TCEQ hosts Trade Fair and honors Environmental Excellence Awards winners at banquet

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality welcomed back more than 4,000 registrants to its Environmental Trade Fair and Conference at the Austin Convention Center, May 16-17, 2023.

Agency staff led more than 100 courses and discussions, in 14 different educational tracks, over the two days with topics including air and water permitting, oil and gas, industrial and solid waste management, compliance and enforcement, and remediation programs. The exhibit hall featured more than 300 companies, showcased TCEQ’s mobile air monitoring van and the Take Care of Texas program.

This year’s culminating event honored the Governor’s Texas Environmental Excellence Awards winners at a banquet on the evening of May 17, 2023. This annual awards program recognizes achievements in environmental preservation and protection. Celebrating its 30th year, 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.

Entries are reviewed and selected by a Blue-Ribbon Committee. This year’s 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, 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.

This year’s Educator of the Year created a floating classroom that has educated more than 52,000 individuals on bay and estuary ecosystems.

Those honored included:

Civic/Community:

WINNER

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

Pollution Prevention:

WINNER

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

Education:

WINNER

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

Youth:

WINNER

Daniel Thomas, Colleyville — Sustainability

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

Innovative Operations/Management:

WINNER

Ascension, Austin — Environmental Impact and Sustainability

Water Conservation:

WINNER

L3Harris Technologies, Greenville — Chemical Processing Wastewater Reduction

Individual:

WINNER

Robert Mione, Allen — Connemara Nature Preserve

Environmental Educator of the Year:

WINNER

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

Winners from the Take Care of Texas’ Art and Video contests were also honored at this year’s banquet and awarded prizes from Texas Chemical Council and Waste Management.

Information about the TEEA categories and videos highlighting this year’s winners can be found on the TEEA website. Information on how to apply for a future TEEA is also available.

Next year’s Environmental Trade Fair and Conference will be at the Austin Convention Center, May 14-15, 2024.