Each year Kitsap County recognizes individuals, organizations, and business for their notable contributions to the environment in Kitsap County. This year the Earth Day awards presentation will take place on April 10 at the Board of County Commissioners regular televised meeting at the Kitsap County Courthouse in Port Orchard.

Photo Op
There will be a reception immediately following the presentation in the 3rd floor conference room of the Public Works building across the street from the Courthouse. The press is invited to meet this year’s winners.

The winners are as follows:

Outstanding Achievement in Sustainability: Watson Furniture Group
Watson Furniture has a broad commitment to environmental stewardship, encompassing the products they deliver as well as their own facilities, processes, and practices. Their furniture is manufactured using recycled and recyclable materials and has durability and flexibility prolonging its life cycle and conserving the resources required to replace it. They are an EnviroStars business and their facility meets the key requirements for LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification.

Outstanding Achievement in Volunteerism: Becky Croston
Croston volunteers for a wide variety of Kitsap County and WSU programs including Master Composters, Master Gardeners, 4-H Club, Noxious Weed Advisor, Native Plant Advisor, and serves on the WSU Extension Advisory Council. As a volunteer in each of these programs, Croston takes a leadership role and organizes other volunteers to get work done in an efficient and effective manner. She collaborates with other Master Composter volunteers to organize two teams to teach community compost classes in the south and central Kitsap areas. Croston’s energy, intelligence, and creativity have made her shine as an outstanding volunteer.

Green Building: Vineyard Lane
The Vineyard Lane project is the first multi-family project of Bainbridge Island to combine 3-star Built Green construction, and sustainable design features. The Winery LLC’s willingness to implement a substantial number of green building features at the Vineyard Lane property serves as a model for other builders to follow suit so that momentum is gained for a broader application of sustainable practices throughout the building industry.

Best Hazardous Waste Reduction Program – West Sound Tech – Automotive Technology
West Sound Tech – Automotive Technology has earned the top EnviroStars award (5 stars) for its innovative automotive repair education program and pollution prevention efforts. Water and detergent based cleaning systems are used to clean parts and brakes. Motor oil and antifreeze are picked up by a hazardous waste vendor and sent for recycling. Oil filters are crushed, drained, and sent for recycling back into steel products. The shop also recycles fluorescent tubes, and well as scrap metal and other solid wastes. The Automotive Tech program incorporates environmental stewardship into its curriculum. Students are required to know how to read a Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) for all hazardous products they use. Shop operations training included spill response, proper waste management and pollution prevention.

Clean Kitsap Award: Julia Smith
Smith contacted Solid Waste in 2004 to organize a Suquamish Community Cleanup Day. For this pilot project, Smith recruited dedicated volunteers to do a roadside litter cleanup within Suquamish community boundaries. During the cleanup days over the past three years, she recruited 119 volunteers to collect 442 bags of litter. In 2005 she worked with the Suquamish Tribe Chairman to obtain disposal vouchers to assist a number of Suquamish residents with disposal costs so they could clean up their property. In 2006, the cleanup day was responsible for collecting litter from thirty-six miles of roadway, demonstrating her dedication to keeping the streets of Suquamish litter free.

Outstanding Achievement in Environmental Education: Steffan Soule
Steffan Soule’s “The Magic of Recycling” is a magic show aimed at student audiences learning about recycling and waste reduction. He uses local facts and figures about the amount of waste and recycling generated and makes sure to emphasize new ideas or program changes. Soule engages their imagination and fantasy to make learning fun and long lasting. Over the past four years, “The Magic of Recycling” assembly has been to thirty-five public and private schools within Kitsap County reaching over 13,300 children in grades K-8th.

Excellence in Environmental Leadership – Adult: Derek Schruhl
Schruhl has been affiliated with the Chums of Barker Creek citizen’s organization since its founding in 1993. Even before he had entered elementary school he was attending the meetings with his parents. Now as an Olympic High School graduate in his second year at Olympic Community College, he has selflessly given of his time and considerable expertise to work with numerous government agencies, school personnel, and the Chums of Barker Creek citizen’s group to preserve a significant area of the Dyes Inlet Watershed. He has set an exemplary example of how research, determination, initiative and most especially, respect for others, reflects a unique quality of leadership. Some of his volunteer work includes taking inventory of plant and wildlife habitat, performing seining activities, researching environmental impacts on mapping overlays, and he was the lead person responsible for clearing the pathways for the Central Kitsap outdoor education site before it came into fruition.

Excellence in Environmental Leadership – Youth: Suquamish Pond Kids
In 2004 the Suquamish Elementary Pond Kids saw that the school lunch leftovers were going to waste. After learning how to turn vegetarian waste into compost by letting worms eat the leftovers, the Pond Kids decided to try it with the lunch waste at their school. They built a large worm bin and for the last year they have been composting about 20-30 pounds of fruits and vegetables every school day along with recycled shredded newspapers. They have harvested over 10 gallons of worm compost for their school garden. Through their leadership, the students in the school have learned how to recycle, how to reduce garbage, and are aware of how waste can affect our environment.

Waste Wi$e Kitsap Award: The Open Line
The Public Works Open Line developed a way for each Public Works employee to identify unwanted incoming by attaching a small Junk Mail sticker asking for a choice to stop the junk mail or terminate their subscription and share a copy on a central rack. The Open Line then sends a postcard to the mailer requesting to "opt out". This action not only stopped over 1200 pieces of junk mail for the Public Works Department, it is replicable and will be used by all County departments - eliminating multiple handling of unwanted incoming mail and preventing waste.

Kitsap County Public Works
The Open Line
(360) 337-5777 or (800) 825-4940
openline@co.kitsap.wa.us