Green Awards Winners

2​016 Mid-Valley Green Awards​​

On March 5, 2016 sustainable people, businesses, organizations, and supporters filled the Historic Elsinore Theatre for the Mid-Valley Green Awards. Straub Environmental Learning Center and Marion County Public Works Environmental Services have spotlighted sustainability throughout the community for the past seven years at this annual event. This year there were over 27 nominations highlighted along with comedy and musical entertainment interspersed throughout the evening. Please join us in congratulating the winners.​

 

​2015 Mid-Valley Green Awards Nominees and Winners

We are excited to announce the 2015 Mid-Valley Green Awards Nominees and Winners. This year we had an overwhelming community response to nominate their friends and local businesses. We have over 42 nominations with pages upon pages of good deeds and earth-friendly behaviors to sift through. 

2015 Recycler of the Year Individual: 
Dana Canning

Dana Canning created the Salem Sleeping Bag Project, where volunteers crochets mats and sleeping bags for homeless people from recycled materials and plastic bags. One sleeping mat uses 600 to 900 plastic grocery bags. In addition to using plastic bags, she reuses old clothing, blankets, sheets and other fabric for the bags. To date, the project has finished 180 mats and 80 sleeping bags, and Dana has volunteered more than 100 hours teaching community members to make these items.

Nominees in this category merit this award because of their outstanding efforts and/or leadership in the area of recycling. 

Individual Nominees: ​

• ​Logan Blanco
• Dana Canning
• Millie Estrin
• Derek Hayman
• Ben McGowan
• Kristi Reed

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South Salem CycleWorks hasn’t had garbage service in 25 years of business, collects compost, refurbishes old bikes using as many used components as possible for those unable to invest in a new bike; scraps unusable bikes for parts, and recycles other parts—worn out chains, for example, are sent to Resource Revival. Fluorescent bulbs are saved for decontamination before discarding; batteries from cyclometers and lights are collected for recycling; all cardboard, paper and plastic is sorted and recycled; packing material is delivered to the Mail Depot or FEDEX for reuse; and Styrofoam is taken to the downtown collection site at the Farmers Market. The shop uses recycled product packaging where it can and promotes products made from recycled material.

Business Nominees​:

• Focal Point Photography
  

• South Salem Cycleworks

2015 Sustainable Small Business of the Year: 
Rafns'​

Rafns’, a restaurant and specialty grocery store supplying local and responsibly raised products and ingredients, produces very little waste. Chef Nate Rafn uses every part of his food scraps—chicken bones for broth, vegetable pieces for stock, and pork fat for rendering. Every other item in the business—from menus, paper tickets and food containers to wash water, wood pallets and glass jars—are reused as many times as possible and then recycled. During construction, wood pallets were used for the rustic wall sign and two counters. Chefs cook in an open kitchen and talk openly about the use of local, organic and sustainable ingredients.

Nominees in this category merit this award because of their outstanding efforts and/or leadership to foster sustainability in their organization and/or the community.

Small:

• CB|Two Architects
  
• City of Salem Airport
  
• ​Cooke's Stationery Company
  
• Fresh n' Local Foods
  
• Pence NW Construction
  
• Pringle Creek Community
  
• Rafns' Restaurant and Local Goods
  
• South Salem Cycleworks
  
• Steel Bridge Coffee

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2015 Sustainable Large Business of the Year: 
BrucePac

BrucePac, a local large-scale meat processor, recycled more than 60,000 pounds of metal and 1.3 million pounds of cardboard in 2014, worked to redesign a supplier’s cardboard box so that it could be recycled, has an entire department dedicated to reusing and repairing wooden pallets, and is designing custom equipment to clean dirty plastic enough for recycling, which would mean an extra 50,000 pounds of plastic would not be trashed each year. Since 2009, the company has reduced energy use by 22 percent, and a condensate return project saves more than 2 million gallons of water a year by recycling it back into the steam boiler system.

Large:​

• BrucePac Meat Product Designers
  
• Kerr Concentrates
  
• LifeSource Natural Foods
  
• Marion-Polk Food Share
  
• NORPAC Foods
  
• Oregon Department of Corrections
  
• Willamette University

 

2015 EarthWISE Business of the Year: 
Kerr Concentrates​

Kerr Concentrates, producer of fruit and vegetable concentrates, purees and specialty fruit and vegetable blends among other products, sent metal drums to a reconditioner for reuse, which reduces greenhouse gas emissions by 468 tons a year. The company also provides customers with credit when they return empty plastic poly drums. Its energy upgrades are expected to reduce the facility’s annual kilowatt hours by 287,000 units and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 382,000 pounds. But the company’s greatest reduction in waste comes from capturing the organic waste produced from processing lines and sending it to composting facilities, diverting more than 8 million pounds of material from the landfill just this year.

Nominees in this category merit this award because of their outstanding efforts in continually reducing their environmental bottom line and improving their progress on the continuum of qualifying EarthWISE criteria. EarthWISE certified businesses are committed to working toward sustainability and have documented efforts to refine their practices to protect the environment in their community. Only businesses that are EarthWISE certified prior to January 1, 2014, are eligible for nomination in this category.

• CB|Two Architects
  
• City of Salem Airport
  
• Compex
  
• Cooke’s Stationery Company
  
• The Block- Salem Convention Center, the Grand Hotel in Salem, and 
  
• Bentley's Grill 
  
• BrucePac Meat Product Designers
  
• Kerr Concentrates
  
• Life Source Natural Foods
  
• Marion-Polk Food Share
  
• NORPAC Foods​
  
• Oregon Department of Corrections
  
• Pence NW Construction
  
• Pringle Creek Community
  
• South Salem Cycleworks

 

2015 Green Apple Award: 
Dan Hoynacki​

Dan Hoynacki is the founder and organizer of many Oregon State University K-12 after-school programs for Marion County’s at-risk and vulnerable youth. Over the past 13 years, he has engaged nearly 3,000 at-risk youth in more than 130,000 hours of service to the community. From his Youth Enviro Squad to Youth Farm to Wildlife, Watersheds, and Whatnot programs, students learn ecological principles, community gardening, natural resource management and career opportunities in environmental fields.

Nominees in this category may be classroom teachers or someone involved in general public education. This environmental educator not only imparts knowledge about the natural world, but provides meaningful and constructive ways for students or the public to interact with it.

• Luckiamute Valley Charter School
  
• Katie Dennis
  
• Dan Hoynacki
  
• Brenda Knobloch
  
• Beth Myers-Shena
   

 

2015 Green Product of the Year: 
Zena Forest

Zena Forest Products, certified through the Forest Stewardship Council, provides 100-percent locally sourced and produced flooring and lumber, and almost all of it is sold and used in the Willamette Valley. The company works hard to maintain and expand the rare Oregon white oak ecosystem, which has only about 5 percent of the original pre-settlement area left intact in the valley, by providing an economic incentive for forest landowners to responsibly manage their oak ecosystems. The durable hardwood flooring that is produced from these forest lasts longer than any other flooring alternative, reducing the pressure on our valuable natural resources, and ensuring that these forests will be maintained. 

• Zoe Day Spa
  
• Nuvo Glass
  
• DIY Studio
  
• Earth Essence
  
• Nathan Good Architects
  
• Northwest Hub
  
• Zena Forest
  
• Green Bike Cab​

2015 Green Service of the Year: 
Nathan Good Architects

Nathan Good Architects, a Salem-based architecture firm that designs sustainable homes, wineries, restaurants, offices, places of worship, and parks from Arkansas to Hawaii and Alaska to Baja, has had more than fifteen homes certified through the LEED, Earth Advantage, Passive House, or Net-Zero Energy programs in the past decade. Most of the company’s projects are designed to be at least twenty percent more energy efficient than required by Oregon building codes; provide exemplary indoor air quality; use rainwater harvesting, on-site renewable energy, and salvaged material; and employ aggressive construction waste management techniques. Although the firm’s primary “products” are architectural designs, it’s dedicated to providing consulting, education and advocacy for the community’s adaptation of green building and sustainable design. The firm’s leadership in this area has led notable clients such as Nike, SeaTac Airport, Willamette University and a host of other local, regional and national organizations to seek their consulting services as these businesses strive to implement sustainable design.

This category was created to honor those companies or organizations that offer a product or service with significant social, environmental and economic benefits over traditional alternatives. The product or service should be sustainably produced. The winning company/organization also exhibits leadership in promoting sustainability to others and is committed to the advancement of those ideals.

• DIY Studio
  
• Earth Essence Spa
  
• Green Bike Cab
  
• Nathan Good Architects
  
• Northwest Hub
  
• Nuvo Glas
  
• Zena Forest
  
• Zoe Day Spa

2015 Sustainable Wine Producer or Brewery of the Year: Willamette Valley Vineyards

Willamette Valley Vineyards, certified sustainable through LIVE and Salmon Safe since 1997, offers a 10-cent refund for returned bottles, recycles corks so that they can be made into high-value products, offers 50 gallons of biodiesel a month to each employee at no cost, installed solar panels, and waters half the vineyard with water runoff stored in a tank under the production facility. In 2010, the company launched a sustainable wine-casking technology that saves 1,300 bottles for each bio-cask filled, which on average is refilled 15 times a year. The following year, the vineyard introduced rehabilitated raptors onto the property to control the rodent population that damages the vines.

Nominees in this category merit this award because of their outstanding efforts in continually reducing their environmental footprint and improving their progress on a continuum of qualifying sustainable criteria. Sustainable wine producers and breweries are committed to working toward sustainability and have documented efforts to refine their practices to protect the environment in their community.

• Johan Vineyards
  
• Salem Ale Works
  
• Vagabond Brewing
  
• Willamette Valley Vineyards​

2014

Green Apple Award 

Laurie Aguirre is a teacher at Forest Ridge Elementary School ​
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Large Sustainable Business of the Year

Salem-Keizer Transit

Small Sustainable Business of the Year

Santiam Valley Ranch

Recycler of the Year—Business

Department of Corrections
​ ​

Product or Service of the Year

Minto Island Growers

EarthWISE Business of the Year

Cascade Baking Company
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2013

Recycler of the Year

Ellen Stevens, Volunteer at the Assistance League, Salem
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Green Apple Award

Marie Carver, teacher at Jane Goodall Environmental Middle School   

Sustainable Small Business of the Year

Compex Two, Silverton medical and professional grade technology provider    

Sustainable Large Business of the Year

SAIF Corporation, Oregon's not-for-profit, state-chartered workers' compensation insurance company   

Green Building of the Year

Chemeketa Community College’s Health Science Complex   

Sustainable Product of the Year

Barnwood Naturals, products made from salvaged Willamette Valley barns and buildings within a 500-mile radius of Salem

Sustainable Service of the Year

Salem Harvest, the largest community harvesting organization in Oregon ​

EarthWISE Certified Business of the Year

Willamette Valley Fruit Company, a family-owned business that is one of the Northwest’s leading processors of high-quality berry products

Lifetime Achievement Award

John Miller, Wildwood/Mahonia
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2012

Recycler of the Year - Individual  

Gregory Bowman
 

Recycler of the Year - Business

Hillyer's Ford​

Green Apple Award

Sally White,Waldo Middle School

Green Building of the Year - 
New Construction 

WaterPlace
 

Green Building of the Year - Retrofit

Painter's Hall at Pringle Creek Community

Sustainable Small Business/Organization

Allied Video

Sustainable Large Business/Organization

City of Salem

EarthWISE Certified Business of the Year

Willamette Ear, Nose, Throat and Facial Plastic Surgery

Green Champion Award

Rep. Vicki Berger

2011 

Green Apple Award

Maureen Foelkle. Champan Elementary School

Recycler of the Year - Individual

Bob Ferris, Marion County Jail

Recycler of the Year - Business/Organization

Friends of Salem Saturday Market

Green Building of the Year 

Salmon Run Industrial Park
 

Sustainable Small Business of the Year

Ilahee Vineyards ​

Sustainable Large Business of the Year

The "Block":Salem Conference Center, Bentley's Grill & Salem Grand Hotel

EarthWISE Business of the Year

A.J.'s Auto Repair
 

Lifetime Achievement Award

John Matthews

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2010

Recycler of the Year Individual/Family

Steve DePina almost single-handedly started a recycling program at the Salem-Volcano baseball stadium last summer and has worked to turn Queen of Peace Catholic Church into a community recycling station for plastic bags and Styrofoam.

Education/Outreach

Linda Nishioka, RN at Willamette ENT, has pioneered medical waste recycling in the Salem area and has successfully promoted expanding medical recycling to Salem Hospital and other clinics.

Business

Habitat for Humanity Mid-Willamette Valley ReStore is a local recycling resource that puts construction material donations to reuse as a fund raiser for the organization.

Sustainable Business of the Year

Small (25 or fewer employees)

Pringle Creek Community has arisen from the ashes of the old Oregon State Institution for the Feebleminded (Fairview) to become a model community of sustainability. From reusing unwanted I-5 bridges to pouring porous street pavement to building state of the art energy efficient homes, the Pringle Creek Community is a visionary project that inspires all of us in the field of sustainability.

Large (over 25 employees)

LifeSource Natural Foods is a local leader in providing organic foods to the community. They recycle, buy recycled products, and promote a green lifestyle in their outreach materials.

Not for Profit Organization

Oregon Department of Energy has had a Sustainability Team since 2003 that has helped map out the direction that ODOE should follow in both short term and long term projects.

Green Building of the Year

New Construction

Bilyeu Construction: Salem residence at “14th & Nebraska”
Retrofit Travel Salem

EarthWISE Business of the Year (2 chosen)

DeSantis Landscaping
SAIF Corporation

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