PHILADELPHIA — CARDONE Industries today announced the company has received a prestigious award for a storm water management and mitigation solution implemented at its 60-acre headquarters in Northeast Philadelphia. The “Watershed Corporate Steward” honor was presented by the Tookany/Tacony-Frankford (TTF) Watershed Partnership as part of their annual Milestones Award Ceremony and Gala, honoring outstanding people, organizations, public agencies and companies that are improving and protecting the TTF watershed.
“We are both honored and humbled to accept this award amongst so many other outstanding advocates for protecting our watershed,” said George Zauflik, senior vice president of CARDONE Industries. “Our commitment to our employees does not end with the physical health of individuals, but goes well beyond to ensure our surrounding environment does not feel the impact of our work. We would like to thank the TTF Watershed Partnership for this honor, as well as all those individuals whose hard work made this project a reality.”
CARDONE was awarded the Corporate Steward Award for the company’s work to mitigate stormwater runoff at its facilities. In 2013, CARDONE was the recipient of a grant from the Philadelphia Water Department to construct a comprehensive stormwater management system at its Northeast Philadelphia headquarters. The 60-acre facility is primarily covered with impervious surfaces such as concrete, asphalt and cement buildings. These surfaces do very little to capture stormwater during a rain storm and, in many cases, further pollute the environment by carrying trash and contaminates into functioning stormwater systems that empty into local watersheds.
In order to address this problem, CARDONE replaced much of the existing landscape (more than 2.6 million square feet) with porous materials that allow water to pass through to the underlying soil for proper groundwater cleaning. The stormwater system can handle up to 1.38 inches of stormwater per storm and can store approximately 5 million gallons of excess water on site, which is incrementally released back into the local ecosystem to avoid overwhelming the surrounding stormwater infrastructure.
