Collegiate Times

Blacksburg won the gold medal for the governor's environmental excellence award in the Environmental Program category for the second year in a row.

The town has been honored as an "Exemplary Environmental Enterprise" by the Department of Environmental Quality since 2006 as part of the Virginia Environmental Excellence Program.

The VEEP is a voluntary program that serves as a primary agency in the state for regulating and maintaining water waste.

According to the department's Web site, "any Virginia facility that impacts the environment through its operations, activities, processes, location, etc. is eligible to participate in VEEP."

David Miles, the deputy regional director at Blue Ridge Office, says that the DEQ has three possible scores: E2 (Environmental Enterprise), E3 (Exemplary Environmental Enterprise), and E4 (Extraordinary Environmental Enterprise).       

Although various organizations, facilities, and city departments have scored up to E4, Blacksburg is the only municipality to score E3 throughout all departments, for its extensive Environmental Management Systems, a set of policies and procedures that outlines environmental goals and methods to meet them.

These systems are generally tailored specifically to departments such as Parks and Recreation and Vehicle Maintenance.

EMS successfully reduced landfill waste by 19 tons, and recycled 95.5 tons of materials in 2005. Blacksburg has also initiated an electronics recycling work group, which organized the first e-cycling event in Southwestern Virginia.

Most recently, the Environmental Protection Agency awarded Blacksburg a $95,000 grant to establish a community partnership to reduce toxic pollutants and help create a sustainable community.

Another $10,000 grant from the Virginia Department of Mines Minerals and Energy will help design an environmentally friendly nature center.

When it was initially accepted into the VEEP, Blacksburg scored the lowest rating of E2, but managed to secure the E3 for all its departments in only four years.

"Where with other local governments we've worked with will pick a department or two, you know one at a time, Blacksburg did it very comprehensively," said Sharon Baxter with the Environmental enhancement department of the DEQ.

Baxter also referred to Blacksburg as "one of the top entities in the program," explaining that the city has not only implemented its program in a comprehensive and success manner, but also explained that the city has also already taken it a step beyond that and is working towards ustainability.

Many municipalities will not bother reaching for an E4 rating because it requires a costly, external audit, Baxter said. 

Individual organizations with the rating of E4 include a Golf Club in Newport News, City of Charlottesville Department of Parks & Recreation, Volvo Trucks North America in Dublin, and Micron Technology of Manassas.