Media Contact: Katherine Mortimer, Sustainable Santa Fe Programs Manager kemortimer@santafenm.gov 955-2262
2012 Sustainable Santa Fe Award Winners Announced
This is the third time the Sustainable Santa Fe Commission has given Sustainable Santa Fe Awards to leaders within our community promoting sustainability. The awards ceremony will be this Friday April 20th from noon to 1:30 p.m. at the Zona del Sol building at the corner of Jaguar Drive and Country Club Road, across the street from the Southside Library.
And the winners are:
For Youth-Led Project: Santa Fe Youth Works for their Youth Build Project. Designed as a job training and education for at-risk youth, Santa Fe Youth Build will prepare 52 youth for positive community involvement, career track employment and advanced education through an integrated system of on-site construction experience, basic literacy and GED education, life skills and job readiness coaching, leadership development and community service, community and college success training, and a wrap-around model of supportive service.
For Renewable Energy: Sundancer Creations for the Rodney House. This project is an ultra green home, designed to meet its own energy requirements. The home provides the comfort, energy efficiency and healthy indoor environment that exceeds the Rodney’s vision. A ground-source heat pump supplies radiant heating, radiant cooling and domestic hot water. The energy is supplied by a 3.6 Kilowatt Photovoltaic Tracker and has preliminary Home Energy Rating System index of 17 (as compared to around 100 for a “normal” new home of the same size and where zero is a home that uses no energy)
For Water Conservation: The Academy for the Love of Learning for the Water Harvesting systems used on their New Campus. Working with Wolf Corp and Richard Jennings of Earthwrights Designs, they created state-of-the-art treatment systems to recapture grey and black water for irrigation. Likewise, rainwater and snow runoffs are harvested and discreetly channeled to an underground 55,000 gallon tank. Combined with careful xeric landscaping by Christie Green of Down to Earth Landscaping, these systems conserve water, rebuild the soils and stimulate new growth of native plants.
For Transportation: The Chainbreaker Collective for their Transit Justice Campaign. Chainbreaker is a membership-led economic and environmental justice organization. The Transit Justice Campaign is part of a larger strategy to curtail global climate change and break the cycle of poverty created by automobile dependence in Santa Fe by expanding access to safe and reliable public transportation. In Spring, 2011, Chainbreaker members successfully stopped a proposal to severely cut local bus service and raise fares.
For Green Building: Mojarrab Stanford Architects (MoSA) and Daniel Buck Construction
for the Balance Project on Shoofly Street. The Balance project is a small mixed-use infill condominium containing residential and professional office space. It is so named “Balance” as it represents the manifestation of research in achieving balance between economic and environmental sustainability. The building meets the Passive House energy standard and uses 90% less energy than typical houses.
For Ecological Adaptation: The Quivira Coalition for their Carbon Ranch Conference. The Quivira Coalition held a conference called “The Carbon Ranch: Using Food and Stewardship to Build Soil and Fight Climate Change.” Carbon pioneers presented how carbon ranching techniques from around the world are fighting climate change with sustainable agriculture.
For Waste Reduction: Youth Allies’ Eco-Schools Student Coalition for their “Bring a Plate to School Day” Styrofoam Elimination Project. Working to make Santa Fe the first “green” public school district in the Country, students from Santa Fe high schools conducted waste audits and noticed a large amount of styrofoam being thrown out each day. They organized a peaceful action across the district to bring attention to this wasteful practice. Several district staff supported the action and have found a permanent solution. The district will now use 100% recycled newsprint compostable and biodegradable trays.
For Food Systems: The Santa Fe Alliance and Farm to Table for the Farm to Restaurant Project. Farm to Restaurant promotes a viable food system by helping farmers sell their food to restaurants and helping restaurants find farmers who can supply them with fresh local food. In addition it educates the public about the benefits of supporting restaurants that offer locally grown and prepared foods.
For Community Outreach: Home Grown New Mexico for the launch of this outreach effort. Home Grown New Mexico connects community homesteaders together and holds education sessions on local food, gardening, cooking, bee-keeping and backyard chickens. They maintain an online homesteading events community calendar for Northern New Mexico as well as a weekly blog update and a digital newsletter.
Check out this brochure on the Sustainable Santa Fe Awards!