Sandians honored for sustainability efforts
GREEN TEAM — Officials from NNSA headquarters recognized Sandia’s work in reducing waste and preventing pollution with 2017 Sustainability Awards. Pictured, from left, are Nick Logothetis, NNSA Sandia Field Office; Jessica Arcidiacono, director of NNSA’s Office of Environment and Sustainability-NA-533; Sandia winners Samuel McCord of Sandia waste management, and Justin Griffin, ES&H technologist for the neutron generator organization; and Ahmad Al-Daouk, deputy associate administrator for Enterprise Stewardship, NNSA NA-53. (Photo courtesy of Infrastructure Services)
Sandia staff members garnered a pair of 2017 DOE/NNSA Sustainability Awards for their efforts to reduce waste and stop pollution stemming from the Labs’ operations.
NNSA officials presented two awards: the Life Cycle Management Award for Waste Reduction and Pollution Prevention to a team led by Justin Griffin, ES&H technologist for the neutron generator organization; and the Life Cycle Material Management Award that recognized Sam McCord of Sandia Waste Management as a Change Agent.
Members of Justin’s team included Rick Elliott and Bill Lucy.
The first award honored a green team in the neutron generator organization that looks for opportunities to make environmental and process improvements. Among their successes were a series of waste assessments on their buildings that measured the pounds of waste per person generated and identified ways to reduce waste for each building. They also developed a pilot project that replaced water coolers with built-in, bottle-refilling-capable water fountains in the same buildings, and measured the positive environmental impact and return on investment.
The NNSA award also recognized the same team for identifying, conducting pedigree research, and then safely disposing of a large inventory of obsolete classified equipment, freeing up additional classified storage, reducing nearly 3,000 classified holdings, and eliminating associated security risks. That work also captured a Sandia Environmental Management System Award.
Sam’s change agent award recognized his tireless efforts leading Labs-wide the Zero Waste 2025 program and helping to inspire organizations large and small to recycle and insititute a wide range of creative programs that cut down on the waste that Sandia sends to landfills. He also was recognized for adding computer automation to several key processes and customer communication to improve accuracy, turn-around time, and user satisfaction.