Business & Tech

City Hands Out 21 'Green Awards'

Businesses and individuals were recognized earlier this month.

Information provided by the city of Medford was used in this report:

A total of 21 local businesses and individuals were recognized by the City of Medford in its first round of winners of "Green Awards."

Mayor Michael McGlynn, Chamber of Commerce Director Jodie Coyne, Tufts President Anthony Monaco, and Energy Committee Chairman of the Energy Fred Laskey presented the awards during a ceremony at the Harvest Your Energy Festival Oct. 13.

Applications were received from both businesses and residents. Practices that were considered for award included: generation of renewable energy, energy conservation, environmental advocacy, water conservation, waste reduction and reuse, sustainable landscaping methods, and other innovative environmental and energy conservation practices.
2012 Green Award Recipients

Interested in local real estate?Subscribe to Patch's new newsletter to be the first to know about open houses, new listings and more.

Here's who won:

Businesses:

  • Ace Creative: A 4 person graphic design firm participating in green printing practices and the Sustainable Business Leader Program. Ace renovated their office using recycling materials for windows, doors, tiling, and bathroom fixtures.
  • Casoli Trust: Renovated a building on the Mystic River at 24-30 High Street that was built to LEED Gold Certification standards.
  • Century Bank: Its Mystic Avenue headquarters deployed a hybrid-electric delivery vehicle” Volt” and a highly efficient “Smart Car” for its courier fleet to minimize its carbon footprint and fuel consumption.
  • Grace Church: Implemented energy efficiency initiatives in the buildings and Grace created the annual GreenUp CleanUp Program, which cleaned up Medford parks.
  • Old Medford High Condominiums: Replaced the pool skylights with polycarbonate panels offering a higher R-rating allowing for solar gain, installed Energy Star gas dryers, and completed lighting improvements such as installing motion-sensor fluorescent fixtures.
  • Mystic Place: A residential apartment community of 465 apartments, completed lighting replacements in all common areas with approved energy saving fixtures water conservation upgrades and have three co-generators that use gas to create electricity with the water created as a byproduct used in boilers.
  • River’s Edge: A mixed-use development includes a LEED Gold Certified building constructed on a former brownfield site resulting in the removal of 187 tons of tires, 176 tons of rubber, 1,200 tons of metal and a 40-foot by 270-foot 100 ton abandoned steel barge imbedded in the property’s riverbank.
  • Shaws Supermarket: Implemented reduced lighting throughout the store along with sensor light switches that turn off lights when nobody is in the room. Shaws also sends product to the Boston Food Bank, along with a Pig Farmer in Tewksbury.
  • Whole Foods: Offsets 100% of its electricity usage with the purchase of Renewable Energy Certificates. Some of the environmental initiatives that have been implemented include composting and recycling, resulting in the diversion of 80% of its waste stream from landfills.
  • Tufts University: Medford/Somerville campus retro-commissions large facilities and new construction projects are designed with state of the art HVAC, lighting and controls to improve energy performance and reduce emissions. The University is on track to beat the goal of reducing emissions by 7% below 1990 levels by 2012.

Individuals

Interested in local real estate?Subscribe to Patch's new newsletter to be the first to know about open houses, new listings and more.

  • Susan Altman has solar panels at her home and is active in Green Medford, the Mystic River Watershed Association, and organized Walk/Ride Days.
  • Linda and Louis Bruno implemented energy efficiency initiatives such as the installation of solar panels on the roof of their property and they compost and collect rain water in a rain barrel for use in the garden.
  • Brian Butler has completed a National Grid Deep Energy Retrofit at his property and is seeking Passive House EnerPHIT certification.
  • Dorothy Emerson and Donna Clifford have 22 solar panels on their roof, operate a Neutron electric (battery operated) lawnmower and continue to maintain their 20-year-old Aquastar instantaneous (tankless) gas powered water heater.
  • Cornelia Davis installed solar panels, added insulation into her walls, basement, and roof crawlspace and uses a programmable thermostat.
  • Lois Grossman has installed solar panels on her roof has a wood-burning stove that is the only source of heat in her house.
  • Tom Lincoln has installed solar panels on his roof, a high-efficiency furnace, an on-demand- hot water heater and EnergyStar appliances throughout the house.
  • Bob Paine has installed solar panels on his roof, added insulation in the house and completed a total boiler and hot water heater replacement.
  • Kevin Ring completed a deep energy retrofit in 2008 at his property. The structure has been designed to support rooftop PV panels and a future green roof and waste piping has been designed to capture shower and laundry water for reuse in a future grey water system.

Emerald Award

  • Kristina Johnson developed the idea for the Teacher Resource Room located at Medford High School, that contains school supplies she finds on sites like “FreeCycle” and “Craigslist”.
  • Medford Farmer’s Market creates a market for local producers to sell their goods, and a place where customers can get locally grown/made products, supporting local agriculture, local businesses, and efforts to reduce emissions.


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here