Mayor David Bieter presented EnviroGuard Sustainability Awards to Dave Krick, Jami Adams and Kevin Kelpe, owners/management team of Bittercreek Alehouse and Red Feather Lounge, along with Excel Equipment and owner Michel Cunningham, Tuesday before the Boise City Council meeting.
“The EnviroGuard Awards are a great way to spread the word that sustainable practices are not just good for the environment, they’re good business,” Mayor Bieter said. “This year’s winners are wonderful examples for other companies looking to make their businesses greener and more efficient.”
Krick, Adams and Kelpe were selected as the first ever “visionary” award recipients. The trio is seen as true pioneers of Boise’s sustainable restaurant boom. They are serious about sustainability through the lens of food, starting with a desire for fresher, higher quality local products. By purchasing mostly local food products and butchering all meats on site, they significantly reduce their pre- and post-consumer waste and reduce their energy and water consumption. Since 2006, the company has eliminated over 70% of the waste sent to the landfill and significantly reduced energy use. Another successful and noteworthy effort is the Urban Worm Project – vermicomposting: using worms to compost all the food waste at both restaurants. The trio continues their forward thinking and has a major kitchen renovation project slated for 2013 that will reduce their energy usage even further. 
Excel Equipment Company, Inc., a business award recipient, is a heavy equipment rental and sales company with clients across the western US and Canada. Excel’s 5.5 acre property and 27,000 square-foot facility includes administrative offices, heavy equipment maintenance facility and fabrication shop, paint booth, and heavy equipment storage yard. Excel has worked to bring the facility to current standards with many of their efforts going above and beyond those required by industry and environmental regulations. Their innovative, self-engineered wash-pad wastewater recovery, treatment and recycling system is impressive and sets them apart from their competition. Excel also retains all used oil on site and uses it to heat maintenance buildings. They press and extract oil from old filters and then recycle the steel.
Since 1998, the EnviroGuard Sustainability Awards – previously known only as EnviroGuard Award – have been presented to 40 local businesses and organizations who engage in sustainable practices and work to reduce their environmental footprint, enhancing our quality of life.
To view detailed case studies of each winner’s accomplishments visit www.cityofboise.org and search “enviroguard”. You will also find an easy application for the business award. Past winners include Micron, Second Chance Building Supply, The Bogus Basin Nordic Center, Parks Royal Body Works and Zamzows.
For more information call program coordinator Angela Deckers at (208) 384-3983, or Megan Durrell at (208) 388-4712.