EPA's CLIMATE PROTECTION AWARD WINNERS 1998-2007

2007

Corporate Award Winners
Entergy Corporation
HSBC Holdings, plc
Mitsubishi Motors Corporation & Mitsubishi Heavy Industries
Red Dot Corporation
Staples, Inc.
The Yalumba Wine Company

Team & NGO Award Winners
Arkema Climate Protection Team
Climate Protection Campaign
Improved Mobile Air Conditioning Servicing Emissions Reduction Team
Joint Strike Fighter Emissions Test Development Team
Natural Resources Council of Maine

Individual Award Winners
Reverend Sally Bingham
Robert Parkhurst
Robert Redford
Auden Schendler
Ron Sims
Dadi Zhou

2006

Corporate, Government & Military Awards
Arizona Public Service Company
Baxter Healthcare Corporation
DENSO Corporation (Japan)
IBM Corporation
Johnson & Johnson
National Renewable Energy Laboratory
The United States Air Force
Yokota Tohoku (Japan)

Individuals
Susan J. Brown, California Energy Commission
Gregory J. Nickels, City of Seattle, Washington
Barry G. Rabe, University of Michigan

Organizations/Teams
Mobile Air Conditioning Society Worldwide
Refrigerant Reclaim Australia (Australia)

2005

Corporate and Governmental Awards
American Electric Power
City of Boulder, Colorado
The California Energy Commission
Cinergy Corp.
Connecticut Governor's Steering Committee
Johnson Controls
3M
McDonald's, Coca-Cola, & Unilever Refrigerants Naturally Partnership (UK and USA)
Rhode Island Greenhouse Gas Stakeholders
City of Syracuse, New York
United Technologies Corporation
York International

Individuals
Mr. Sandeep Ganesh, Winrock International (India)
Ms. Sonia Hamel, Massachusetts Office of Commonwealth Development
Dr. Hideki Nishida, Hitachi Displays (Japan)

Organizations/Teams
Improved Mobile Air Conditioning Organizing Team
Tufts Climate Initiative

2004

Corporate and Governmental Awards
Interface, Inc.
Turbocor, Inc. (Canada)
China Certification Center for Energy Conservation Products (China)
New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA)
City of San Diego, California
City and County of San Francisco, California
European Commission Fluorinated GasTeam (Belgium)

Individuals
Mayor David B. Cohen of Newton, Massachusetts
Harry Kauffman, HK Energy Consulting Inc.
Julia Martinez, Instituto Nacional de Ecología (Mexico)

Organizations/Teams
Electrical Inverter Air Conditioning System Team (Japan)
SF6 Emission Reduction Partnership for theMagnesium Industry and The International Magnesium Association

2003

Corporate and Governmental Awards
Center for Power Efficiency and Environmental Protection (India)
Chicago Department of Environment
China National Institute of Standardization (China)
City of Chula Vista, California
Emerald Homes
Pacific Gas and Electric Company
City of Seattle, Washington

Individuals
Mayor Ross C. “Rocky” Anderson of Salt Lake City, Utah
Dr. Seunghun Joh, Korea Environment Institute (South Korea)
David Konkle, Ann Arbor Energy Office

Association and Organization Awards
Green House Network
International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives
The Society of Automotive Engineers
Interior Climate Control Standards Committee

2002

Corporate & Governmental Awards
Air Products and Chemicals
City of Portland, Oregon
C2D, US Army CECOM RD&E Center
CONSOL Energy
DuPont
Hitachi (Japan) and Hitachi America
New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection /DSRT Office of Innovative Technology
Ontario Power Generation’s Energy Efficiency Program (Canada)
Shaklee Corporation
Verizon Communications

Association, Partnership, and Team Awards
CO2 Hot Water Supply Unit
Design Team (Japan)
International SEMATECH’s PFC Emission
Reduction Working Group
Land and Water Fund of the Rockies
Voluntary Aluminum Industrial Partnership for PFC Reductions

Individuals
Dr. Fabio R. Borri, ST Microelectronics (Italy)
Dr. Luis Abdón Cifuentes, Pontifica Universidad Catolica (Chile)
Yoshinobu Hayakawa, NEC Corporation (Japan)
Rev. Richard L. Killmer, National Council of the Churches of Christ
Robert L. Markle, U.S. Coast Guard
Robert T. Wickham, Delegate, UN International Maritime Organization

2001

No awards were given in 2001 due to a scheduling change.

2000

Corporate & Governmental Awards
Alcan Aluminum Sebree Ingot Plant
Architectural Services Department, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region
The AT&T Employee Telework Program
Honda Motor Company
ICE Klea (UK)
Intel Corporation
International Fuel Cells
Novellus Systems
Oregon Energy Facility Siting Council and Oregon Office of Energy
Visteon Corporation

Individuals
Ms. Sherri W. Goodman, U.S. Department of Defense
Dr. Jerry Mahlman, U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Mayor Marc H. Morial, New Orleans
Ms. Tia Nelson, The Nature Conservancy
Mr. Nobuo Odubo, Nissan Motor Company
Dr. Robert T. Watson, The World Bank

Association Awards
American Portland Cement Alliance
The Real Estate Roundtable
University of Colorado Environmental Center

1999

Corporate & Military Awards
Annapolis Detachment of the Carderock Division, U.S. Navy
Applied Materials
Motorola
Nissan (Japan)
ST Microelectronics (Switzerland)
Texas Industries

Individuals
Rosina M. Bierbaum, White House Office of Science and Technology Policy
Dr. Mack McFarland, U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Eugene L. Smithart, The Trane Company

Association Awards
The Polyisocyanurate Insulation Manufacturers Association

1998

Corporate & Military Awards
British Petroleum (UK)
Centro Nacional de Referencia em Biomassa (Brazil)
Compaq Computer Corporation
Enron
IBM Corporation
McDonald’s Corporation
NOAA Aeronomy Laboratory Climate Team
Royal Philips Electronics (Netherlands)
Sustainable Energy Development Authority (Australia)
Toyota Motor Corporation(Japan)
The Trane Company
Trigen Energy Corporation
DD 963/CG 47 Stern Flap R&D Team, NSWCCD, U.S. Navy
The Walt Disney Company
Whirlpool Corporation

Individuals
Bert Bolin, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (Sweden)
John Browne, British Petroleum (UK)

Association Awards
China Energy Efficiency Project (China)
World Semiconductor Council (Global)

It's Only Fair

Fair Trade Coffee has created quite the buzz recently. A number of small privately owned coffee shops have sprung up boasting fair trade only brews while Starbucks also leads the march with an entire line of shade grown and fair trade beans for your skinny latte. It’s clear that coffee, the largest food import in the U.S. comes at a high price for both the consumer and the coffee farmers.

Coffee and I have been best friends for many years now. He comforts me in the morning, warms my soul during the winter months and cools me down with ice and milk in the summer. One morning I woke up and realized that like millions of other Americans and pretty much everyone in Manhattan, I was addicted to coffee. I decided to kick the daily coffee habit and switch to tea. I recently noticed that while there was a good deal of fair trade coffee buzz, people we’re blindly buying tea from mass producers who may be severely underpaying their workers while they toil for long hours in the sun.

According to the Rainforest Alliance, India, China, Kenya Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Argentina, Brazil and other countries export large volumes of the dried and shredded leaf. Globally, about six million acres are planted in tea, most often in large plantations. The Rainforest Alliance certifies tea farms by making sure the farms take certain measures to protect the environment by practicing sustainable farming practices. One of the main concerns of tea crops is that they often take over as a monoculture replacing a biodiversity rich environment. Another similar company that certifies fair trade and organic products is Equal Exchange, the oldest and largest for profit Fair Trade Company in the US.

The primary reason the Fair Trade regulations were set up is to ensure that tea and coffee farmers receive a fair price and a decent living wage. According to globalexchange.org, Guatemalan coffee pickers receive a minimum wage of less than three dollars a day only after reaching a one hundred pound quota. To fill these quotas, a report by ABC-affiliate KGO television in San Francisco recorded children as young as 6 years old working in the fields. The Fair Trade trend has caught on. According to today’s Wall Street Journal, nearly sixty-five million pounds of fair-trade coffee were imported into the U.S. in 2006; up 45% from the year before.

In terms of tea farms, the best tea company I found was PG Tips. On their website, here, http://www.pgtips.co.uk/sustainability/, they claim that by 2010 all of their farms will be certified by the Rainforest Alliance. Their biggest farm, located in Kenya, is the Rainforest Alliance’s first sustainable tea farm. To combat Kenya’s present state of violence Unilever, PG Tip’s owner, has donated one million dollars as food relief for those suffering in Kenya.