WYOMING — Around eight years ago, Beth DeNardi, the Luzerne County director of solid waste & recycling management, came up with an idea on where to locate her office.

The location of her office had been bouncing around the county in various buildings over the years. Her idea was to renovate an old county building in Wyoming by the county airport and make it eco-friendly and energy efficient.

The renovations could include materials made with recycled content and could be funded with landfill fee revenue and environmental grants from the state. The county had been leasing use of the building to the Air Force, and the building had become vacant.

“It’s just sitting there. It’s ours. Let’s use it,” DeNardi said, calling how she pitched her plan to then-County Manager David Pedri. “He loved the idea. And then things happen, and your office gets in the middle of doing different things. I had projects that I was working on, so it just kind of didn’t go anywhere until probably about three four years ago.”

The building renovation project began in late 2022 and was completed by spring 2024. The cost was $4 million, and the county general fund was not impacted at all.

The former Air Force center is now the county operations building. DeNardi’s office is there, along with offices for road & bridge and engineering employees.

The building also has a technology-equipped media room that seats 48 for meetings. The meeting room has been used by various officials, including County Manager Romilda Crocamo, District Attorney Sam Sangeudolce, state police and DEP.

Carpeting was 100% made from recycled fishing nets. Ceiling tiles made with 76% recycled content. Countertops 23%, vinyl floors 39% and stonework 55%. Entrance floor mats are made from recycled tires.

“And all offices are complete with repurposed furniture,” Crocamo said. “There’s motion control lighting throughout the building, which help save on electricity and energy. And we have bottle saver stations that allow for personal refills, which decreases the waste on plastic bottles and it counts the number of bottles saved.”

The state Department of Environmental Protection took notice. DEP honored the project and 18 others across the state this month with the 2025 Governor’s Awards for Environmental Excellence.

“The Environmental Excellence honorees embody the innovative thinking needed to protect our environment and shape a more sustainable future here in Pennsylvania,” DEP Acting Secretary Jessica Shirley said. “These projects showcase our ability to work collaboratively to preserve and protect Pennsylvania’s natural resources.”

Crocamo and DeNardi attended a ceremony to receive the award in Harrisburg on June 10.

“This building is really her vision, and I was with her when she accepted the governor’s award for environmental excellence. It was the only award for a building,” Crocamo said. “By supporting the businesses that consciously choose items made with recycled content, we have completed the recycling loop and saved precious landfill space.”

“It was pretty cool to go down there,” DeNardi said. “There were 19 awards this year, and there was a lot for the environment. But we were the only ones that did one that took a building, brought it down to the bare bones and brought it back up again.”

DeNardi applied for the award in January.

“This building speaks of the environment, and I thought to myself, we’ll give it a shot,” DeNardi said. “What’s the worst that can happen? They say no. But I submitted it. And I thought you know what, a lot of people put a lot into this, and maybe fingers crossed, we’ll get something. And we did. It’s a great way to show people that you can use products made with recycled material, and it looks great. And it holds up. What better way to get your message across than to have somebody walk through something like this? It’s almost like proof in the pudding.”

And there’s more to come.

“We will also have artwork that will show the building in its former state and the building as it exists right now,” Crocamo said. “So this project not only educates people about environmentally responsible practices, but it also demonstrates that materials made from recycled content are as functional and durable as ones made from virgin material.”

DeNardi is planning a rain garden and pollinator garden in front of the building along Wyoming Avenue. The rain garden will include plants that help absorb and filter stormwater runoff.

“We’d like to have the plants in by the fall,” DeNardi said. “We have plans to take it to a whole new level.”

The pollinator garden will attract and support pollinators like bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds with essential resources like nectar and pollen-rich flowers.

“I want it to be an educational Walking experience for people,” DeNardi said. “I don’t want people to just walk through and go: ‘oh, there’s flowers.’ I want them to walk through and be able to read something about it and go to the next one. We would like to keep it with the theme of inside and outside, where we’re educating people on the environment. Let them know that there is a need for the butterflies and the bees and we have to keep the plants up.”