The New Jersey Business & Industry Association will honor ten companies with an Award for Excellence at its annual Awards for Excellence Dinner on Tuesday, October 16, at the Pines Manor in Edison. 

The Awards for Excellence program recognizes employers for creating jobs, protecting the environment, being outstanding employers, and serving their communities.

“Our Awards for Excellence winners have had a very positive impact on the lives of their employees, their communities, the environment, and New Jersey,” NJBIA President Philip Kirschner said.  “They deserve to be recognized for their outstanding work.”

The Job Creation Winners, recognized for outstanding growth, are:

• Apex Technology Group, Inc., Edison—Apex Technology is an information technology service company that has experienced tremendous growth.  In just two years, it has created over 100 new jobs in New Jersey.

• DataPipe, Inc., Jersey City—DataPipe, Inc. is an international provider of IT services for government agencies and Fortune 1000 companies.  The company’s biggest period of growth occurred between January 2006 and March 2007, when it added 54 new jobs to its New Jersey workforce.

The Environmental Quality Award winners, recognized for improving the environment, are:

• Alcoa Howmet – Dover Operations, Dover—At its Dover plant, Alcoa Howmet makes superalloys and castings for aerospace and other industries.  Thanks to their innovative recycling plan to reuse many of the byproducts of its casting and alloy operations, thousands of tons of hazardous waste have been removed from the waste stream.

• Ferreira Construction/Live Data Systems, Branchburg—Ferreira Construction’s New Jersey headquarters is the first Net Zero Electric Commercial Building in the U.S.  Using a combination of solar energy and energy efficiency, Ferreira Construction provides all the electricity needed to run its 42,000-square-foot building and still sells excess electricity back to the power grid.

• K. Hovnanian Homes, Edison—Hovnanian took on the Droyers Point site, cleaning up a 23-acre peninsula jutting into Newark Bay that was contaminated with hexavalent chromium.   The company excavated more than 21 tons of contaminated soil and put in extensive pollution-control devices to turn a fallow property into a thriving residential community.

The Outstanding Employer Award winners, recognized for superior performance in working with their employees, are:

• Enterprise Rent-A-Car, Wayne— Enterprise Rent-A-Car’s Multi-Cultural Leadership Initiative (MCLI) has one clear goal—to ensure that success for all employees is based on performance, and performance alone.  It’s a commitment to fostering a multi-cultural workforce that demonstrates diversity from top management on down.

• INTTRA Inc., Parsippany—At INTTRA, employee training is so important the company has dedicated an entire department to it.  This leading provider of e-commerce for ocean carriers, shippers and exporters, created the Organizational and People Development department and separated it from the traditional human resource responsibilities.

• KPMG LLP, Short Hills—As a leading accounting services firm, KPMG employs an extensive list of career advancement resources, and gives employees the opportunity to try out positions in its tax division to see if it meets their career needs.  The company also offers a wide variety of flexible work options, flex-time, telecommuting, compressed workweeks, and provides employees 12 hours of paid time off for community and charitable volunteering.

The Public Service Award winners, recognized for community service, are:

• Infineum USA L.P., Linden—It’s hard to imagine a charity in Union County that has not been helped by Infineum.  The company and its employees have contributed funds, held clothing and food drives, and volunteered their time to 25 separate community service programs. 

• Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital, Hamilton—As the adage goes, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.  Responding to a national epidemic of childhood obesity, Robert Wood Johnson kicked off its “Shapedown” program to identify at-risk kids and help them change their lifestyles to prevent future health problems.

An independent panel of judges reviewed the nominations, including members of the Service Corps of Retired Executives (SCORE).  Mercadien P.C., Certified Public Accountants of Princeton, verified the information supplied by the winning applicants.

The program begins at 6:00 p.m. and includes a reception, dinner, and awards presentation. Members of the media who wish to attend the program or get more information about the award recipients should contact Steve Wilson at ext 245. 

With more than 23,000 member companies, NJBIA is the largest state-level employer association in the country.