Award Recipients P-R
Excellence in Stewardship of the Natural Environment, 2010
The world-famous solar-powered Ferris wheel is located on Pacific Park’s amusement park on the Santa Monica Pier. In 2009 the Ferris wheel received a larger-than-life makeover with 160,000 energy-efficient LED lights that complement solar-panels generating more than 71,000-kilowatt hours of renewable photovoltaic power from the sun. Office wide, Pacific Park eliminated distribution of bottled waters to staff in 2008 and installed 2 onsite water filtration dispensers. Employees have their own reusable glasses and mugs to refill. They also have an office-wide and park recycling program for mixed paper, plastic, glass, cans, cardboard, batteries, toner and inkjet cartridges and fluorescent light bulbs. When a ride, like bumper cars, is replaced valuable materials such as steel are recycled. Most cleaning chemicals used in the office and throughout the park are environmentally friendly or Green Seal Certified.
Sustainable Quality Award, 1999; Sustainable Quality Award, 2006
Patagonia, Inc. is a designer and distributor of outdoor clothing. Headquartered in Ventura, California, Patagonia is a $160 million company that distributes its products through a mail order catalog and website, through its own retail stores, through an extensive wholesale dealer network in North America, and through international channels based in Japan and Europe. The Santa Monica retail store was opened in 1997 and has 10 full time employees.
Sustainable Economic Development
- Patagonia’s business plan includes the following core values:
- Quality: Pursuit of ever-greater quality in everything we do.
- Integrity: Relationships built on integrity and respect.
- Environmentalism: Serve as a catalyst for personal and corporate action.
- Not Bound by Convention: Our success – and much of the fun – lies in developing innovative ways to do things.
- Product line has consistently expanded and diversified from a small line of apparel products in the mid 1970s to a wide range of products in the 1990s including alpine, watersports, fishing, travel and children’s apparel as well as luggage, footwear and surfboards.
- Decentralized organization consisting of sport-specific teams for product design, development and marketing. Dedicate resources to develop a more thorough and objective knowledge of the outdoor sports market.
- Developed “Playing to Win” training for employees to help develop skills necessary to build a working environment of trust and mutual support to promote risk taking and innovation.
Social Responsibility
- Employees meet on a regular basis with management to participate in personal and organizational goal setting and provide feedback on work relationships and the social environment at work. Managers are available to employees at all times and regularly work alongside employees. Corporate office provides monthly forums for all employees to meet with senior management.
- Employee benefits include: 8-week paid childcare leave for mothers and fathers; generous policies for vacation, sick leave, and leaves of absence; full medical, dental, vision, long-term disability and term life insurance for all full-time employees; full medical coverage for eligible part-time employees.
- Non-sellable returns are donated to local charities including the St. Joseph’s Shelter.
- Employees are paid full wages for participation in local community or environmental service events.
- Provide ongoing education to consumer and neighbors through in store events, letter writing campaigns, product donations, grants, internships and literature.
- Conduct fund-raising events for local charities.
Stewardship of the Natural Environment
- Patagonia Environmental Grants Program donates 1% of company sales or 10% of pre-tax profits, whichever greater, to the protection and restoration of the natural environment.
- Synchilla® fleece clothing line is manufactured from post-consumer recycled plastic.
- All cotton clothing is made from organic cotton.
- Patagonia Environmental Internship Program offers employees the opportunity to take a paid leave of up to two months to work for non-profit environmental groups.
- Employees earn $1 for every day they choose alternative means to travel to work.
- All glass, cans, plastic and paper generated at the store are recycled. Use only recycled paper and promote double-sided copying. Restrooms equipped with ultra-low flow toilets.
Stewardship of the Built Environment
- Adaptive reuse of existing historic building.
- Store is primarily lit with natural lighting and interior is spacious and open, providing a comfortable and natural environment.
- Lighting and electrical equipment are energy efficient. Store is powered by 100% wind energy. Extensive use of recycled building materials and environmentally preferable finish materials.
- Store functions as a meeting facility for local groups and organizations.
SQA Grand Prize, 2007
The Phelps Group is an integrated marketing communications firm offering services for television, print and Internet marketing. They are investing in a major solar panel installation and recently completed a lighting retrofit that resulted in approximately $8,000 savings or 93,000 less pounds of carbon emitted annually. They are an ESOP (Employee Stock Ownership Plan) Company sharing 50% of the profits with associates. They provided charitable contributions including pro bono services totaling $50,000 to organizations such as Junior Blind of America, Santa Monica-UCLA Center and Santa Monica Historical Society. They are also a dog-friendly office.
SQA Grand Prize, 2011; Excellence in Social Responsibility, 2009; Excellence Award in Stewardship of the Built Environment, 1999
PS#1 Elementary School emphasizes an interdisciplinary and holistic approach to fostering the knowledge, skills, and attitudes needed to build a sustainable world for present and future generations. PS#1 incorporates environmental sustainability into all aspects of the institution including curriculum, professional development, student life, physical operations, procurement, construction, and renovations. Students are taught through hands-on experiences in a sustainable environment as a basis to understand and form humanitarian behaviors. Green building features include a natural ventilation system, playing field consisting of artificial turf that requires no water, and energy efficient lighting systems throughout the campus. PS#1 created an on-line carpool map that displays where everyone in the community lives to facilitate car-pooling. This innovative application increased carpooling by 38%. After school day care is provided free of charge to all employees for their school-aged children. Health and Dental policies go above and beyond legal requirements and include dependents, spouses and significant others. The faculty is evaluated twice a year to focus on their feelings, concerns, and evaluation of communication and productivity. The Meaningful Faculty Evaluation Program seeks to support the school mission by sustaining organizational excellence, enhancing student learning, and improving faculty professional growth, based on the adage, "The rising tide lifts all boats."
Leadership Award for Sustainable Design, 2005
This architectural firm designed Colorado Court, a single resident occupancy housing project. This is one of the first buildings of its type in the USA that is 100% energy independent.
Excellence in Stewardship of the Environment and Excellence in Social Responsibility, 2007
Ramer Architecture provides architectural design services. They strive for all design projects to be constructed with environmentally friendly materials. They also specify sustainable processes such as the recycling of demolition and waste debris – instead of contributing to the landfill problem. They offer their six employees full benefits including PPO health insurance, a Defined Benefit Pension Plan, vacations, sick leave, bereavement leave, maternity leave and time-off for voting.
Sustainable Quality Award, 2006
RAND conducts research and provides analysis to address challenges that face the United States and the world. The newly constructed Santa Monica RAND headquarters was recently Gold LEED rating by the US Green Building Council. The building features a dual plumbing system linked to the City's reclaimed water facility (SMURRF) for toilet flushing and for perimeter landscape irrigation. Their in-house cafeteria fetures organic produce acquired from local farmer's markets. They hold a strong reputation in the community for its involvement with charitable and social service nonprofit agencies. RAND staffs 1,100 people in Santa Monica, thus contributing greatly to the local economy.
The Real Earth Environmental Company
Excellence Award in Stewardship of the Natural and Built Environment, 2001; Excellence Award in Stewardship of the Natural and Built Environment, Sustainable Quality Award, 2003
The Real Earth Environmental Company “provides environmental alternatives to business as usual – recycled and tree free paper, a wide variety of recycled office products, recycled janitorial paper products and non-toxic cleaning products” through its catalog and website (www.treeco.com). The Real Earth contributes to a variety of environmental causes through educational efforts in its marketing materials and by providing products to environmental organizations at reduced rates. The Real Earth has leveraged Internet technology speed their supply chain, reduce their impact on the environment, and improve their bottom line. Their success in meeting the needs of their clients enabled them to grow over 50% from 1999 to 2000. Remarkably, this three-person business also provides full health insurance coverage and a profit-sharing plan. The company also practices what it preaches, operating an ecological, efficient and healthy office. For more information contact Donna Fleming at 310 457-6331 or by email at info@treeco.com
Excellence Award in Stewardship of the Natural and Built Environment, 2003
Real Food Daily is the premiere organic vegan restaurant in Los Angeles. With two California locations in Santa Monica and West Hollywood, Real Food Daily continues to draw crowds who enjoy delicious, balanced meals made with fresh organic ingredients. RFD attracts the someday to the everyday vegetarian, celebrities and trendsetting young eaters with sophisticated palates and the mature diner seeking gourmet health supportive cuisine.
SQA Grand Prize, 2007
reDiscover is a creative reuse center. They rescue discarded business materials from the waste stream and make them available for use in educational programs. Their mission is to redevelop the business model to see waste as a resource. In the 2005 – 2006 school year, they distributed more than one ton of materials for reuse in classrooms and workshops. These materials would have previously ended up in the waste stream and found their way to the landfill. reDiscover has local volunteer citizens pick up materials, provide leads for material discards and introduce reDiscover programs into schools. They sell materials at $2 per pound and recently switched to free membership program to allow more schools and teachers to utilize the facility.
SQA Grand Prize, 2007
RMC is an engineering firm specializing in water recycling and water resource management. Their green business operations range from socially responsible office supply purchasing to resource reduction. They cut energy use by more than half by engaging power management options for office equipment. Their copy machine used 1,440 watts in standard mode, but only 45 watts in 'energy saver’ mode. After setting computers and copy machines to default into energy saving mode after 5 minutes of inactivity, their monthly bill went from 3,747 to 1,811 Kwh! RMC’s Santa Monica office is certified by the Santa Monica Green Business Certification Program and their Bay Area offices are recognized by the Bay Area Green Business Program.
Excellence in Stewardship of the Environment, 2008
Rustic Canyon’s commitment to Sustainability began with renovating the space to an upscale restaurant and wine bar in 2006 using eco-friendly materials such as low-VOC (volatile organic compounds) paints and sustainable bamboo flooring, and installing a water-free urinal. Their commitment to protecting the natural environment extends to local organic produce from Farmers Markets and only biodegradable to-go containers made from corn-based plastics and unbleached paper. Rustic Canyon successfully attains a 90% waste diversion by minimizes recycling cans, plastic, glass, cardboard and mixed paper as well as all of their food waste.