The Virginia Environmental Excellence Program (VEEP) is a voluntary program that encourages Virginia businesses to go beyond compliance and embrace pollution prevention in their day-to-day activities. The VEEP Sustainability Partners track is designed to encourage large organizations, in both the private and public sector across Virginia, to make environmental sustainability part of their culture through leadership, innovation, and continual improvement. Organizations must demonstrate this commitment through measurable and verifiable conservation efforts, leading to direct and indirect improvements in energy usage, water usage, waste generation, and other environmental benefits.

Sustainability Partners Program Application

Applications and participation are on a calendar year basis. Data and narrative information on sustainability efforts is required. The application period for 2024 VEEP Sustainability Partners is now closed. For questions about the application refer to the VEEP Sustainability Partners Application Instructions.

Key characteristics of VEEP Sustainability Partners:

  • Aimed at organizations with a culture of sustainability and community involvement (one application per organization).
  • Encourages continual, measurable reductions.
  • No DEQ site visit.
  • Public recognition.
  • Access to VEEP Resources and Networking.
  • No regulatory incentives are provided for VEEP SP.

VEEP Sustainability Partner Summary

The summaries below describe programs the 2024 Sustainability Partners have implemented.

SP MEMBER

PROJECT HIGHLIGHT

Alexandria Renew Enterprises

AlexRenew captures and utilizes the biogas produced from their treatment process to offset demand for grid-sourced natural gas; this year they captured and used over 100 million cubic feet of biogas used for onsite heating purposes. These efforts not only lower energy consumption, but also drive down associated utility costs and GHG emissions. This helps the city adapt to a changing climate by leading planning and construction of a tunnel to capture combined sewage and stormwater, the largest infrastructure initiative in the city’s history.

City of Charlottesville

As part of its commitment to the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy (which the city joined in 2017) Charlottesville adopted its first community Climate Action Plan in January of 2023. The CAP is a strategic-level guide for reaching the City’s adopted goals of 45% GHG emissions reduction, from 2011 baseline, by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2050.

 

Fairfax County Solid Waste Management Program

 

In November 2020, the Solid Waste Management Program partnered with the Clean Fairfax Council and the Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) Oyster Shell Recycling Program to locate two oyster shell collection bins at the I-95 Landfill Complex.

Liebherr USA, Co.

As of May 2024, Liebherr has switched to only aluminum cans in the on-site vending machines and will be collecting cans for recycling. Liebherr is implementing multiple measures to improve their single stream recycling. They have distributed new recycling stations across the buildings and developed and posted signage to improve the quality of recycling on site.

Prince William County Government

In 2020, the Prince William County Board of County Supervisors adopted Climate Mitigation and Resiliency Goals:

  1. Cut greenhouse gas emissions county-wide by 2030 (50% below 2005 levels)
  2. Use 100% renewable electricity county-wide by 2035;
  3. Use 100% renewable electricity in county government operations by 2030;
  4. Become carbon neutral for county government operations by 2050; and
  5. Prepare for climate change by becoming a Climate Ready Region and progress towards becoming a Climate Resilient Region by 2030.

The 2023 Community Energy and Sustainability Master Plan presents recommendations on what actions the County government could take to contribute to the achievement of the Climate Mitigation and Resiliency Goals.
Prince William Water In 2023 the Prince William Water partnered with the Prince William Water and Soil Conservation District to adopt a segment in the Julie Metz/Neabsco Creek area under the Adopt-A-Stream program.

US Army Fort Gregg-Adams

 		Fort Gregg-Adams is working to establish a recycling yard/facility in which they can process their own recyclable materials for sales. This will allow them to capture more material overall while better mitigating contamination.

Wetland Studies and Solutions, Inc.

WSSI’s corporate headquarters office building in Gainesville, was the first facility in Virginia to be certified at the LEED Gold level. WSSI preserves natural functions by applying Low-Impact Development (LID) techniques including pervious pavement, green roof, bioswale, cisterns, living walls, gravel bed detention, and a large central rain garden. The green roof provides habitat and food for insects and birds. Model calculations show that the building uses 70% less potable water and 44% less energy than a typical office building of the same size and capacity. Approximately 21% of the building’s electricity and hot water is generated by one of Virginia’s private solar installations, and the majority of the building’s non-potable water needs are supplied by two rainwater harvesting cisterns.