By Becky Finch, Growing Green Awards Committee Chair
The Growing Green Awards are right around the corner! U.S. Green Building Council – Missouri Gateway Chapter is excited to host the 8thannual awards celebration on March 31 at the MOTO Museum in the Grand Center Arts District. We cannot wait to celebrate our nominees and winners this year – individuals, organizations, institutions and companies that are helping us towards the goal of making every building a green building! Growing Green Award nominees are transforming our built environment and our community into a healthier, more environmentally friendly and prosperous place to live, work and learn.
2016 is the Chapter’s 15th Anniversary, and we look forward to celebrating the past 15 years of green & healthy spaces at this year’s Growing Green Awards. When volunteers came together to found one of the first six USGBC Chapters in the country, the green building movement was relatively new. Fast forward 15 years and green building has come a long way. We have so much to be proud of, including over 40 winners and many, many more nominees recognized in the last 7 years of the Growing Green Awards. We look forward to celebrating the following nominees as well as LEED projects that achieved certification in 2015 and participants of our 25 x 20 Voluntary Energy Benchmarking Campaign.
The 2016 Growing Green Award Nominees are:
Community Champion
- Forest Park Forever
- Metro Lighting
- Missouri Department of Economic Development – Division of Energy, Energy Loan Program
Community Innovator
- Automatic Controls Equipment Systems, Inc.
- Mary Ostafi – Urban Harvest STL
- Gary Steps – Butterfly Energy Works
Emerging Leader
- City of Creve Coeur
- City of Maplewood
- City of St. Louis Building Division
- Leslie Garner – Hastings+Chivetta Architects
Operational Excellence
- Frisella Nursery
- Graybar
- Lewis and Clark Community College
Restoration Champion
- Bade Roofing Company
- Dominium, Inc.
- Webster University
- Western Specialty Contractor
You can learn more about the nominees and their accomplishments here. Please join us when we announce a winner in each of the above categories at the 8th Annual Growing Green Awards on March 31 from 5:30 – 8:30 pm at the MOTO Museum! Learn more about the Awards or purchase tickets for the event at www.usgbc-mogateway.org/green-awards/.