SAN ANTONIO, Texas - The Fort Hood Directorate of Public Works Environmental Division won first place in the 2012 Keep Texas Beautiful Government Military Award category. DPW Environmental, in partnership with Fort Hood Radio and the Fort Hood Sentinel, also won first place in the Media Radio Award and Weekly Large Community Newspaper Award categories at an award ceremony here, June 28.
"The Environmental Division has many programs that focus on enhancing mission readiness and environmental excellence on the installation," Steve Burrow, chief, Environmental Programs, said. "We take advantage of opportunities to educate and engage Soldiers and their Families to take responsibility for improving their community and serving as environmental stewards."
Each year, Keep Texas Beautiful acknowledges deserving senior citizens, community groups, individuals, civic organizations, media, government entities and law enforcement officials for their commitment to litter prevention and cleanup, illegal dumping enforcement, education and publicity of environmental issues and community beautification.
"It takes everyone's involvement to work towards a greener future," Burrow said. "Soldiers like Warrant Officer Alexander Perez and Sgt. 1st Class Jessica Fuentes, from 180th Transportation Battalion, 4th Sustainment Brigade, 13th Sustainment Command (Expeditionary) are leading the way for environmental stewardship and help Fort Hood make the green Army greener."
Fuentes and Perez, along with the Fort Hood environmental staff, accepted the first place 2012 Keep Texas Beautiful Government Military Award at the Keep Texas Beautiful Conference.
Perez has been the environmental compliance officer for two units and uses his training to identify environmental compliancy issues.
"As part of environmental stewardship, it is our mission not only to ensure our chain of command is aware of possible concerns but to present the solutions," he said. "The key is to inform and involve the leadership, address discrepancies and educate others."
Fuentes and Perez both emphasized that continuous environmental education, leadership involvement and teamwork motivates their Soldiers to work toward Fort Hood's environmental goals.
"Our battalion commander, Lt. Col. Stephen Riley, makes it a point to visit all the companies' footprints on a weekly basis and actively engage Soldiers about environmental concerns and recycling," Fuentes said. "Our leadership's involvement combined with fundraisers to promote recycling and training scenarios help encourage our Soldiers to adopt a greener lifestyle choice."
Motivating each individual to play an active role is also important.
"Inspiring others to produce the best possible solution makes you a great leader," Perez said. "It helps Soldiers take pride and ownership of the environmental program and creates a competitive attitude towards our Families, our future and Fort Hood's NetZero Waste goals."
The other two honors recognize the efforts of the environmental division, Fort Hood Radio and Sentinel to enhance the community, increase environmental awareness through coordination and partnerships and protect the Texas environment.
Keep Texas Beautiful, a statewide grassroots environmental and community improvement nonprofit, strives to educate and engage Texans to take responsibility for improving their community environment. KTB and its more than 360 affiliates work with government, businesses, civic groups, and volunteers to ensure that every Texan has the opportunity to make Texas the cleanest, most beautiful state in the nation.
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