implementing pollution prevention in their daily operations.
It is free and easy to join. Simply visit
the Businesses for the Bay website or call the Chesapeake Bay Program at 1-800-968-7229, ext. 719, or MDE at 1-800-633-6101, ext. 4119 to learn more. Organizations interested in participating in the MDE/MTES ISO 14001 Environmental Management System Implementation Program should call MDE Pollution Prevention Coordinator Laura Armstrong at 410-537-4119.
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