PRESIDENT ’ S VIEW
PRESIDENT ’ S VIEW
Enviro Stewards Receive Honors Awards Celebrate Earth Day
By Anthony Russo President , CIANJ
We are proud that our Envi ron mental Leadership Awards Breakfast last month saluted two individuals and 11 companies and institutions of higher education for their outstanding efforts to preserve and protect our land , air and water , enabling us all to enjoy them .
CIANJ has a long history of working in the environmental industry as many members are dedicated to the field . In our annual celebration of Earth Day , we like to ask them to highlight their most innovative projects or to nominate individuals whose accomplishments deserve special recognition .
Our April issue focused on the theme of “ Protecting Our Environment .” We printed the accounts given by our members . Two judges , Bob Martin , the former commissioner of the state Department of Environmental Protection , and Tracy Straka , the co-chair of the CIANJ ’ s Environmental Business Council , reviewed the submissions and selected the winners of this year ’ s competition .
The two individuals cited for their stewardship are : Timothy Eustace , executive director of the North Jersey District Water Supply Commission , and Theodore A . Schwartz , a partner at the Little Falls-based law firm , Scarinci Hollenbeck , who was instrumental in the creation of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection in 1970 . In its nomination of Schwartz , the law firm described him as a “ pioneer ” in environmental law , recalling he authored many laws and regulations , including the New Jersey Air Pollution Control Act , which became a national model .
Eustace was nominated by Alan Ashkinaze , one of the water supply commissioners . Ashkinaze noted that under Eustace ’ s leadership their agency will be the first in the state to provide its own green power supply . In 2019 Eustace set a goal of converting the commission ’ s Wanaque facility to 100 percent renewable energy by 2024 . To achieve its goal , the commission uses solar rooftop panels , is developing a hydropower project at its Dundee Dam and it is building the largest floating array of solar panels in the country . These new sources of energy will ultimately power the commission ’ s water treatment plants .
The corporations , colleges and universities selected by our judges were chosen as winners in a variety of categories . EAI was honored for its efforts in Brownfield Redevelopment . The firm installed millions of square feet of vapor barriers , which are used to help ensure that sites with previous uses – such as oil tanks , manufacturing plants , and locations with methane gas in the soil – become safe for redevelopment and reuse .
Veolia and Continuing Professional Education Services ( CPES ) were honored for their work in the community and with environmental education . In its submission , Veolia emphasized the company is dedicated to education programs that stress the importance of protecting the environment and encouraging public engagement in watershed cleanups and ecological projects that will benefit New Jersey residents for generations to come .
CPES was founded by three people dedicated to environmental education , Julianne Mosolgo , Jorge Berkowitz and Philip Brilliant . Together , they formed a non-profit organization committed to providing the highest quality of technical and regulatory education to assure New Jersey residents that their public health and the environment are protected .
The Atlantic Health System received the Green Building Award for its energy-saving heat and power plant at Morristown Medical Center . The innovations to the physical plant at Bergen Community College also won it recognition . The college took steps to become a model of sustainability in its actions , including doubling the number of on-campus electric vehicle charging stations , converting lighting fixtures to LED and replacing traditional water fountains with “ bottle fill ” stations .
In the Recycling category , our judges selected AnythingIT and Princeton NuEnergy Inc . AnythingIT is celebrating 30 years as a certified electronics recycler and secure data destruction vendor for enterprise and government IT organizations . Princeton NuEnergy is an innovative clean-tech company spun out from Princeton University . It focuses on direct recycling of lithium-ion batteries .
Bergen New Bridge Medical Center was honored for reducing its carbon footprint by partnering
with PSE & G to make improvements in the air handling of a building that houses acute care , long-term care and several intensive care units .
William Paterson University received an award for reducing its energy usage . The university has a huge solar panel installation . Over the past two decades , while increasing the size of the campus by 47 percent , it has lowered consumption of electricity by 30 percent , natural gas by 50 percent and carbon emissions by 1,350 tons .
The winners in the Site Remediation category are : Haley & Aldrich Inc . and PSE & G . Haley & Aldrich led the project at Rutgers University to successfully complete remediation at the Busch campus , combining thermal remediation and in-situ chemical reduction technologies to achieve source area remediation in the vicinity of a maintenance garage . PSE & G was recognized for using an innovative excavation technology while remediating soil at the former Hoboken Gas Works . The technology relied on a frozen wall system on the site . We applauded the efforts all our winner
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