2014 NPS Environmental Achievement Awards

Winners

Delaware North Company, Building Toward the Future

Park Location: Yellowstone National Park

Delaware North Companies Parks & Resorts (DNC) operates 12 retail locations in Yellowstone National Park, and has demonstrated a commitment to environmental stewardship throughout their operations. This commitment is managed through DNC’s GreenPath® Program. GreenPath serves as the Environmental Management System for DNC, has been registered to ISO 14001 standards, and has been verified by a third party since 2003.

In FY2013, DNC took several actions through the GreenPath program to address the requirements of Executive Order 13514:

• DNC undertook a $20,000 lighting retrofit at the West Yellowstone Warehouse, reducing energy intensity by 30%.
• At the Grant Dormitory, a new solar thermal renewable energy system contributed to saving around 400 gallons of propane in 2013.
• A fleet management program (including carpooling, procurement, no-idling policy, optimization of use) led to a reduction in unleaded fuel use of 1,561 gallons. DNC also provides passes for employees to the LINX public transportation system, and has replaced 16% of its fleet with alternative fuel vehicle
• Potable water use has been reduced through the installation of water efficient fixtures, educational materials, and the elimination of potable water use for landscaping.
• DNC updated its Environmental Preferable Purchasing Policy in 2013. To promote the program and direct visitors to products that have a reduced environmental impact, DNC provides labels/messaging that include Local, Organic, Environmentally Preferable, Made in the USA, and made of Post Consumer Content. DNC has also installed water bottle filling stations throughout its operations to promote the use of reusable water bottles
• All single use dining items on offer at DNC operations are 100% compostable, and the company has achieved a solid waste diversion rate of 56.4%.

The comprehensive and deliberate approach that DNC takes toward environmental stewardship provides a positive example for all NPS concessioners, and for the community at large. Company employees are highly engaged in the local communities and lend support to many organizations and events. Annually, DNC hosts the largest Earth Day Celebration in the Yellowstone region.

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Mr. Nathan Wilson

Park Location: Fort Smith National Historic Site
Facility Services Assistant Nathan Wilson has played a key leadership role in advancing sustainable management at Fort Smith National Historic Site (FOSM). Mr. Wilson has motivated the staff at FOSM to take on sustainability as a priority at the park, with a special emphasis on energy efficiency and the management of greenhouse gas emissions. Though it is a small park, Mr. Smith’s efforts have helped FOSM to become an example of sustainable management for parks throughout NPS.

Between 2010 and 2012, Mr. Wilson led the effort to progressively phase out incandescent and fluorescent bulbs in the park’s visitor center with high efficiency LED fixtures, including in the park’s bookstore, classroom, and courtroom museum. In 2013, Mr. Wilson moved on to the park’s Second Jail Exhibit, replacing fifty 120-200 watt fixtures with sixty 11 watt LED bulbs. These efforts are now incorporated into the park’s Climate Friendly Parks (CFP) plan. Mr. Wilson was instrumental in creating this plan at FOSM, helping to develop, coordinate, and present the first virtual CFP workshop to FOSM staff members. The park is now on its way to becoming the first CFP park in Arkansas, having completed 3 of 4 milestones.

In 2010 Mr. Wilson assisted the park’s administrative officer in developing the park’s Green Purchasing Plan that guides purchase card holders to consider sustainability when making purchases. As a purchase card holder, Nathan has been instrumental in converting many of the park’s commonly used products to “green” alternatives. Green purchasing has expanded greatly at the park since 2010, and the NPS Sustainable Operations and Climate Change Branch has requested that the FOSM Green Purchasing Plan be posted on the SOCC website as an example for other parks. Nathan Wilson provides a positive lead-by-example attitude and influence that inspires other park employees to achieve greater awareness and become more involved in sustainability and energy conservation efforts in their workplace and at home.

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NPS CERCLA Response Team, Palmerton Zinc Pile Superfund Site

Park Location: Appalachian National Scenic Trail

The Palmerton Zinc Pile Superfund Site is a large Superfund complex in and around the town of Palmerton, Pennsylvania, the legacy of more than 80 years of zinc smelting at two plants operated by the New Jersey Zinc Company. Due to the deposition of smelter emissions containing high concentrations of zinc, cadmium, and lead, several thousand acres of forest along the Appalachian National Scenic Trail have been severely impacted.

The National Park Service (NPS) Team became involved in the Palmerton Site a decade ago to ensure that cleanup decisions would address risks to human health and the environment caused by the release of hazardous substances on the Site, and would not impede the mission of the NPS.

NPS worked tirelessly to ensure that planned revegetation efforts (a) were effective on the steep, defoliated, and increasingly unstable slopes at Lehigh Gap; (b) effectively addressed risks to human health and the environment, including rockfall risks to AT hikers and motorists on the highway below; (c) controlled invasive plants during a 10-year revegetation monitoring and adaptive management period; (d) met an aggressive revegetation performance standard to ensure long-term success of native vegetation; and (e) realized the NPS vision of re-establishing an Eastern hardwood forest on this once ravaged landscape.

The team applied NPS-selected seed, fertilizer, and lime on NPS-managed acres and the planting of tens of thousands of trees, shrubs, and grasses, including blight-resistant American chestnut, various oaks, black gum, sumac, chokeberry, and sweet ferns. According to some accounts, this is the largest remediation and re-vegetation project ever undertaken through EPA’s Superfund program.

The NPS team also undertook a CERCLA response action at Lehigh Gap to fulfill NPS’s obligation to eliminate unacceptable site risks and to manage the Appalachian Trail in a manner that leaves it unimpaired for future generations. Taking such action in the context of EPA-lead action at the larger Palmerton Site that was listed on the National Priorities List was a precedential action requiring close intra-governmental cooperation with USEPA and the U.S. Department of Justice.

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Death Valley National Park Management Team

Park Location: Death Valley National Park

Nighttime darkness is among the most important natural resources at Death Valley National Park (DEVA). The dark of night provides a spectacle for visitors, an appropriate habitat for native fauna, and an opportunity for astronomical observations. Staff at DEVA recognize the value and fragility of this resource, and have taken significant measures to protect it. These actions allowed the park to earn the prestigious International Dark Sky Park designation from the International Dark-Sky Association (IDA).

This honor is a testament to the ambition and careful planning of NPS staff to manage light pollution in the park. Instead of seeking this designation for a small portion of the park, staff decided to include all 3.4 million acres of park land. Meeting this high bar required a large-scale fundraising effort to assemble the $250,000 necessary to replace inefficient lights and poorly designed fixtures with energy efficient lower wattage and lumen lights which are fully shielded from light trespass. After seven years of diligent work, all lighting retrofits were completed in 2013.

In addition to infrastructural upgrades, staff at DEVA created detailed, thoughtful management guidelines, the “Guidance for Outdoor Lighting in Death Valley National Park.” These guidelines ensure that the safety, security and way finding for park visitors and staff is provided with minimal to no impacts on Death Valley’s dark night sky. In addition the park is saving money and reducing its carbon footprint by using only the most energy efficient lights, only in places where and when light is needed. Park staff intend to calculate the amount of energy saved and greenhouse gases reduced by the new equipment and guidelines in the first full year following the complete retrofit (2014).

In addition to their achievements inside the park, the staff involved in DEVA’s designation as an International Dark Sky Park have set an example for parks throughout the services, and through their written management guidelines, provided a template for other parks to following their footsteps.

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Mr. Dutch Story

Park Location: North Cascades National Park

The Stehekin District of the North Cascades National Park Complex (NOCA) is accessible only by foot, boat, or plane. All materials, supplies, and equipment are delivered via a barge that must travel 50 miles to reach the district. It is therefore of great importance both to the budget of the park and its greenhouse gas footprint that consumption at Stehekin be kept to a minimum, and materials are reused whenever possible. Mr. Story has been a champion for these ideals at NOCA, and has achieved great successes in source reduction, reuse, and recycling.

Many of the actions that Mr. Story affected in FY2013 have borne concrete results:

• Electric Vehicle - Mr. Story conducted research and developed the case for replacing the park’s gasoline pickup truck with a fully electric vehicle. He created a system for tracking the usage and energy draw of this vehicle for comparison with energy used by the gasoline truck. Since the electric vehicle is charged off the on-site hydro power plant, it operates at an emission-free electricity cost of $0.016/mile (compared to $0.28/mile and 2.5 MTCO2E annually with the pickup truck).
• Composting – Mr. Story has as developed numerous successful proposals and secured funds for providing park staff with composting training, installing bear-proof barrel composters at park housing, and constructing large-scale worm bins for both NPS and community vermicomposting. Based on the performance of these systems so far, park staff anticipate up to 2.5 tons of food waste will be diverted from the landfill in FY14.
•  Solid Waste Reduction & Recycling – Mr. Story has been a creative advocate for solid waste reduction and recycling both inside the park an in the surrounding community. For a NOCA visitor center, he created a piece using furniture and appliance packaging corners, which were painted and reused to frame a view through the gallery window. He created three-dimensional how-to informational displays by reusing materials to communicate which types of items were recyclable and provide guidance on how to sort and separate recyclable items. In FY2013 the solid waste diversion rate at Stehekin increased 10% over the previous year.

In addition to leading sustainability education for park staff, Mr. Story has lead projects at local schools to teach students about composting through hands on experience. Mr. Story embodies a positive example of how one person’s energy can affect great change, and inspire others not just within the park service, but in our communities at large.

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Forever Resorts

Park Location: Lake Mead National Recreation Area

The Marina Services Building (MSB) at the Cottonwood Cove area of Lake Mead National Recreation Area (LAKE), built and operated by Forever Resorts, is a 2,009 square-foot floating building connected to a full-service marina facility on the Lake Mohave portion of the Colorado River. Completed in 2013, it is the first floating building to achieve LEED certification (Gold) from the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC).

The team at Forever Resorts and LAKE knew that convincing the USGBC to grant LEED certification to a new kind of structure would take some convincing. The team therefore took every measure possible to improve the environmental performance of the building, carefully tracking associated data to demonstrate the value of each measure taken. Some of the achievements of the MSB include:

• The MSB was built in on the site of a previously developed marina, which prevented any undeveloped shoreline from being disturbed.
• New roofing materials were used to reduce the heat island effect in non-roof surfaces by 78% and 100%.
• Native desert plants from the LAKE native plant nursery were used for landscaping around the building, and were only watered during the initial plant establishment period.
• Innovative wastewater technologies include dual-flush toilets, non-water urinals, and the use of non-potable lake water for a sewer conveyance. These measures led to water use reduction of 47.5% over conventional systems.
• Optimized energy performance measures achieved an energy cost savings of 48.3%
• . The storage and collection of recyclables includes areas for cardboard, paper, plastic and metals (glass is prohibited in the park).
• The project diverted 87.87% of on-site generated construction waste from landfills.
• The MSB has recycled content among its building materials of 23.27%
• Rapidly renewable materials were used in 12.87% of total materials
• Low-emitting materials were use in adhesives, paints, sealants, coatings, carpet, composite wood, and Agrifiber.

Forever Resorts operates the building with environmental stewardship as a top priority. The company’s green housekeeping program ensures that only environmentally preferable cleaning products are used, and the MSB is adorned with public education signage and displays that tout the buildings green features.

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High Performance Sustainable Visitor and Research Center

Park Location: Mesa Verde National Park

At Mesa Verde National Park, the Visitor and Research Center (VRC) consists of two building components: the Visitor Information Center and the Research Museum and Collection Facility (Curatorial Facility). Together, they form one building – the VRC. Following a organizing effort of over 14 years, the VRC has been completed as a highly sustainable facility, earning the prestigious LEED Platinum Certification.

The process that lead to the development of the VRC started over 14 years ago, with commitment of support from the Intermountain Region (IMR) of the National Park Service. What followed was a highly collaborative planning and development project with environmental stewardship at the center. A multidisciplinary A/E team worked diligently to complete special studies, define compliance requirements and create various design documents so that the construction award could be made. Construction was successfully awarded in September 2010. In May 2013, the final construction modification was completed.

The LEED Platinum designation recognizes exceptional environmental performance in the new VRC. The project has reduced potable water use by 40.7%, and an energy reduction of 30% below ASHREA 90.1 standards. This was accomplished in part through high-efficiency mechanical systems, including Ground Loop Heat Exchanger; a main mechanical plant, a waterto-water heat pump, radiant floor slabs that provide heat (and some cooling) in designated areas, and active chilled beams that provide supplemental cooling. The VRC also features a variety of onsite renewable energy systems, including: 67 kw photovoltaic array (PV); 64 SF solar water heating system; and a micro hydro-turbine, which produces 25.74% of total building energy.

The project was also awarded a “Two-Star Rating” from the Sustainable Sites Initiative (SITES). The VRC was a pilot project for SITES. The SITES program is an interdisciplinary effort to create voluntary national guidelines and performance benchmarks for sustainable land design, construction and maintenance practices.

This project was successful thanks to the dedication of the all partners: MEVE, IMR, Mesa Verde Foundation, Mesa Verde Museum Association, National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL), Federal Highway Administration, Harper’s Ferry Center, tribal representatives, the construction contractor, construction management representatives and many groups within the Denver Service Center of the National Park Service.

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Honorable Mention

Greening Our Rides at Golden Gate

Park Location: Golden Gate National Recreation Area

A coalition of two national parks and two community groups convened to expand and publicize the use of electric vehicles in Bay Area parklands. The “Electric Vehicle Partnership” is made of up of staff from Golden Gate National Recreation Area (GOGA), Muir Woods National Monument (MUWO), the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy, and the organization Adopt a Charger (AAC). AAC is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to accelerate the widespread adoption of plug-in vehicles through the proliferation of public, fee-free electric car chargers which are “adopted” by sponsors.

In FY13, the partnership installed two public electric vehicle chargers at Muir Woods National Monument. AAC secured the support of Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) to sponsor the chargers at Muir Woods. The chargers are located in the parking lot closest to the visitor center, and are available for free to the public.

The Muir Woods project was the second in a partnership between GOGA, the Parks Conservancy, and Adopt a Charger. The first project at Crissy Field in San Francisco was completed in FY12 and has become an extremely popular charging destination, garnering attention from EV drivers, automakers, and the press. The chargers at Crissy Field were sponsored by the National Parks Conservation Association.

To take advantage of these new chargers, GOGA added seven electric plug-in vehicles to its fleet. Through a Clean Cities grant, MUWO purchased five plug-in vehicles.

The Muir Woods public chargers have used 3,011 kWh since they were installed in May 2013. This results in about 8,855 miles driven on electricity versus gasoline. According to the NPS Climate Leadership In Parks (CLIP) Tool, 8,855 miles of gasoline would generate 6,959 pounds CO2.

Similarly, the plug-in vehicles in the park fleet have driven a combined 20,000 miles in two-plus years, which equates to a savings of 15,000 pounds of CO2.

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First Climate Friendly Park in Texas

Park Location: San Antonio Missions National Historical Park

San Antonio Missions National Historical Park (SAAN) was designated as the first Climate Friendly Park in Texas in 2013. This recognition was the culmination of a long history of environmental stewardship at the park. The staff at SAAN have maintained a formal Environmental Management System (EMS) program since 2003. The current EMS program brings SAAN in compliance with Executive Orders 13514 and 13423, Department of Interior and National Park Service directives, plans, and strategies such as the Green Parks Plan and the Climate Change Action Plan, and advances Goal #23 of a Call to Action.

Several significant achievements led to the Climate Friendly Parks designation at SAAN in 2013. Park fuel use was reduced by adding two propane powered trucks, an electric sedan, and an electric utility truck. Nearly half of the park’s fleet is now either propane or electric. Electric vehicle charging stations were installed at the park for NPS and visitor use. Park staff were awarded a Clean Cities grant to host a public event on alternative fueled vehicles.

Park staff used the information from a recent energy audit to further reduce park energy use, installing over 225 LED lamps throughout the park to replace incandescent bulbs. Water use was also curtailed through the installation of aerators on all faucets.

Solid waste was a third area of focus for park staff, and in 2013, park staff stopped selling any bottled water, and instead installed bottle filling stations in visitor areas. Using a single-stream recycling service and recycling all tires, wood pallets, and scrap metal allowed park staff to increase the solid waste diversion rate to 65%. New recycling containers were added to high visitor use areas and recycling efforts were expanded at special events.

The staff at SAAN demonstrate commitment to environmental stewardship and responsibility throughout all aspects of park operations. As a whole, they have worked even beyond the parks boundaries to expand environmental partnerships and community engagement. SAAN partnered with the City of San Antonio to expand the B-cycle Bike Share program to all primary visitor use areas, allowing visitors to travel by bike throughout the park and even continue on to downtown San Antonio. SAAN’s Mission San Jose bike station is now the most active B-cycle location in the city.