TCEQ announces Texas Environmental Excellence Award winners

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality is pleased to announce the 2023 Governor’s Texas Environmental Excellence Award winners.

This year’s winners include an educator working from a floating classroom that has educated more than 52,000 individuals about how to protect and improve the continuum of ecosystems. Another winner has spent more than a decade restoring a former dairy farm back to its natural Blackland Prairie.  

Additionally, other winners include a youth who has created a conservation group called “Sustainability” as a way to engage and educate youth about litter and how it impacts waterways; to a nature center designed to introduce students and families to the flora and fauna of the Lower Rio Grande Valley; and a company who relocated its main office to Texas as the state’s first LEED Certified version 4 Platinum building.

TCEQ applauds the creativity and resourcefulness of this year’s complete list of TEEA winners and finalists:

Civic/Community:

WINNER

City of Plano, Plano — Live Green Plano: Environmental Education & Community Outreach Program

FINALISTS

Texas Conservation Fund/Houston-Galveston Area Council, Houston — River, Lakes, Bay ‘N Bayous Trash Bash

Turn Compost LLC, Garland — Community Compost Subscription

Education:

WINNER

Lower Rio Grande Valley Nature Center, Weslaco — Lower Rio Grande Valley Nature Center

FINALISTS

Clean Air Force of Central Texas, Austin — Be Air Smart School Sensor Program

CEMEX Construction Materials South, LLC, New Braunfels — CEMEX Commitment to Education

Environmental Educator of the Year:

WINNER

Whitney Curry, Captain, Educator, & Executive Director, Corpus Christi — Texas Floating Classroom

FINALISTS

Adrienne Paquette, Conservation Educator, Junior Master Naturalist Founder/Chair, The Woodlands — Heartwood Chapter Texas Master Naturalist

Sandra Johnson, Ph.D., Educational Consultant, Sanger — Johnson Consulting Service

Innovative Operations/Management:

WINNER

Ascension, Austin — Environmental Impact and Sustainability

FINALISTS

City of Frisco, Frisco — Creating a Creek Assessment Management System

City of Abilene Stormwater Services, Abilene — Integrated Street Sweeping Program with Curb and Gutter Maintenance through Herbicide Spraying Treatment

Individual:

WINNER

Robert Mione, Allen — Connemara Nature Preserve

Technical/Technology:

WINNER

Texas A&M Agrilife Research, Blackland Research and Extension Center, USDA-ARS Grassland Soil and Water Research Lab, and USDA-NRCS Conservation Effects Assessment Project, Temple — Implementation of the Soil and Eater Assessment Tool and Hydrologic and Water Quality System in Texas

FINALIST

City of Lewisville, Lewisville — Lead Services

Pollution Prevention:

WINNER

Grundfos, Brookshire — Working Sustainably at the New Grundfos U.S. Main Office and Global Headquarters for Water Utility

FINALIST

Keep Pearland Beautiful, Pearland — Stella Roberts Recycling Center

Water Conservation:

WINNER

L3Harris Technologies, Greenville — Chemical Processing Wastewater Reduction

FINALISTS

Tarrant Regional Water District, Fort Worth — Learn and Grow Program

Tyson Farms, Inc., Seguin — AWS

Youth:

WINNER

Daniel Thomas, Colleyville — Sustainability

Celebrating its 30th year, the Texas Environmental Excellence Awards is an annual awards program that recognizes environmental preservation and protection achievements. Since 1993, the program has honored more than 250 successful environmental projects and activities. Through the TEEA, TCEQ hopes to encourage others to initiate like-minded projects and reinforce a spirit of environmental stewardship.