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PrintRayovac leads list of Business Sustainability Award winners
IB’s 2012 Business Sustainability Awards were presented during a lively luncheon at Wednesday’s In Business Expo and Conference, with five winners taking home top honors in six categories.
The big winner was Rayovac Hearing Aid Batteries, which won for Eco-Efficiency Initiative of the Year and Eco-Product of the Year.
Dave Young, manager of Rayovac’s Portage plant, noted the facility took measures to reduce its use of toluene, a potentially hazardous chemical, and also relit the plant with energy-efficient lights, reducing its carbon footprint by 5%.
The company also won Eco-Product of the Year for eliminating mercury from its hearing aid batteries.
“All our branded batteries sold within the United States today contain no mercury at all,” said Randy Raymond, a Rayovac vice president. “Our business has grown, customers have embraced it, we concluded a record year last year, and we just concluded a record fiscal year in our hearing aid battery group.”
Also receiving awards were:
- The Wisconsin Sustainable Business Council won the Eco-Service of the Year Award for its Green Masters Program, a statewide sustainability recognition and support program.
- Madison No Fear Dentistry won the Sustainable Small Business of the Year Award for its sustainable energy practices, including heating all its water and sourcing nearly a third of its electricity through solar roof panels.
- CBRE, Inc., won the Sustainable Large Business of the Year Award for its use of sustainability best practices on the 3.2 billion square feet of property the company manages around the world. At the luncheon, the company also unveiled its Real Green Research Challenge, which will provide $1 million over the next four years to fund research into solutions for the real estate industry’s most pressing environmental challenges.
- Former Madison Mayor Joe Sensenbrenner won the Sustainable Visionary of the Year Award, in large part for his leadership role with the Center for Resilient Cities and the Resilience Research Center, which organizers hope will ultimately claim the highest LEED certification in the northern hemisphere.
