Lakewood Announces Sustainability Award Winners

LAKEWOOD, CO — The winners of Lakewood's 14th annual sustainability awards were announced Monday. The awards include two new categories: the Legacy Award and Business Innovation.

"The seven winners demonstrate how creativity, passion and enthusiasm can create sustainable businesses, support community health, keep waste out of the landfill, spread environmental awareness and bring neighbors together," the city of Lakewood said in a news release.

The 2021 winners will be recognized at the May 10 City Council meeting.

Sustainability Award Winners 2021

Excerpts by city of Lakewood:

Legacy Award

This inaugural award commemorates the numerous contributions made by Lakewood resident Ken May who dedicated his career to pioneering and transforming solar energy generation in Lakewood and around the world. He spent his career at the National Renewable Energy Lab and co-founded a solar energy company.

Business Innovation

Ballmer Peak Distillery became a hand-sanitizer hero as one of the first businesses in Colorado to produce hand sanitizer at no cost to the community during the pandemic. This effort is in addition to several other sustainability measures the company has undertaken.

Compost Colorado provides pickup composting service to nearly 400 customers in Lakewood and combines that with delivery of cleaning and other supplies including medical items during the pandemic to reduce delivery truck trips.

Community Sustainability

While the average American creates more than 4 pounds of waste a day, Emily Post and her family produce only 4-6 pounds a month. She employs a wide range of measures to achieve this and passes her knowledge on to others through her Zero Waste Club.

Alison Tamborlane and Michel Scheffers work every day to make their home more sustainable by creating a pollinator-friendly garden, sustaining low water and energy use and convincing their HOA to allow residents to install solar panels.

Defenders of the Planet (youth award)

The Green Mountain Area Homeschoolers adapted its education and awareness campaign, The Pretty Big Pollinator Project!, to the pandemic by using virtual meetings, creating a website and blog, providing online art classes and an art contest that garnered more than 50 entries and distributing milkweed seeds to students to support monarch butterflies.

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