Salt River Project recognized the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community as one of its 2022 Champions of Sustainability on Tuesday, November 2, during an awards ceremony at the Hyatt Regency Scottsdale. The Community was honored along with 18 other businesses and organizations across Arizona that participate in SRP’s Business Solutions program and lead the change in sustainability and innovation. The event highlighted SRP’s 2035 Sustainability Goals related to energy efficiency, demand response, transportation electrification and electric technologies initiatives. 

The Community received an award in the Growing Sustainable Communities category for its installation of 17 new Level 2 Electric Vehicle Chargers and the electrification of many of its vehicle assets. It’s a move that brings both financial and environmental savings the Community. The Community completed SRP’s Electric Vehicle Charging and Fleet Assessment to convert 683 vehicles to electric and even rescued a van destined for the landfill by converting it from a combustion engine to electric power. The Community also has installed electric charging infrastructure to keep electric golf carts, trucks, forklifts, and even a school bus, charged and ready for use. 

“We’ve recently opened up a new state-of-the-art ambulatory care facility called the River People Health Center,” said SRPMIC Assistant Community Manager Doran Dalton as he accepted the award. “The facility not only provides much-needed healthcare to our Community and to other Indigenous people, but it also emphasizes our commitment to being stewards of this planet by taking steps toward a sustainable and resilient future with the use of solar power, the availability of electric vehicle charging stations and our commitment to creating an electric vehicle program. We hope to continue that effort in building a more sustainable Community.” 

Dalton continued, “These efforts, of course, are not possible without the dedication and hard work of our leadership and staff, some of whom are in attendance today, and I want to thank them. And like most accomplishments and successes, we can’t do this alone, so we want to thank SRP for being a partner in this. We’re proud and happy to have that partnership with an organization because we have a common goal, and that’s service to our communities. We hope to continue to pave the way as leaders and influencers not only in the state of Arizona, but across all of Indian Country.”