Soy Biodiesel Earns National Cemetery a White House Award
Washington, DC (ENS) - Keeping more than 90 pieces of equipment running smoothly at Michigan's Fort Custer National Cemetery, a 770-acre facility with more than 20,000 graves, is the job of mechanic Tim Trittschuh.
He has replaced petroleum-based fuel and lubricants at the cemetary with biodiesel blends and soy biobased lubricants wherever possible.
'All of the products we've used have worked as well, or better, than their non-biobased counterparts, and the equipment they are used in is performing normally,' says Trittschuh.
These efforts led to Fort Custer National Cemetery being honored with a 2007 White House Closing the Circle Award. The awards recognize outstanding achievements of federal employees and their facilities that result in positive environmental impacts.
The award has made Chuck Myers very happy. As Domestic Marketing Committee chair of the United Soybean Board, Myers said the Fort Custer Cemetary is one of seven winners and honorable mention recipients that are using biobased products, many made from soybeans, as part of their overall environmental stewardship efforts.
'It is exciting to see that soy biobased products have again contributed to the environmental achievements of winners of the Closing the Circle awards,' said Myers, a soybean farmer from Lyons, Nebraska.
The cemetery participated in a series of pilot projects using biobased products sponsored by the United Soybean Board. The cemetary was also honored with the Department of Veterans Affairs Environmental Excellence Award for Green Purchasing in April.
'Biobased products are environmentally friendly and very effective. We hope these federal successes will encourage other federal agencies as well as state, county and city governments that are looking for products that offer environmental benefits, reduce America's dependence on foreign oil and boost the U.S. economy,' Myers said.
In 1998, President Bill Clinton established the Closing the Circle Awards program by executive order.
This year, 17 winners and 13 honorable mentions were selected from nearly 200 nominations in the areas of environmental management system, pollution prevention, recycling, green product purchasing, alternative fuels, sustainable building, and electronics stewardship.
The honorees, announced on Earth Day, received their awards at a White House ceremony on Tuesday.
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