Tanzi Propst/Park File
Recycle Utah has chosen an area compound pharmacy that creates customized medicines for sufferers, a restaurant and a Montessori faculty for its annual Inexperienced Enterprise Awards.
This yr, nevertheless, the sustainability nonprofit made a COVID-19 adjustment to the award, which is given to native companies which have made efforts to chop down their carbon footprints, stated Eric Moldenhauer, Recycle Utah’s improvement and communications director.
“The identify has been modified to Inexperienced Enterprise Resiliency Award,” Moldenhauer stated. “As a result of 2020 was a yr of diversifications, we strove to adapt the award to honor companies which have persevered by this pandemic with a honest dedication to our neighborhood and our surroundings. In doing so, we picked three native companies in Summit County that exemplified their dedication to take action throughout a troublesome yr.”
The award winners are Alpine Apothecary, Fireplace and Hill restaurant and Hovering Wings Worldwide Montessori Faculty.
These three companies have been singled out by a bunch of judges, led by Mary Closser, Recycle Utah’s schooling director who runs the Inexperienced Enterprise program.
The Inexperienced Enterprise program is a free service accessible to Summit County companies seeking to craft or improve sustainability actions and plans, Moldenhauer stated.
A few of these actions are so simple as having workers carpool or reducing down on how a lot paper the companies use, he stated.
“We don’t dictate what these targets must be, and no purpose is correct or unsuitable,” Moldenhauer stated. “It’s as much as the companies of how they need to change, they usually lean on us to realize these targets. Recycle Utah is a inexperienced useful resource for these companies.”
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Closser despatched out a questionnaire to an inventory of collaborating companies in mid-December and requested what they’d completed over 2020 to proceed or adapt new approaches to their sustainability targets, in response to Moldenhauer.
Whereas the workers at Alpine Apothecary was devoted to waste discount and is on the lookout for extra methods to assist the planet, Fireplace and Hill, which needed to pivot from in-restaurant eating to curbside pickup attributable to COVID-19, has labored tirelessly to maintain to-go containers eco-friendly, scale back vitality utilization and handle waste responsibly, Moldenhauer stated.
Hovering Wings bought inventive and effectively started regulating meals packaging and meals waste, whereas buying sanitizer in bulk and analyzing the driving patterns of fogeys, he stated.
“It’s by no means simple choosing one enterprise over one other, and there was lots of deliberation with the replies,” he stated. “We went by every enterprise at a time, and the committee and judges unanimously got here up with these three.”
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Moldenhauer preferred how numerous the winners are.
“We have been completely satisfied to see completely different facets of our neighborhood represented,” he stated. “It simply showcases the variety of this system.”
The Inexperienced Enterprise Program has grown exponentially since its inception 5 years in the past.
“That first yr we had 17 collaborating companies, and the quantity has gone as much as round 100,” Moldenhauer stated.
This system is open to any Summit County enterprise, he stated.
“Now we have eating places, docs’ workplaces, artwork galleries and sporting items shops,” Moldenhauer stated. “It’s nice to see massive companies like Deer Valley or Park Metropolis Mountain Resort to small companies which have one or two workers making modifications in the way in which they do enterprise and of their private efforts. It’s good for the neighborhood to see this by these awards and see the trouble these companies put in, and it means a lot to us to be a useful resource for them.”
