Businesses Go Green, Save Money and Win Awards: State honors California workplaces committed to Waste-Reduction, October 16, 2007, Press Release

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California Integrated Waste Management Board

Businesses Go Green, Save Money and Win Awards: State honors California workplaces committed to Waste-Reduction

Editors: For a complete listing of the Waste Reduction Awards Program (WRAP) winners in your areas of coverage for 2007, please visit CIWMB's WRAP website.

SACRAMENTO--Innovative and environmentally conscientious businesses throughout the state are voluntarily doing great things for the environment, and the California Integrated Waste Management Board is recognizing 149 private and nonprofit organizations as part of the 15th annual 2007 Waste Reduction Awards Program (WRAP). This year's WRAP honorees have diverted over one million tons of materials from local landfills through excellent resource management and recycling, and their voluntary waste reduction efforts have saved them $118 million in operating costs.

"A healthy business community is indispensable to our economy and the steps these WRAP Award winners have taken toward resource management, recycling, and waste reduction are very impressive," said Board Chair Margo Reid Brown. "All these businesses have managed to make their bottom line greener, while helping preserve our environment as well."

Approximately half of the state's 92 million-ton annual waste stream comes from the business sector, and the WRAP awards honor California companies and nonprofits for workplace solutions to cut waste and reduce disposal. This year 149 businesses are being recognized for their commitment to a range of environmentally preferable business practices, including innovative reuse and recycling achievements, resource conservation, donating usable goods to nonprofit organizations, conducting employee education programs, buying recycled-content supplies for the workplace, and managing electronic waste responsibly. With better materials management, many businesses realize substantial savings in operating costs.

For businesses whose waste-cutting efforts last year surpassed even those lofty accomplishments by WRAP winners, the Board reserves its "WRAP of the Year" (WOTY) honors as the ultimate award of workplace waste management achievement.

Top Honors go to Five

In 2007, the most successful waste-smart companies honored with WOTY designations were:

KBWB Your TV20, San Francisco Bay Area (San Francisco County)

Remo, Inc., Valencia (Los Angeles County)

Network Appliance, Inc., Sunnyvale, (Santa Clara County)

Peterson Power Systems, San Leandro (Alameda County)

The Pacific Gas & Electric Company, San Francisco, (San Francisco County)

These five companies took top billing from among 149 other WRAP winners in the running for the WOTY recognition in 2007.

Of California's 58 separate counties, this year's 149 WRAP winners can be found in 35 counties, lending concrete evidence of businesses' commitment to "green" practices.

Open to businesses and private, nonprofit organizations, the WRAP awards were initiated in 1996 to recognize California companies that develop innovative and aggressive programs to reduce the amount of nonhazardous solid waste they generate. To date, more than 16,000 WRAP honors have been awarded. For continuing, and often increasing, their waste reduction practices from year to year, many businesses have earned the award several times since the program started.

All WRAP awardees receive a certificate of recognition from the Chair and Members of the California Integrated Waste Management Board, as well as the right to use the WRAP logo for promotional advertising and publicity about their accomplishments.

The California Integrated Waste Management Board is the state's leading authority on recycling and waste reduction. It promotes reducing waste whenever possible, managing all materials to their highest and best use and protecting public health and safety and the environment.