The National Pollution Prevention Roundtable (NPPR) has honored Garlock Sealing Technologies with its 2009 MVP2 Award for the Best P2 pollution prevention project. The award was presented at a special ceremony at the organization's Washington, D.C., headquarters on September 22.

The project, which eliminated use of a volatile organic compound (VOC) and hazardous air pollutant (HAP) from production of Garlock's industrial sheet gaskets, recently garnered similar awards from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Environmental Business Journal and the Rochester (NY) Business Journal.

"Obviously, being in the fluid sealing industry, our business is built on pollution prevention," said Chris Rockwell, Garlock's director of North American Environmental Services. "With that in mind, we set out to make our own operations as environmentally friendly as possible. This and other voluntary initiatives undertaken largely as part of a major plant modernization project have brought us significantly closer to achieving that objective." 

The MVP2 awards are presented in four categories: MVP2 Project/Program, for which Garlock won; Best P2 Publication; P2 Champion; and P2 Volunteer of the Year. Recognizing outstanding projects and programs, the awards are judged on the basis of innovation, measurable results, transferability, commitment, and optimization of available resources.

NPPR is the largest membership organization in the U.S. devoted solely to pollution prevention. It provides a national forum for promoting the development, implementation and evaluation of efforts to avoid, eliminate, or reduce pollution at the source. Its members comprise preeminent pollution prevention experts from regional resource centers, state and local government programs, small business assistance networks, non-profit groups, industry associations, federal agencies (including the EPA), and academia.

For more information, visit www.garlock.com.