UCAIR announces honors

Retiring executive director Ted Wilson, Provo Mayor John Curtis and two organizations were honored at the Air Quality Summit sponsored by the Utah Clean Air Partnership (UCAIR). The event celebrated five years of efforts by UCAIR in improving the air quality in the state.

“We have had great success improving Utah’s air quality, but there is still a lot of work to be done,” Gov. Gary R. Herbert told those assembled. Herbert also declared Feb. 2 as “Ted Wilson Day” to honor Salt Lake’s former mayor and UCAIR executive director who is retiring at the end of February.

“Utahns can accomplish anything when we work together,” said Wilson. “The future of Utah’s air quality is in good hands, thanks to the remarkable partners UCAIR has had the pleasure of working with.”

UCAIR is a statewide clean-air partnership created to make it easier for individuals, businesses and communities to make changes to improve Utah’s air.

Curtis is commonly known as a “Green Mayor in a Red City” for his ongoing efforts on clean air and sustainability in Provo. He formed an air quality action team with the assistance of city Councilman Hal Miller and Don Jarvis of Provo Sustainability, organized a clean air tool kit available on Provo City’s website, established an air quality task force with the Utah Valley Chamber of Commerce, promoted anti-idling at local schools and funded an air quality education program for school children.

UCAIR also honored Zions Bank as the clean air Business of the Year and Utah Clean Energy as the Nonprfit Organization of the Year.

Highlights of Zions Bank’s efforts to improve Utah’s air include encouraging employees to “TravelWise,” financing projects that provide better air quality efficiency for power generation and transportation and sponsoring clean air initiatives like the Energy-Air conference and UCAIR’s Bright Sky initiatives, a competition of innovations in air quality technology.

Utah Clean Energy is a leader in approaching air quality solutions in a broad and integrated way, UCAIR said. Some of its achievements include supporting the strong movement for renewable energy through solar installations; working with power utilities to expand energy efficiency; and sponsoring an incentive programs for those purchasing electric vehicles, stimulating almost 200 electric cars now being on the road.