Contact: Amy Sprinkles Phone 972-237-8140 E-mail [email protected]

City of Grand Prairie Recognized for Educating, Motivating North Texans to Make Clean Air Choices Integrated, innovative communications make the most of resources

As North faced one of the toughest ozone seasons in recent years, students provided fresh perspective on air quality issues and clean air choices thanks to the city of Grand Prairie, recently honored with the highest award possible from the Air North Texas campaign.

Named Partner of the Year, air quality was the focus of the city of Grand Prairie’s annual art contest open to elementary and middle school students. Winning entries were announced and displayed May 21 at Grand Prairie Mayfest. The city of Grand Prairie was honored for work educating students, teachers and residents about clean air choices through the art contest, publications, web content and events.

The University of Texas at Arlington won the Outstanding Achievement in Advertising Award. Staff in the Office of Sustainability encourage environmental stewardship among faculty, staff and students. Information about Air North Texas, the regional clean air public awareness campaign, was included in campus communications and used in the classroom as students wrote, filmed and produced 30- second public service announcements about air quality, including one in Spanish.

As one of the PSAs highlights, most of the ozone-causing pollution comes from vehicles on the road; therefore, the Texas Department of Transportation and Fort Worth districts are especially important partners in overall efforts to improve air quality. Staff in the Dallas District made sure the more than 900 employees working in the seven-county TxDOT district knew about air pollution watches and warnings and clean air choices. Also, students and residents who toured DalTrans, the Dallas Traffic Management Center, received Air North Texas educational items. For these efforts, the TxDOT Dallas District received the Outstanding Achievement in Outreach Award.

Finally, one of the strengths of the Air North Texas campaign is integrated, consistent messaging across mediums. City of Plano staff effectively used social media to generate excitement and support their Clean Air Action Day, earning them the Outstanding Achievement in Initiative Award. Live Green in Plano volunteers learned about clean air choices during a summer training session.

Air North Texas includes 20 partners committed to educating the public about air quality and motivating them to do something for clean air, and it is coordinated through the North Council of Governments (NCTCOG). The award committee, composed of NCTCOG staff and previous Air North Texas award recipients, chose the Partner of the Year and outstanding work to recognize based on criteria in the Air North Texas Partner Agreement and information provided by each partner who submitted an annual progress report.

The cities of Grand Prairie and Plano, UTA and TxDOT Dallas District were recognized at the Regional Transportation Council meeting Nov. 10 when NCTCOG staff announced the Air North Texas awards.

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Air North Texas is one of many strategies in place to improve air quality. It is believed air quality this summer would have been substantially worse without projects and programs aimed at improving Dallas-Fort Worth air quality. Record-breaking heat combined with low winds this summer contributed to a significant increase in the number of high-ozone days. With more than 70 days at or above 100 degrees, unusually extreme heat resulted in an atypical ozone season, following several years of steady improvement.

When residents take transit, carpool, work from home, combine errands, walk or bicycle, eliminate idling, maintain their vehicles and incorporate other clean air actions into daily routines it adds up and means less ozone-forming pollution. The result is better air and healthier communities.

About Air North Texas: The city of Grand Prairie is one of several organizations involved with Air North Texas, a regional air quality partnership and general public outreach effort. Air North Texas leverages existing resources and program strengths to offer the public a comprehensive resource for air quality information. Collaborative efforts focus on reducing harmful emissions, protecting public health and welfare, motivating residents to make choices that improve air quality and preserving the economic vitality in the region. Visit www.airnorthtexas.org to learn more.

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