Alexandria Renew Enterprises Wins Prestigious Clean Water Utility Award

PHILADELPHIA, PA – JULY 16, 2012 – At a ceremony held this evening at Philadelphia’s historic Franklin Institute, Alexandria Renew Enterprises was honored with the National Association of Clean Water Agencies’ Excellence in Management Platinum Recognition.

This prestigious award celebrates Alexandria Renew’s commitment to sustainable and successful programs that exemplify “dedication to excellence in utility management” and in particular, its significant efforts over the past several years to maximize efficiency in a challenging and changing budgetary and regulatory environment. Alexandria Renew Chief Executive Officer Karen Pallansch observed, “We are deeply honored that our industry colleagues have bestowed this award on our organization. We are both thankful and humbled by this recognition. More than anything, it’s a tribute to the men and women of Alexandria Renew who are committed to our interwoven vision of efficiency and sustainability in all of our operations and to better manage and Renew our region’s natural resources. They go hand-in-hand.”

Long before “sustainability” became part of the global lexicon about the need to conserve and renew precious natural resources, such as energy and fresh water, Alexandria Renew was already blazing new trails and building sustainable and cost-efficient practices into its designs and processes.

For example, for years, Alexandria Renew has used the reclaimed water it produces to operate its machinery, thereby eliminating the need for potable water. Digester gas that comes as a byproduct from the water cleaning process is used instead of expensive and non-renewable natural gas to heat the facility. Last year, it provided Alexandria Renew with 25 percent of its energy, and since the 1980s, Alexandria Renew has been providing Virginia’s farmers with an exceptional and safe natural alterative to sometimes harmful and expensive chemical fertilizers, saving them over $300 per acre.
“To us, this award is not just about the past, but also the future. It inspires us to take sustainability to the next level,” said Ms. Pallansch. “We want to build on these early successes. We want to lead the way on sustainable efforts that can benefit our community’s well-being and the fragile Chesapeake Bay watershed while at the same time providing much needed economic efficiencies. As part of our evolution into a resource recovery center, we look around us and see numerous opportunities to partner with business and industry to provide innovative solutions and real-world environmentally friendly products to help lessen their use of precious and expensive natural resources,” she observed.

Most recently, the Alexandria City Council approved the Alexandria Renew Enterprises and Carlyle Plaza development plan in the Eisenhower East area of the City that places a premium on sustainable practices. For the first time ever in the City, so-called “purple pipes” will bring safe reclaimed water directly from Alexandria Renew’s campus to the new residential and office space. The water will be used for a variety of purposes, such as to fill boilers, but also to irrigate five acres of “greenspace, ” fill water features and refresh a bio-wall, which will use vegetation as a natural filter for runoff.

The Alexandria Renew CEO concluded, “I think all of us can be inspired tonight by the words of that great scientist, inventor and statesman, Benjamin Franklin whose statue graces this impressive hall. He said, ‘Without continual growth and progress, such words as improvement, achievement and success have no meaning.’ Centuries later we too must rise to the occasion and give meaning to those words. And Alexandria Renew Enterprises has demonstrated its will to do so.”

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Posted by News Staff on Jul 17 2012. Filed under Alexandria. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.