First Annual Rye Sustainability Committee Leadership Award Goes to…..

In recognition of Earth Week and as part of its mission to implement the Rye Sustainability Plan, the Rye Sustainability Committee created a Rye Sustainability Committee Leadership Award. This award honors individuals, organizations or the members of the business community that have made significant environmental achievements and demonstrated excellence in leadership for the health of our community and planet.

(PHOTO: Rye Sustainability Committee Leadership Award Winners.)

Four individuals and organizations were nominated to receive the award–Scott Nelson and Rye Country Day School; Christine Siller and Taro Ietaka of Rye Nature Center; Jim Boylan, Midland principal and Mark Dellicolli, Rye resident and assistant to the Chief Information Officer, Westchester County Department of Information Technology.

At the Rye City Council meeting Wednesday night, the winner of first Annual Rye Sustainability Committee Leadership Award was named… and the winner is… Christine Siller and Taro Ietaka of Rye Nature Center. Christine serves as executive director and Taro is director of conservation & land stewardship.

Here is a write-up of the four nominees and all the great work accomplished:

Scott Nelson and Rye Country Day School for consistent and generous support of the RSC/RCDS Green Screen film series. At Nelson’s direction, RCDS has partnered, promoted and underwritten the entire cost of the Green Screen program so that the general public can attend, learn about important sustainability topics, and enjoy delicious refreshments, all free of charge. In addition, the RCDS faculty has supported the Green Screen by offering course credit to students who attend. Nelson and RCDS' support of the Green Screen allows the message of sustainability to reach so many more members of the public who would otherwise not be able to learn about it.

(PHOTO: Rye Country Day School Headmaster Scott Nelson, RCDS Sustainability Head Kerry Linderoth and Science teacher Amanda Sackey are RCDS students whose designs received special recognition in the Rye Sustainability design contest.)

Christine Siller and Taro Ietaka of Rye Nature Center for their deep commitment to environmental and conservation education and their continued and generous support of RSC educational and conservation-related programs. Taro Ietaka has attended and participated in numerous events related to RSC’s healthy yard program, while Christine has supported RSC initiatives, including underwriting the production of the healthy yard signs.

Jim Boylan, Midland principal for his leadership and perseverance spearheading the Midland cafeteria composting program and inspiring other schools to follow. This waste free lunch program has reduced the Midland’s contribution to landfills by an estimated 25,000 lbs since the program started, and about 150 lbs per day is now being re-purposed or primarily composted. The program has made a substantial impact on waste reduction with the added benefit of educating students about the impact of their waste.

Mark Dellicolli, Rye resident and assistant to the Chief Information Officer, Westchester County Department of Information Technology, for his efforts to drastically decrease the energy costs of the County Data Center, which had traditionally been a huge energy drain. Dellicolli’s plan to rearrange the room where all the servers were kept decreased energy use by 10%. This was especially impressive given that the data center is 15 years old, data needs have increased drastically and most importantly it was done in lieu of expensive capital projects previously proposed. The County now has room to possibly offer local municipalities space for off premises storage for emergency purposes.