2003 Green Award Winners

The Green Team, Inc is a winner of the 2003 Green Award. The Green Team, Inc 
is a strategic Environmental Consulting for facility design, construction and operations; focusing on eco-efficiency & building. Eco-efficiency improvements address energy, water, materials and labor. The only U.S. company of its kind with an ISO 14001 registered Environmental Management System (EMS).  The Green Team, Inc is committed to changing business practices, to promoting sustainable development and to educating at all levels.

The Green Team, Inc estimates the annual savings attributable to its efforts to exceed:

• 27 million in energy costs

• 420 million kWh of electricity

• 3.5 million gallons of water

• 63 million in labor costs

• 260,000+ metric tons of CO2

Projects on which Green Team consultants have consulted have received numerous awards, including: the White House Closing the Loop Award 1999; AIA Top Ten Environmental Projects 1998; Oklahoma Governor's Award for Environmental Achievement 1996; National Council of Commercial Builders Edison Award 1995; United Nations Award - Earth Summit Global Sustainability Award 1994, and AIA - Sustainable Communities Strategies and Materials 1993.

Jim Esbenshade also won a 2003 Green Award. Esbenshade moved to Oklahoma from Pennsylvania in 1974. His company, Esbenshade Incorporated, deals with the disposal of local sewer waste and the recycling of waste as a fertilizer product. He works closely with and under the guidance and permit- authorization of the Department of Environmental Quality. The company receives biodegradable, non-chemically treated sewage that is used as fertilizer on their pastureland.

Esbenshade built an aerobic digester, which processes the interface. This process has been implemented for seven years, saving the product from improper discharge into streams and rivers, which were former forms of disposal used by some organizations. A trip to Germany in the fall of 2002 provided Esbenshade with key inspiration and ideas of future environmental processes.  One of the inspirations the Germany trip gave him is controlling the odor of the aerobic digester. At the site of his aerobic digester, 200 cedar trees have been transplanted, forming a deodorizing shield about the digester. These Oklahoma cedar trees considered by many to be a curse, are prime tools in this de-odorizing, environmentally natural plan.  Esbenshade is also active in terracing his fields as well as no-till drilling. He has built 11 erosion damns across his 1,222 acre farm/ranch, and has measured 18 miles of terraces.  

His farm/ranch has not purchased commercial fertilizer since 1997. The tractor running feed grinder runs on his first experimentations with bio-diesel. In Germany, he learned that 68% of their fuel from recycled "waste" such as sewer waste and restaurant grease waste. His goal is to simulate this super-clean, environmental thinking in Oklahoma.

Another area of interest to Esbenshade is water recycling. He receives 3 million gallons of dirty water per year, and those gallons are cleaned at his ranch. The cleaning process entails reintegrating that water with its environment in safe procedures approved by the Department of Environmental Equality. The products of sewers, restaurants, feed processors and food processors are not ending up in a land fill, but found to be broken down and reintegrated in bio-degradable means.  Finally, Esbenshade understands the value of teaching others about his sustainability practices. He is heavily involved with both 4-H and FFA chapters in Oklahoma teaching younger generations of the importance of respect for the environment because the knowledge and practice of environmentally-sustaining ideas is of no use if not passed on and practiced repeatedly. As his methods prove to be effective, profitable and sustainable, Esbenshade’s innovations are catching the attention of people in Oklahoma, the US and internationally.