Keep Oklahoma Beautiful presented the City of Norman the Environmental Excellence Award for local governments in Oklahoma this week.

Keep Oklahoma Beautiful was established in 1965 as a statewide nonprofit organization with a mission to encourage and facilitate grassroots efforts to improve the aesthetic, environmental and sustainable quality of life in Oklahoma.

The honor for local governments recognizes exceptional efforts in the areas of environmental improvement, beautification/landscaping and environmental education/promotion.

Norman was recognized for its accomplishments in implementing a number of provisions of the U.S. Mayor's Climate Protection Agreement.

Some of the city's accomplishments included increasing fuel efficiency of municipal fleet vehicles by using CNG and biodiesel, increasing recycling rates by introducing curbside recycling, expanding the city's compost facility and decreasing electrical usage by increasing motor efficiencies at the wastewater plant.

The city also was recognized for maintaining a healthy urban forest by promoting tree planting and planting thousands of trees, promoting healthful living and reducing fuel consumption by installing and expanding bicycle paths through out Norman.

"The extraordinary vision of our citizens combined with the hard work of city staff have brought Norman into a leadership role around environmental stewardship," Mayor Cindy Rosenthal said.

In addition to the City of Norman being recognized, the Norman community was well represented in other categories.

The Firehouse Art Center's Green Wave Project was a finalist for the community effort in large cities. Blue Thumb, which has a number of active Norman participants, won the State Government award and Lake Thunderbird State Park was a finalist in that same category.

The Sutton Avian Center, which involves a number of faculty from the University of Oklahoma College of Arts and Sciences and the Sam Noble Museum of Natural History received special recognition in the Team Builders Category.