On June 26, Cedar Grove was honored with a Green Apple award in the category of ‘business and school partnership’ by E3 Washington for its strategic and innovative partnerships with schools.

The 2014 E3 Washington Green Apple Awards recognize individuals, organizations, and programs that exemplify the E3 Washington Lead Green Goal.

The Lead Green goal states that every place in the natural and built environments should be platforms for powerful, interdisciplinary, real-world environmental and sustainability learning.  Cedar Grove was specifically recognized for the Seeds for Scholars and for its organics recycling summit programs that exemplify the Lead Green,

Seeds for Scholars is a college scholarship offered in four school districts surrounding its facilities, including Tahoma.

The organics recycling summits are educational programs which address the training needs of school, city and county organics recycling programs. Cedar Grove staff worked with educators and trainers in the school environment to determine the educational needs for schools and created a new, train the trainers model for organics recycling education.

“As Cedar Grove reaches each day to serve our customers and the communities we serve in innovative and strategic ways, these programs exemplify the organic nature of those partnerships,” Karen Dawson, director of community relations, said in a press release. “We work intimately with schools and work together to identify solutions and create new models for success. Whether by providing a paid internship to a local student through our Seeds for Scholars program or teaching a school’s custodial staff about how their school’s organic streams are recycled, we are honored to provide new ways for students and staff to learn and become engaged in the process.”