OCEAN CITY — Worcester County Tourism named the 2013 Worcester Green Award winners during the Ocean City Hotel-Motel-Restaurant Association dinner meeting April 18.
Worcester Green awards are given to area businesses and individuals dedicated to sustainable environmental practices, such as water conservation, wastewater management, alternative transportation and transit, recycling, energy conservation, on-site renewable energy production, use of local products and food sources and the purchase of renewable energy.
“We’re really pleased to see more and more nominations each year,” Worcester County Tourism Director Lisa Challenger said. “With the growing demand for green travel, there will be an increased number of businesses fostering green initiatives. I’m really proud of this program and of all the nominees and winners.”
The Ocean City Development Corporation (OCDC) was named the Worcester Green Award Community Organization. The OCDC established and manages a green building initiatives program that offers financial assistance to business owners to install new long term energy efficient products and methods within the designated OCDC target area in Downtown Ocean City.
Superfun Eco Tours was named the Worcester Green Award Business. Superfun Eco Tours advocates stewardship for wilderness areas and through community partnerships and outreach efforts promotes adventure, exploration and discovery of Assateague Island while educating participants about the complex eco-system of the Lower Shore.
Park Place Hotel, the first hotel in Ocean City to install solar panels to heat water, was named the Worcester Green Award Lodging for a second consecutive year. The hotel has grown its green initiatives from a modest office waste recycling program into a way of doing business. Since installing solar panels on their roof in 2008 to heat water, they have gone on to use compact fluorescent light bulbs throughout the hotel, placed Low E sliding glass doors and water-saving shower heads in all the guest rooms, instituted a guest trash recycling program and a towel conservation program, utilizing eco-friendly detergents and low energy washers and dryers to conserve water and power and much more.
Fish Tales of Ocean City was named the Worcester Green Award Restaurant. Fish Tales is helping to lead the way in environmentally friendly practices, including the use of solar power, water conservation practices, oil recycling and many other environmentally friendly practices.
Emily Taylor, a science teacher at Snow Hill Middle School, was named a Worcester Green Award Teacher. Taylor has demonstrated leadership in teaching others about the environment, extending a Life Science plant-unit curriculum into a social action project, implementing organic gardening to teach students about the benefits of sustainable gardening and its role in promoting healthy lifestyles.
Worcester Green is sponsored by Worcester County Tourism, Comcast, OceanCity.com, the Ocean City Hotel-Motel-Restaurant Association and Maryland Green Travel. The purpose of the program is to encourage Worcester County businesses and community leaders to engage in environmentally sustainable practices, learn more about such practices and grow their businesses at the same time.
