Award Recipients

Cul2vate

Cul2vate's dual mission, Growing Food and Growing People, makes an outstanding contribution to Tennessee's environmental stewardship and conservation efforts by fostering sustainable agricultural practices and improving access to fresh, locally grown produce. Their initiative directly benefits the environment and the community by reducing food waste, promoting sustainable farming, and offering a second chance to those looking for employment and stability. Those individuals face barriers to employment, including homelessness or leaving the justice system. Since Cul2vate’s beginning in 2015, they have grown over 200,000 pounds of fresh food annually, which equates to 170,000 meals. Cul2vate has implemented a zero-waste model, donating 100% of its harvest to food-insecure communities.

Averitt

Averitt is a leading provider of freight transportation and supply chain management services that is setting a higher standard for sustainable logistics by cutting emissions, reducing waste, and optimizing efficiency. In 2024, Averitt’s initiatives - from fuel-saving technologies to alternative energy investments - eliminated over 290 million pounds of CO2 emissions - the equivalent of taking roughly 30,000 cars off the road. Several of Averitt’s initiatives taken have been to install auxiliary power units which are a device that provides energy for functions other than propulsion saving over 18 million gallons of diesel, transtex aerodynamic trailer skirts which have cut over 256 million pounds of CO2, automatic tire inflation systems which have reduced over 12.7 million pounds of CO2, and a shift to biodiesel (B10). 

The White Pine Solar Farm

The White Pine Solar Farm is a collaborative effort among Tennessee-based Clearloop alongside Intuit Inc., and REI Co-op. In addition, it is made possible by the Tennessee Valley Authority's Dispersed Power Program and the cooperation of local power companies, including Morristown Utility Systems. The White Pine Solar Farm, located between Morristown and White Pine in Jefferson and Hamblen counties, provides 2.8 MWdc of renewable energy to the electric grid in rural East Tennessee. It also powers community workforce opportunities with a commitment to hiring local, and provides local schools with renewable energy certificates (RECs), making these among the first communities in Tennessee and the entire Southeast to power local public schools with renewable energy.

Tennessee Smart Yards

Since October 2020, over 750 yards in Tennessee have been certified as Tennessee Smart Yards, representing over 13,500 stewardship actions that are protecting our water and natural resources one yard at a time. Tennessee Smart Yards is a university-led education and yard certification program for residents and their private property. Participants learn about ecologically sound landscaping principles, then adopt a tailored set of stewardship practices in their landscape that meets their unique needs and environmental conditions. The University of Tennessee Extension (UT Extension) partners with local municipal governments and others to deliver the program statewide. The goal is to empower Tennesseans with information and resources so they can take actions to improve their land while also protecting natural capital and the environment.

Waste Management (WM)

Middle Tennessee is facing a regional solid waste crisis due to a combination of the continued growth of the region and the limited permitted landfill capacity. Construction and demolition (C&D) material makes up approximately one-third of the solid waste generated in the region. Waste Management (WM) has invested over $18 million in a state-of-the-art 52,000 square foot C&D recycling facility in Davidson County to provide a solution that has significantly increased the recycling capacity in the region to divert materials from landfilling and recover them for beneficial use. In its first year of operation, WM's C&D Recycling Facility has processed over 100,000 tons of material generated from C&D projects, creating over twenty new local jobs and recovering materials including metal, aggregate, and wood, and putting those products back into the local economy for reuse. The facility successfully recovered 56% of the 100,000 tons of material for reuse. 

Arrows Mine Site

This project is a large-scale, multi-year voluntary effort to remediate and restore a 1,485-acre site that had been used for mining and industrial purposes for a century. Through its work, the owner addressed legacy environmental contamination and enhanced the natural environment through ecological restoration. Significant environmental results from the remediation and restoration work include the reuse of 53,200 tons of aluminum slag into cement manufacturing and 118 tons of aluminum scrap recovered and recycled from the slag. Other sustainable activities at the site involve avoiding the use of 21 million gallons of water, and the avoidance of off-site trucking and landfill disposal of 53,318 tons of waste. The environmental remediation and ecological restoration work resulted in numerous environmental and community benefits. Specific results include: creation of five acres of open water and wetland areas, 2,000 trees planted, 20 acres of wildflowers planted, work on five dams, including removal of four small dams on Sugar Creek and stability evaluation and enhancements on large dam at Arrow Lake, for community safety purposes, removal and disposal of over 4,000 cubic yards of illegally dumped trash and debris, capping over 120,000 tons of phosphorus impacted soil, rock, and sediment, capping over 18,000 tons of crushed rock, slag, and debris, capping of a closed wastewater pond associated with the former chemical plant, off-site disposal of 350 tons of PCB-contaminated soil, and avoidance of off-site trucking and landfilling of 200,000 tons of impacted material. 

Ernest Howard Whitaker

Ernest Howard Whitaker has dedicated his life to soil conservation. As a boy, each spring his grandfather would bring him to a freshly plowed field on their Putnam County farm and, taking a handful of soil, would say: “Boy, take care of this here dirt, and it will take care of you.” Farming in the 1930s and during WWII meant that young boys grew up quickly, and Mr. Whitaker took a job at 14 measuring tobacco acreage before deciding to seek a life of service in the Navy. When his military dreams were dashed due to hearing loss caused by a bout of Diphtheria, he decided to seek service to the land itself, studying agriculture at Tennessee Tech and joining the Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS). In 1957, NRCS assigned Mt. Whitaker to Meigs County, and he became the youngest conservationist to serve in a district. It was here that he dreamed up his most notable contribution to NRCS: mascots Sammy Soil and Ruby Raindrop. Created in 1967 after a talking dirt clod with grass hair appeared in his dreams, these characters have been used to teach children and adults about soil conservation and where their food comes from for decades, spreading their message across the United States to all ages. They even visited the White House for Earth Day! Beyond the national reach of his educational efforts, Mr. Whitaker has been responsible for nearly six decades of projects directly benefiting Tennessee’s watersheds and farmers, including overseeing the planting of two million trees in Meigs County, the establishment of multiple watershed protection efforts, work to reduce impacts from animal waste on streams, and an unbelievable array of community engagement projects. 

Copperhill Industries, LLC.

Copperhill Industries, LLC. (CHI) has sold and removed millions of tons of iron calcine and thousands of tons of copper slag from the Davis Mill Watershed. The project developed reclaimed legacy waste areas by using innovative techniques that include ripping the planting areas and applying Class A and Class B Biosolids. These actions have resulted in land with 100 percent vegetative cover over a five-year period. The land condition improvements resulted in improved water quality in the David Mill Watershed. Before the land reclamation, all stormwater run-off required chemical treatment. The stormwater had an in-pond pH of below 4.0 standard units with high concentrations of iron and heavy metals. Since November 2020, the East Branch Storm Water Pond and the Copperhill Storm Water Pond discharges have exhibited a Reasonable Potential not to exceed the water quality standards in the Ocoee River. This marks a milestone of land and water improvements from the 1850s, with mining and ore processing in the Davis Mill Watershed. The cost to chemically treat the water from the existing stormwater ponds (now wetlands) has been eliminated.