FORT LAUDERDALE—Valley Forge Fabrics, a leader in sustainable textiles, was honored as a finalist by the Natural Resources Committee of Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce as it hosted its first annual Sustainable South Florida Awards. The Green Business Award honors a South Florida business that provides a superior product, service, or innovation that enables others to practice sustainable and green efforts. The award also recognizes new processes or ways of doing business with a significant environmental benefit. There were over 100 nominees in the first annual Sustainable South Florida Awards and 31 in the Green Business category including giants with well-known and established green programs such as Walmart, UPS and Waste Management. The other two finalists were Atlas Paper Mills and Royal Caribbean. Royal Caribbean took top honors in the Green Business category.
The Sustainable South Florida awards program was presided over by NBC’s Jeff Burnside. Jeff also came to the event with breaking news and announced the Society of Environmental Journalists will host their 2011 conference in Miami. Jeff presented the Green Visionary Award to Major Manny Diaz of the City of Miami for his extraordinary green leadership and the multitude of programs the mayor has brought to the city since 2001.
The other awards presented during last Thursday’s ceremony were Green Building, Green Education & Outreach, and Green Practices. These awards honor South Florida businesses or organizations that are making an impact in the community with the development of sustainable practices, products or services. The award nominees were judged by Tim Center, vice president of sustainability initiatives for the Collins Center for Public Policy; Jose K. Fuentes, South Florida director for The WREN Group; Elizabeth J. Heider, senior vice president of Skanska USA Building, Inc.; James F. Murley, assistant dean of FAU’s College of Architecture, Urban and Public Affairs; Devesh Nirmul, program manager for Miami-Dade County’s Office of Sustainability; Estrellita S.Sibila, of Weiss, Serota, Helfman, Pastoriza, Cole & Boniske, P.L.; and Yalmaz Siddiqui, environmental advisor for Office Depot, Inc.
Valley Forge was named a finalist in large part to the impact the company has on the lodging industry in South Florida—both because Valley Forge affects hotels worldwide and calls South Florida home. Valley Forge is the largest textile producer in the world and developed the FRESH program which is an acronym for Fabrics Redefining Environmental Standards for Hospitality. The company produces textiles made from 100 percent post consumer recycled polyester for upholstery and drapery and early this year introduced the LIVING FRESH Bedding Collection made from Tencel+Plus Lyocell Eucalyptus fiber. Tencel+Plus Lyocell is the only fiber from Eucalyptus engineered for hospitality.
Valley Forge was also a finalist because they are the only company offering their hotel customers a reclamation program to pick up FRESH fabrics at the end of their life. Valley Forge will arrange the pickup from the hotel’s loading dock allowing the property to avoid shipping the discarded fabrics to landfills and thus saving thousands of dollars of disposal fees in addition to easing the load on landfills.
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