The Environmental Excellence Award was presented to Max J. Kuney Co. of Spokane. The award recognizes the use of building practices and technologies that add to the economic vitality and environmental health of local communities.

Kuney has taken several measures to help the environment: all of the company’s project managers and superintendents have gone through extensive training to become erosion control certified with the state Department of Ecology; pile driving equipment is filled with vegetable oil instead of hydraulic oil, insuring the environment is protected in case of a leak or rupture; and anti-freeze is filtered and re-used in company vehicles, not only keeping anti-freeze out of the environment, but also saving the company money over the cost of new anti-freeze.

All used motor oil at the company is collected and returned to the main construction yard, where it is used as fuel for a clean oil burner to heat the shop. The burner heats an anti-freeze and water solution and that is circulated inside rubber hose encased in the building’s concrete floor. The company claims the shop can be heated all winter by the system.

Out on the jobsite, Kuney regularly salvages timbers, steel and lumber — or sells steel beams and piling to a recycling dealer. The same is done with all unused rebar and rebar salvaged from bridge and road demolition. Concrete left from bridge demolitions is either used as fill or ground up and reused on roadways.

On a recent project at Sea-Tac Airport, Kuney vacuumed up the water used in its concrete cutting operations — water kept dust to a minimum while the vacuum captured runoff. Fume-extractor welding equipment was also used to help with air quality. Fumes were processed through a commercial hepa-vac filtering system.