Winners Announced for the 2013 Sustainable Santa Fe Awards

Awards Ceremony April 27

Winners of the 2013 Sustainable Santa Fe Awards were announced at the April 10, City Council meeting. The awards will be given to the recipients at a public ceremony on Saturday, April 27, at 6 p.m. at the Eldorado Hotel’s gallery space. The event is open to the public and everyone is encouraged to come celebrate this year’s winners and to meet and learn more about the winning projects.

The winners and a brief project description follow:

Community Outreach Award: Solarize the Roundhouse

A group of Climate Master’s students collaborated on this project as part of the program and named their group “Got Sol?” The goal of the project is to install solar panels at the New Mexico’s State Capitol. Senator Peter Wirth submitted a capital outlay request for $250,000 to fund the design and installation and the 2013 New Mexico Legislature allocated $185,000 to the project.

Environmental Advocacy Award: Citizens Climate Lobby

The Santa Fe Citizens Climate Lobby (SFCCL) is part of a network of over 90 citizen chapters across the U.S. and Canada established to create the political will for a stable climate. SFCCL has mobilized dozens of its members to take on an array of tasks from speaking to the media and before public groups, to letter-writing and lobbying.

Environmental Justice Award: 2012 Traditional Agriculture and Sustainable Living Conference

The 2012 Traditional Agriculture and Sustainable Living Conference, organized by a partnership of organizations including the Pueblo of Tesuque, Four Bridges Traveling Permaculture Institute, and Sostenga at Northern New Mexico College, brought awareness to the threat of genetically modified seeds and foods to the indigenous values and practices of native peoples. Featured 2012 keynote speakers were Paul Stamets and Oscar Olivera.

Food System Award: Gaia Gardens

Gaia Gardens is an urban neighborhood farm dedicated to modeling and teaching urban farming, that incorporates sustainability and permaculture practices through workshops and field trips for neighborhood schools, non-profit youth organizations, and homeless organizations on gardening, soil preparation techniques, food preservation, herbal medicine and water harvesting.

Water Conservation Award: Santa Fe Public School’s Water Conservation Program

The Santa Fe Public Schools launched a project to conserve water by, among other things, installing .5-gallon per minute aerators on all hand washing sinks, requiring 1.28 gallon flush toilets and .5-gallon flush urinals in all remodels and new builds, tightening its irrigation schedules, installing “smart” water meters on their top users to detect leaks quickly. These efforts resulted in a 6,846,389-gallon reduction in water use in Fiscal Year 2012.

Renewable Energy/Energy Efficiency Award: Sol Not Coal Installations

Sol Not Coal is a public education and awareness campaign engaging residents and businesses around the economic, health, and environmental benefits of solar power. Installations in 2012 included solar panels on a Santa Fe Fire Station #3 on Cerrillos Road and the Taytsugeh Oweengeh Intergenerational Center at the Tesuque Pueblo.

Affordable Green Building Award: Piñon Ridge Homewise 39 Home Housing Development

The homes at Piñon Ridge were constructed to exceed the green building codes and standards required by the City of Santa Fe, achieving the Build Green New Mexico Gold rating. Each home incorporates environmentally beneficial features, resulting in a 40 percent decrease in the demand for water and energy compared to a house built by standard code.

Green Building Award: 205 West Cordova Road House

This home exemplifies the integrated and thoughtful use of leading building science practices. This degree of green building excellence was achieved at a remarkably low building cost, demonstrating that efficient and low-impact construction can be available to the most cost-conscious homebuyer. It achieved a home energy rating score of 52 without the use of solar equipment, includes many water saving features, uses numerous sustainable materials and was certified under the EPA Indoor AirPlus program.

Climate Adaptation Award: Rocky Mountain Survivor Queen Bee Cooperative

The Rocky Mountain Survivor Queen Bee Cooperative promotes survivor cross-stock queen bee breeding through chemical-free management, conscientious production, and professional development through in-service trainings, workshops and conferences. Bee-keeping methodologies have been developed to promote breeding and production for the region founded on living laboratory observations.

Green Economic Development Award: Green Lodging Initiative

The Green Lodging Initiative helps the Santa Fe lodging industry to decrease water consumption, decrease toxic waste disposal, and reduce carbon emissions. The program is designed to support the lodging industry’s shift to different, healthier systems and products.

Low Carbon Transportation Award: Linograt ChargePoint Charge Station

Linograt LLC provided the first permanent, public access, plug-in vehicle charging station at a solar offset commercial location in the state. It uses a ChargePoint networked dual output charging station and is available to the public to provide daytime charging to top off battery-charge for electric vehicles while in town. Since its launch in June 2012, the charging station has provided 950 kilowatt hours of energy to plug-in vehicles saving 2,970 pounds of greenhouse gas emissions.

Waste Reduction Award: Water Buffalo

The Water Buffalo project is a portable water-filtration and chilling unit designed to be paired with reusable or compostable cups and to avoid the carbon footprint associated with manufacturing and distributing single-use water bottles. The Water Buffalo was used at both the Food Depot Souper Bowl and the Santa Fe International Folk Art Market.

Green Journalism Award: Occupy New Mexico’s Website and Social Media

The website www.OccupyNewMexico.org (ONM) has provided independent journalistic coverage on the Occupy movements in New Mexico and on related movements for social and environmental justice. ONM uses video journalism from events as well as aggregation of grassroots and mainstream news sources. ONM uses social media to spread the word about the issues it covers.

Youth-Led Award: Institute of American Indian Arts Student Sustainability Group

The Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) Student Sustainability Leadership (SSL) held The Art of Change: Climate Justice and Indigenous Solutions conference that focused on culture and stories, creative communication, skills and technology and tools for change. The SSL also conducted a trash audit and displayed a week’s worth of trash during a Dumpster Warriors Trash Bash and Fashion show to raise awareness about waste reduction and recycling.