Pictured left to right: Kelly Danner, KOB Board President; Vonna Shults, Jon Hotubbee, and Tracy Horst, Director of Environmental Sustainability Going Green Team.
Sustainability Programs Recognized by Keep Oklahoma Beautiful
Choctaw Nation Going Green Team was honored in November for its various sustainability programs with an award from Keep Oklahoma Beautiful (KOB).
Choctaw Nation’s Director of Environmental Sustainability, Tracy Horst, is spearheading the Choctaw Nation Going Green Team that is working to advocate environmental practices and recycling. Most recently, the Choctaw Nation hosted its annual Labor Day Weekend Festival where the Going Green Team provided presentations on waste stream assessment and water conservation, and informational recycling displays.
“Recycling was initially promoted by having three types of cans distributed throughout this annual event for trash, for aluminum, and for paper,” said Lynn Malley, OK State University Extension Educator - Solid Waste Management. “The waste stream sorting that took place this year was one step along the way to including the composting of food scraps during this annual event.”
The Going Green Team’s project impact in clear in the materials collected and recycled at the 2014 event: 3,565 lbs of cardboard, 2,758 lbs of plastic, 1,126 lbs of aluminum, 45 lbs of tin, 86 lbs of paper totaling nearly 4 tons of materials. “We will continue to add each year. Next year we hope to add composting of excess food from vendors and cafeteria areas, while pushing recoiling still, placing even more recoiling containers and increasing awareness of where to recycle,” said Horst.
Choctaw Nation Going Green Team was announced a winner of the Government Programs State/Tribal award at KOB’s 24th annual Environmental Excellence Awards Celebration on November 20, 2014 at the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum. Over five hundred guests from across Oklahoma cheered on the evening’s winners who make up the best of Oklahoma’s environmental best.
Keep Oklahoma Beautiful is a statewide nonprofit whose mission is to empower Oklahomans to keep the state clean, enhance its natural beauty and sustain a healthy environment.
For more information on Choctaw Nation Going Green team, please contact thorst@choctawnation.com
For more information regarding the awards celebration, please visit Keep Oklahoma Beautiful