The city of San Jose, Calif. has reportedly won the 2009 Governor's Environmental and Economic Leadership Award for its Zero Waste Events Program. California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger announced the award last week.

 

 The GEELA award was instituted to recognize individuals, organizations and businesses that voluntarily conserve California's resources, protect and enhance the environment.

 

"I am delighted that Governor Schwarzenegger has selected San Jose for this top environmental award,” San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed said in a statement. “When it comes to waste reduction, San Jose has a long history of innovation."

 

Although many cities require event recycling, San Jose went a step further providing back-end sorting of event garbage, provision and use of compostable food ware, commercial organic waste collection and processing, eco-stations, and developed an extensive array of Web resources for event organizers.

 

"We were one of the first cities to make it easy for residents to recycle at home, and now we've developed creative programs for recycling and composting at major community events. San Jose's Green Vision is a roadmap to becoming the world center of clean tech innovation with a goal of achieving zero waste by 2022," Reed said.

 

Two years ago, recycling was almost unheard of at community events in San Jose. In 2008, event promoters, recycling haulers, and youth workers teamed up to launch a concerted effort to protect the environment. A year later, several events including the Jazz Festival, set new records, diverting 97 percent of potential waste from going to a landfill. Overall, the program achieved a diversion of 94 percent.

 

San Jose's Zero Waste Event Program is one of only 15 recipients that will be recognized at the GEELA reception.

 

Award recipients are chosen in ten different categories based on strength in eight specific areas including results, transferability, environmental impact, resource conservation, economic progress, innovation and uniqueness, pollution prevention, and environmental justice.