The Alliance for PE Pipe is pleased to announce that is has established a new industry award for 2017 and beyond. The Alliance has seen tremendous growth in the municipal water market over the years and continues to be impressed by municipal innovators who go against the grain and use an innovative product like HDPE pipe.
The Scoby Award will be an annual award given to a municipal staff member by the Alliance for PE Pipe in recognition of that individual’s commitment to acting upon using a more responsible approach to infrastructure renovation. In addition to employing HDPE pipe in their municipality, the individual must influence the industry in a substantive way either with their speaking about their experience, serving the industry on a committee or board or supporting the Alliance’s mission. The award is named in honor of Greg Scoby, PE who transformed the City of Palo Alto, CA into an exclusive HDPE user for water and wastewater. After many years of product use Palo Alto has now fully experienced the many operational, service and financial benefits of HDPE.
When asked about the recognition, Scoby said, “I am excited to have this industry Innovation award named after me. After years of service in ground in Palo Alto, HDPE performed as I knew it would and the city is better off for having used it both financially and operationally due to lower installed cost and increased reliability. As I follow the industry today to have my name associated with municipal leaders who recognize the benefits of HDPE is an indeed an honor.”
The Alliance’s Executive Director, Peter Dyke who has talked about Mr. Scoby’s efforts to audiences over the years said, “The Alliance is pleased to recognize the efforts of engineers and municipal leaders who take a common sense approach to implementing responsible infrastructure strategies. So, after years of working with municipalities that are tired of the same old break and fix, break and fix routine with bell and spigot pipes, we take this step today to establish an award to recognize municipal innovation in water piping systems. So often, leaders toil in obscurity and make major strides in their organization without recognition. Today that changes,” said Peter Dyke, PE Pipe Alliance Executive Director.
Dyke went on to say, “Greg Scoby epitomizes the municipal leader who recognized the benefits of HDPE and steps in with both feet to make a difference in his town. When Greg started this over two decades ago, HDPE for water use was an exception. His experience in the gas industry gave him the confidence he needed to make wise strategic choices. Today, many years later, the municipality is seeing the impact in lower operation costs, longer system life and lower installed costs. Interestingly, Greg’s work must be rubbing off because many other towns are now doing the same thing and companies like Apple, Google and Tesla all specified HDPE for their new campuses.”