Three St. Petersburg-based companies have received prestigious environmental awards. Last week, the first St. Petersburg Sustainable Leadership Award announced the winners at the awards ceremony. The award was presented by the St. Petersburg Downtown Partnership and the Environmental Defense Fund’s Florida headquarters in downtown St. Pete.
These two organizations will play an important role in the future of St. Pete. The two organizations worked together to recognize local business leaders and developers for their efforts in sustainability and climate resilience. The award provided an opportunity to showcase the positive environmental efforts being made throughout Pinellas County.
Nominations were collected throughout the summer, with final winners selected in three categories. Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority (PSTA) won the institutional category, Brick Street Farms won the retailer award, and Stoneweg US, LLC won the developer award.
Full presentations for each can be seen below, but a brief highlight of each is the variety of ways in which local businesses (both large and small) can make a significant impact on the environment in economically meaningful ways. We introduce a method.
Local businesses find ways to support sustainability
Having recently launched the highly anticipated SunRunner, PSTA is credited with reducing energy use per passenger by more than 30% since 2015. The local transit service is creating his one of the largest zero-emission bus fleets in Florida. There are also plans to transition all bus charging power to come from solar panels on the roof of the facility.
Brick Street Farms, the incredible local business we’ve featured here so often, recently used hydroponic shipping containers to grow 48 acres worth of traditional farmland crops within just 12,000 square feet of land. We have opened a new facility to grow. Fun fact we learned: Our shipping containers are not connected to the sewage system as we create and use all the water ourselves.
And finally, Stoneweg, which is also credited with extraordinary efforts to include affordable labor housing in new development projects in St. Pete, has implemented an extensive recycling program in all its locations. received accolades in properties. The company has increased its recycling services by 45% across the board and plans to implement the program at 100% of his facilities by the end of 2022.
Community leaders see a bright future for St. Pete’s commitment to sustainability
Downtown Partnership President Jason Mathis and EDF Florida Director Dawn Shirreffs will deliver a keynote address by Betsy Gardner Ekbert, President and CEO of the City of Winter Park Chamber of Commerce. I was there to congratulate the winners.
“We have a unique opportunity to become the most resilient city, not just in Florida, but in the country,” Mattis told the audience.
Mr Schirrefs said:
“We have a chance to take advantage of this moment and figure out how to do it.”