For 12 years, the Springfield/Greene County Choose Environmental Excellence Awards have put local sustainability efforts in the spotlight.
This year, 11 organizations honored individuals, businesses and organizations for their efforts to enhance and improve the local environment.
“Choose Environmental Excellence is actually the sponsoring organization. Like so many things we do around here, there are a whole lot of partners,” said Barbara Lucks, project coordinator for Springfield/Greene County Choose Environmental Excellence and interim sustainability officer with the city of Springfield.
“Originally … I just had the idea that there were so many good activities and good efforts going on, and I thought it would be nice to recognize some of them.”
The awards typically are presented during April as part of local Earth Day festivities, and while Lucks said the event celebrates earth-friendly accomplishments, the awards serve a broader purpose, shedding light on new sustainability practices and ideas.
“A few years ago, for example, one of the organizations recognized some green builders. Now, some of their practices have become mainstream, but at that time, it was new,” Lucks said. “So you create a little bit of extra interest in some new or better practices, with the idea that people ask about them, and hopefully, they’ll adopt some of them.”
Melissa and Adam Millsap, founders of Urban Roots Farm in center city, were honored this year by the Springfield/Greene County Environmental Advisory Board for their efforts to go above and beyond normal practices to promote, improve and support sustainable environmentally conscious activities.
Adam Millsap describes Urban Roots Farm as subscription farming, where consumers pay $600 for a full share or $350 for a half share and receive weekly portions of the farm’s crops during the 24-week growing season. The concept also is known as community supported agriculture.
“Buying from your local farmers, whether that’s through a CSA or at a farmer’s market, or even at a grocer that is purchasing locally grown produce … or going to a restaurant that is supporting a local grower, all are great ways to have an impact on the environment, without really changing what you’re doing,” Adam Millsap said. “Right now, on average, (America’s) food travels 1,500 miles before it reaches our plates. … That’s just the iceberg as far as how tightly tied our food supply is to the petroleum network, and therefore, petroleum prices.”
Millsap’s farm – which he calls a microfarm – is on 1.5 acres, and he said environmental practices are much easier on that scale than at much bigger farms where large amounts of food are grown.
“Agriculture on that scale requires an immense amount of energy input,” Millsap said. “There is no one there picking weeds by hand – you’re running enormous equipment day in and day out, and drinking diesel up by the gallon.”
Right now, Millsap said Urban Roots has 33 subscribers, many with half-shares, but he said the operation should eventually be able to provide vegetables for about 60 families. “If we can set this scale up everywhere, speckled throughout our communities, then we can have that sustainable scale of agriculture and be providing jobs to people who want them,” Millsap added.
The Millsaps were instrumental in the November 2011 formation of the Springfield Urban Agriculture Coalition, which developed and continue to support the Dig In R-XII, or DIRT program. DIRT has awarded schoolyard gardens to 10 Springfield schools, working with teachers to develop garden-based curriculum for students. The coalition also developed the Collaborative Regional Alliance for Farmer Training, or CRAFT, program, and is seeking host farms.
The Millsaps’ motivation is simple.
“We feel like there’s been a major lapse in our society, where we have lost an understanding of where our food comes from,” Adam Millsap said.
Among the other awards:
- The Greene County Resource Management Department’s Environmental Section received the Watershed Committee of the Ozarks’ 2012 Choose Environmental Excellence Award, showcasing efforts to protect Springfield’s drinking water resources, and particularly, section staff members’ efforts to administer the county’s regulations for issues such as erosion and sediment control and waste-water systems.
- Rick Hughlett, founder and owner of Rick’s Automotive, was recognized by the Ozarks Clean Air Alliance – a subcommittee of the Community Partnership of the Ozarks’ Environmental Collaborative – for his voluntary support of and efforts to raise awareness of the local connection between sources such as vehicles and air quality, particularly ground-level ozone.
- Dave Fraley, director of environmental affairs with City Utilities of Springfield, was honored by the Community Partnership of the Ozarks’ environmental collaborative for promoting appreciation of the role of a healthy natural environment in health and well-being. Fraley is a founding member of Ozarks Clean Air Alliance and an active member of the Community Partnership collaborative.
- Loring Bullard, who retired in December after 22 years with the Watershed Committee of the Ozarks, received the 2012 Environmental Service Award from the executive board of Solid Waste Management District O, recognizing his dedication to recycling and recycling education.
- Bridget Dierks, Community Foundation of the Ozarks’ representative to the Tree City, USA Advisory Committee, was recognized by the committee for her efforts, including the Tree Tag Project, which shows trees’ dollar values in terms of factors such as temperature moderation.
- Jerry Monterastelli, a retired Missouri Department of Conservation forester, also was recognized by the Tree City, USA committee for his willingness to come out of retirement to help in the aftermath of the 2007 ice storm, and in 2008, to help with reforestation efforts by Springfield’s Public Works Department. Most recently, he has volunteered to conduct a tree inventory for Springfield National Cemetery.
- Zach Miller, a Realtor with Murney Associates and chairman of the Greater Springfield Board of Realtors’ Green Committee, received Ozarks Green Building Coalition’s Ozarks Green Building Achievement Award for his efforts to add the Green Multilist to the GSBOR Multilist System.
Lucks said other groups that would like to join the Choose Environmental Excellence Awards roster can contact her at SpringfieldMo.gov/CEE.
