The Charleston Metro Chamber of Commerce honored 14 dynamic businesses and industries that make up the Charleston region’s economy and best reflect the vision, mission and core values of the Chamber through the new awards program called the 1773 Chamber Awards. The winners were announced at the 1773 Awards Luncheon.
The 1773 Award is named for the year of the Chamber’s establishment. Awards were given to organizations that best reflect the core values of the chamber; leadership, relevance, integrity, diversity and innovation.
Winners from the 14 categories include:
Construction/Real Estate: The Daniel Island Company has become a nationally recognized leader within their industry and has received the Award for excellence from the Urban Land Institute along with the Best in American Living Award from the National Association of Home Builders.
 
Educational Services: The Lowcountry Graduate Center is working to add graduate programs that will have the greatest impact on the economic development of the region. They work cooperatively with all of the states major educational institutions, which is an innovative approach to providing advanced degrees. Their innovation, diversity and leadership efforts have lead to the recent creation of eight new graduate programs.

Finance/Insurance: Prudential Financial has always been at the forefront of promoting diversity. The cornerstone of their diversity strategy is based on identifying and building strategic relationships that support their recruiting and marketing business objectives.
 
Healthcare: Medical University of South Carolina values innovation and advancement of knowledge in all of their efforts. They encourage faculty to be on the leading edge of developments in their respective fields. Through their leadership in education, research, and clinical care they consistently introduce these emerging technologies for broader application, including across professional boundaries.  

Hospitality/Tourism: The Sanctuary at Kiawah is the first property in North America to have a Mobil five star hotel and a golf course rated five stars by Golf Digest.

Manufacturing/Processing: Alcoa-Mt Holly’s goal is to work in an inclusive environment that embraces change, new ideas, respect for the individual and equal opportunity to succeed.
 
Professional: CRG Engineering has a new state of the art Web site which provides detailed information on their staff, projects, and provides the means for visitors to send them information or forward their information to others. They support causes such as Habitat for Humanity, The Charleston Miracle League, The Muscular Dystrophy Association and various school and youth athletic organizations.
 
Scientific/Technical
Services: Johnson Controls is an area leader in supplier diversity development. They have teamed with MUSC and the City of Charleston to identify qualified minority business enterprises in the area to bid on projects for those organizations. Their effort resulted in 34 percent Minority Business Enterprise (MBE) participation in a nine million dollar contract with the city. They take the steps necessary to make sure MBEs have an equal opportunity for all of the projects they are involved with.
 
Retail/Wholesale: Half-Moon Outfitters has recently completed what might be the “greenest” renovation in the country. In what once was an old Piggly Wiggly and more recently a transmission shop, they created a corporate office and warehouse that has just been awarded the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Platinum award. The building joins a small group of restaurants and small businesses that are breathing new life into the Park Circle area.

Transportation/Warehousing: Absolutely Charleston originated in 1996 as a small tour operator with a few small vans and one tour guide. It grew and was acquired by its current owners in 2000. Shortly after taking the reigns, the tragedy of Sept. 11 occurred causing 100 percent of the company’s business to come to a halt. Innovatively re-inventing the business, it became a specialty transportation provider focusing on group convention shuttles and wedding transportation. It has grown into a business that has working relationships with every major hotel and destination resort in the area and manages the transportation for every major cruise line calling at the Port of Charleston.

Public/NonProfit: Santee Cooper has operating reliability rates that remain an industry gold standard. They have also been ranked first by the South Carolina Human Affairs Commission among larger state agencies for efforts to recruit and retain a diverse workforce. This firm was the first utility in South Carolina to offer energy efficiency home programs and was the first to generate and sell renewable green power.
Sustainability: Liollio Architecture was founded in 1956 and has maintained their headquarters in Charleston while serving the Southeast. They recently had the honor of designing the first LEED Certified facility in the Lowcountry - the Edisto State Park Education Center.
 
Communications: Chernoff Newman pride themselves on communicating based on sound strategic thinking with the goal of achieving clear, real world objectives. Each and every communication they issue is intended to have a profound influence on those to whom it is directed.
 
Small Business: Chamber Area Business Councils (ABC) recognize a local small business each month. Accuscribe Transcription Services was selected from this group as the ABC Small Business of the Year. Accuscribe has been the leader in not only quality medical documentation for more than a decade, but also by empowering the future leaders that work for Accuscribe.