San Diego County earns green award

California Sustainability Alliance has awarded San Diego County a 2009 Sustainability Showcase Award in the category of local, large governments.

County officials will receive the award later this month in Los Angeles. Among the county programs recognized by the Alliance:

• Green Building Program—streamlines approvals and reduces fees for incorporating green features into private development.

• Synthetic turf for ball fields—saves water and maintenance costs.

• Electronic paper reduction—avoids physical transfer of files for health and legal purposes.

• Electronic flush valves in jail—new flushometers at the George Bailey Detention Facility are saving the county 31 million gallons a year, 12 percent of the water used at that site, or 4 percent of all the water used by the county.