10.14.2003 ET

(CSRwire) BEDMINSTER, N.J. – Continuing its care and commitment to the environment, AT&T today announced the winners of its 2003 Champions of the Environment award.

Established to recognize employee-led projects that benefit employees’ communities and workplaces, the award was launched in 1995 on the 25th anniversary of Earth Day. AT&T selected the winners with the assistance of The Institute for Conservation Leadership, a nonprofit environmental group.

Community projects benefit and take place in the community and include at least one AT&T employee on the team. Workplace projects benefit AT&T overall and create cost savings for the company.

Each project, judged for its environmental theme or benefit, must have occurred within the past five years and demonstrate innovativeness, program effectiveness and be easily replicated.

AT&T will make a $1,000 contribution in the name of each team to a nonprofit environmental group of its choice.

The AT&T community project winners are:

• Miles Ashley, Chincoteague Island, Md., for working with other Chincoteague Refuge volunteers on completing a five-year study that determines the amount and source of marine debris appearing on the Assateague Beach in the Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge located along the Eastern Shore of Virginia.
  
• Margie Nicosia, Bellevue, Wash., and citizens of the City of Seattle, for participation in work parties and educational programs at the Pritchard Beach Wetlands and Educational Center – restoring the original wetlands area natural habitats, bringing back the former inhabitants (frogs, beavers and birds), and protecting the area while allowing the inhabitants to recreate.
  
• Al Hilbert, Cape Coral, Fla., for volunteering with the Lee County Manatee Park in Fort Myers, Fla., in which he assists visitors and student groups at the manatee viewing areas with interpretive information, enhancing visitors’ understanding of the endangered West Indian Manatee and its eco-system.
  
• Mark Schmetzer and other AT&T employees in Conyers, Ga. for using a company day to volunteer at the Charlie Elliott Wildlife Center in Mansfield, Ga. that serves as a wildlife and natural resource training center for both children and adults.

• Randy Mar, Monterey Park, Calif., for using his environment, health and safety, hazardous waste spill training to contain a battery acid spill in the parking lot of an AT&T facility.
  
• AT&T’s cross-functional energy team, consisting of representatives from AT&T Network Services, Local Network Services, Global Real Estate, Supplier Management Division, and Environment, Health and Safety, for renegotiating the scope of work for both energy management and utility management services that resulted in a 3.6 percent reduction in electricity cost and use over a period of 12 months.
  
• AT&T’s Mount Kemble property management team and other employees in Morristown, N.J. for researching and initiating the replacement of styrofoam trays to cardboard trays that are easily recycled.
  
• AT&T’s New York City Generator team for arranging to have the generators’ engines rebuilt at an AT&T New York facility that reduced smoke and particle emissions by 89%;
  
• AT&T’s Mexico City Safety Committee for reducing energy usage in the Mexico City office.

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