Lakewood 2020 Sustainability Award Winners Announced

LAKEWOOD, CO — The City of Lakewood has announced the winners of the 2020 Sustainability Awards. This year's winners were highlighted for measures such as curbside composting, the reuse of historic buildings, eliminating Styrofoam lunch trays and the creative reuse of distillery byproducts.

Those who save energy, increase recycling, cut greenhouse gases, grow local food, clean up the environment and fight climate change were eligible for the awards.

In lieu of an in-person ceremony this year, the city is honoring the winners on social media.

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The awards were given in the following categories: Community Sustainability, Defender of the Planet for youth leadership and Bruce Peoples' Eco-Employee for City of Lakewood employees:

Community Sustainability

• Recycled Mat-ters: This business creates new products from the 1,200 floor mats thrown away each week in the metro area while also providing work experiences for Lakewood high school students.
• Ballmer Peak Distillery: This business conserves more than 400,000 gallons of water and prevents more than 24,000 pounds of waste going to the landfill with its byproducts going to feed wildlife.
• Everett Court Partners: The developer of Eiber Village at Garrison Station creatively converted the historic Hospice of Saint John into 49 energy-efficient, affordable apartments for seniors while also salvaging, reusing and recycling buildings, fixtures and other items.
• Compost Colorado: This company collects and composts more than two tons of organic waste each week from 112 subscribers in Lakewood through its weekly curbside service and provides a way for those subscribers to buy zero-waste products.

Defenders of the Planet

• Dunstan Middle School Planet Patriots: This passionate group of students reduced emissions, improved air quality and increased recycling at its school through a campaign to have parents turn off their car engines while waiting to pick up students and by instituting recycling during lunch periods.
• Cris Sorency’s Fifth Grade Class at Lakewood Elementary School Styrofoam Stoppers: This class convinced the school to stop the use of Styrofoam trays at lunch and persuaded Jeffco Public Schools to begin to transition away from them across the district.
• Devinny Elementary Environmental Club: The club’s determined efforts to reduce waste through recycling and reuse diverted nearly 6,400 pounds of waste from the landfill including hard-to-recycle items.

Bruce Peoples Eco-Employee

• Lynn Coppedge: As a sustainability planner, Lynn played an integral part in developing the city’s sustainability program, composting at city facilities, Lakewood’s communitywide greenhouse gas inventory, the employee commuter rewards program and the annual Earth Day Celebration.

More details about the winners can be found on the City of Lakewood's website.