Each year, through its Air Quality Stewardship Awards, the Alamo Area Council of Governments (AACOG) recognizes businesses, agencies, and other organizations that are making outstanding voluntary efforts to reduce air pollution and help improve air quality in the Alamo region. This year, the award was expanded to include single projects carried out by one or more organizations. The 2015 Air Quality Stewardship Award recipients include: the San Antonio Missions National Historical Park; San Antonio College’s William R. Sinkin Eco Centro project; and the Zachry and the Skyonic Corporations’ Capital Skymine project.
More information about the winners can be found by clicking here.
Receiving honorable mention are the Demand Response Transit project, forged by the Cities of Cibolo, Garden Ridge, New Braunfels, and Schertz, the Comal and Guadalupe County Commissioners Courts, the McKenna Foundation, and VIA Metropolitan Transit’s Demand Response Transit project.
These recipients will be honored at an award ceremony taking place during the Fiesta Earth Day event, at 9:00 a.m. on April 18, at Woodlawn Lake in San Antonio.
The San Antonio Missions National Historical Park is being recognized for the many voluntary air pollution reduction measures it has undertaken, including: alternative staff scheduling (38% of its staff work compressed or telecommuting schedules, which reduces their number of commutes per year); use of alternative fuel vehicles (with almost half of the park’s 22-vehicle fleet now alternatively fueled and all turf grooming mowers operating on propane); and the park’s policy that all construction and remodeling projects must consider and attempt to use local, sustainable materials that require little transport.
San Antonio College’s William R. Sinkin Eco Centro sustainability project and outreach center also goes above and beyond its mission in helping to improve air quality in many ways, such as: offering free, daytime electric vehicle charging to the community through its solar array (which produces three times its own energy needs); the installation of a B-Cycle bike-sharing station on its property; and its elimination of the need for pollution-creating lawn maintenance equipment through xeriscaping.
The Zachry and Skyonic Corporations’ Capital Skymine project is receiving a special “Trailblazer” project award for bringing the world's first profitable carbon capture and mineralization plant to San Antonio. While the primary purpose of the Skymine technology is to remove carbon emissions from the Capitol Aggregates stack, with the added benefit of turning those emissions into such profitable products as baking soda and hydrochloric acid, it also removes over 90% of nitrogen oxides—a major component of ground-level ozone and the most prevalent form of air pollution in the Alamo region.
Finally, the Demand Response Transit project forged by the Cities of Cibolo, Garden Ridge, New Braunfels, and Schertz; the Comal and Guadalupe County Commissioners Courts; the McKenna Foundation, and VIA Metropolitan Transit is receiving an honorable mention for their collective effort to readjust local budgets and replace state funding, which was lost when these areas were re-designated as urban areas, with local funding, to continue uninterrupted demand-response transit service to the re-designated areas. By selecting demand-response transit that operates on an as-needed basis, the agencies involved in this project not only opted to continue a service that eliminates 16,000 or more personal vehicle trips per year, but also eliminated the exhaust associated with continuously running fixed bus routes.
AACOG stresses that air pollution is a challenge that requires a shared commitment from regional agencies, businesses, and individuals, to protect our collective community and environment. Air Quality Stewardship Award recipient organizations such be especially commended. Prolonged exposure to ground-level ozone pollution impacts human health, particularly the health of children, people who work or are otherwise active outdoors, and those with respiratory illnesses.
For the past three years, levels of ozone in the air we breathe have been high enough to place the San Antonio-New Braunfels Metropolitan Statistical Area in a state of noncompliance with federal clean air standards. The consequences of continued failure to meet air quality standards will likely include required steps to reduce pollution with the goal of regaining our clean air status. For example, new or expanding businesses may be required to secure pollution reductions to offset their proposed growth, and transportation planners may be required to prove that adding capacity to the roadway system would not increase pollution from cars and trucks to qualify for federal highway funds for roadway improvements.
