Cupertino - A new award has been set up to recognize local efforts to conserve water have been presented. A number of agencies, businesses, organizations and an individual received the First Annual Silicon Valley Conservation Award for their cutting-edge efforts to conserve water.
Awards spokesman Peter Drekmeier says a coalition of nonprofit groups and water distributors created the awards to highlight good conservation practices. He says those eligible for the awards came from throughout the region. The Santa Clara Valley Water District and the Bay Area Water Supply and Conservation Agency joined together to present the awards for the cities in their jurisdictions in Santa Clara County, San Mateo County and Alameda County.
Among the award winners were Santa Clara-based Applied Materials, which reduced its water usage by 16%, saving more than 40 million gallons a year and Cupertino's De Anza College which has installed waterless urinals in its bathrooms and planted native plant life on campus that requires little or no watering.
The City of San Jose Environmental Services Department was honored in the Large Government Agency/Utility category for its Water Efficient Technologies program, which provides financial incentives for conservation, which results in saving 1.6 million gallons a day.
Stanford University came up for the Large Organization category for its conservation program, which reduced daily campus use from 2.7 million to 2.3 million gallons per day.
Former Assemblymember John Laird of Santa Cruz was recognized in the Individual category.
