{"id":215223,"date":"2024-06-07T14:27:11","date_gmt":"2024-06-07T18:27:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=215223"},"modified":"2024-06-07T18:29:01","modified_gmt":"2024-06-07T22:29:01","slug":"greenergov-ct-awards-uconn-health-for-its-sustainability-efforts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2024\/06\/greenergov-ct-awards-uconn-health-for-its-sustainability-efforts\/","title":{"rendered":"GreenerGov CT Awards UConn Health for its Sustainability Efforts"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP), the Connecticut Office of Policy and Management (OPM), and the Department of Administrative Services (DAS) proudly hosted the annual GreenerGov CT Awards ceremony on June 6.<\/p>\n

The event celebrated the exceptional work taken on by agency staff like those at UConn Health to reduce their agencies\u2019 environmental impact and advance Connecticut\u2019s climate and sustainability goals.<\/p>\n

\"UConn
UConn Health’s Creative Child Center (UConn Health Photo\/Tina Encarnacion).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

UConn Health was honored with this year\u2019s Innovation Award, a special distinction recognizing exceptional public sector sustainability innovation. UConn Health was awarded along with its collaborators from Shelton-based\u00a0Budderfly and\u00a0Connecticut Innovations,\u00a0for leading a 12-month pilot program with the goal of achieving net zero emissions in the academic medical center\u2019s Child Care Center in Farmington.<\/p>\n

The innovative pilot program announced by Governor Ned Lamont<\/a> in February deploys a new technology developed by the company Budderfly to assist in helping the health care system and hospital achieve a net zero carbon footprint and deliver a substantial energy cost savings. The company\u2019s proprietary Ultra High Performance (UHP) heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) system will demonstrate its ability to decarbonize and deliver energy savings for government agencies and organizations.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt truly has been a team effort,\u201d applauds Eric Kruger, vice president of facilities development and operations at UConn Health, who accepted the award for UConn Health at the ceremony.<\/p>\n

The ceremony also recognized other \u201cSenior Sustainability Officers (SSOs)\u201d and initiatives implemented to reduce their agencies’ environmental impacts and make them more efficient and environmentally friendly.<\/p>\n

\"Eric
Eric Kruger of UConn Health accepting the Innovation Award on June 6 at the GreenerGov CT Awards ceremony for UConn Health’s innovative sustainability efforts (Photo by CT DEEP).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cWe are so proud of the hard work and creative solutions that staff across state agencies have deployed to reduce environmental impacts and save taxpayers\u2019 money,\u201d\u00a0DEEP Commissioner and GreenerGov Co-Chair Katie Dykes said. \u201cThis initiative demonstrates the potential projects that Connecticut residents and businesses can embrace to save money, use cleaner energy supplies, and throw away less waste.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDAS is proud to participate in this year’s GreenGov award ceremony and congratulates all award winners and nominees. In support of the Governor’s directives, our agency prioritizes ‘green’ solutions across our construction, procurement, fleet and facility management initiatives each and every day,\u201d\u00a0said\u00a0DAS Commissioner and GreenerGov Co-Chair\u00a0Michelle Gilman. \u201cWe work hand-in-hand with our partner state agencies to implement these important efforts and to create a more sustainable Connecticut for all our residents.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe recipients of these awards represent some of the finest in state government and I appreciate the thoughtful collaboration with many agencies to achieve Governor Lamont\u2019s sustainability vision,\u201d\u00a0said OPM Secretary and GreenerGov Co-Chair\u00a0Jeffrey Beckham.\u00a0\u201cTheir commitment to protecting our environment through new and innovative processes is a model for others to follow. I applaud all those who are willing to find new ways of doing things that save taxpayer money and provide for a greener state government.\u201d<\/p>\n

GreenerGov CT is a collaborative effort led by leadership at OPM, DAS, and DEEP, with SSOs from each executive branch agency leading sustainability initiatives within their departments.<\/p>\n

Governor Lamont\u2019s\u00a0<\/em>Executive Order No. 1<\/strong><\/a><\/em>, signed in 2019, called on agencies to recommit to \u2013 and expand \u2013 the state\u2019s Lead by Example program to reduce energy use, water, waste, and greenhouse gas emissions while lowering operating costs in state government facilities and operations. The governor\u2019s sweeping climate\u00a0<\/em>Executive Order No. 21-3<\/strong><\/a><\/em>\u00a0set eight new sub-targets for state agencies to meet regarding clean electricity procurement, organics and food waste diversion, electric vehicle deployment, and more.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

UConn Health has been honored with the 2024 Innovation Award from GreenerGov CT, a special distinction recognizing its exceptional public sector sustainability innovation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":98,"featured_media":215228,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1715,2387,179,2233],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[1873],"class_list":["post-215223","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community-impact","category-sustainability","category-uconn-health","category-university-news"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-09 14:55:54","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215223","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/98"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=215223"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215223\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":215247,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215223\/revisions\/215247"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/215228"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=215223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=215223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=215223"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=215223"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=215223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}