Hunt Valley, Maryland (10 April 2025)—Environmental Business International presented EA with multiple business achievement awards at their annual Environmental Industry Summit held earlier this month in San Diego, California. The organization provides strategic market intelligence to the environmental industry through publications, including the Environmental Business Journal® (EBJ) and the Climate Change Business Journal® (CCBJ).
“Receiving these prestigious awards from Environmental Business International underscores our unwavering commitment to addressing complex environmental challenges through innovative solutions,” said Ian MacFarlane, EA President, CEO, and Chair. “As a public benefit corporation, we remain committed to our mission of improving the quality of the environment in which we live, one project at a time®.”
Together, the publications honored EA with four Business Achievement Awards in three categories as described below:
EBJ Award for New Practice Area: Asset Management—EA’s asset management service area focuses on implementation, customization, and end-user adoption of asset management tools and principles. Many clients have initiated or are practicing asset management but need support and guidance to formalize and document their processes to ensure the success of future generations of operators. A dynamic team of EA analysts utilize a unique, holistic approach that emphasizes learning the role of each member of the client’s staff and how it fits into an existing framework to make adoption more manageable and personal to everyone. Increased adoption of asset management principles, combined with a coordinated marketing plan and strategic partnerships, has resulted in EA’s number of direct, asset management-specific clients increasing by 200 percent, including major metropolitan cities across the country.- EBJ Award for Project Merit: Pickle Pond Restoration—The Pickle Pond Restoration Project in Superior, Wisconsin, exemplifies a holistic approach to environmental remediation and habitat restoration, balancing both ecological goals with community needs and setting a precedent for future restoration projects. Under contract with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, EA worked with project stakeholders to address historical contamination from sewage and runoff, which posed health risks and degraded wildlife habitat. Challenges included dredging of over 16,500 cubic yards of contaminated sediment, improving water quality, and enhancing habitat conditions for aquatic and terrestrial species. At the same time, the project created diverse habitats, including deeper areas to improve water temperatures and dissolved oxygen levels, and emergent wetlands to divert stormwater flow.
CCBJ Award for Advancing Best Practices: Climate Vulnerability Assessments: Resilient Remediation—EA is on the leading edge of improving the resilience of remediation sites including climate vulnerability assessments. Our in-house team has provided climate-resilient remediation strategies for more than 20 sites for federal and state government clients. These projects involve coastal and inland locations covering a variety of remedial alternatives under consideration or in-place. At a near-coastal site in Long Island, New York, EA prepared remedial design documents, as well as provided construction-phase services, for a stream and lake restoration effort in a residential area to increase remedy resilience utilizing climate projections up to the year 2050. The implemented remedy included removal of nearly 50,000 cubic yards of contaminated sediments, placement of appropriately sized bank stabilization materials (including wetland plantings) to protect against projected sea level rise, possible high flow from storm surge, and stormwater runoff moving seaward.- CCBJ Award for Technology Merit: Resilient Remediation Climate Projection Assessment Tool (CPAT)—EA developed a proprietary tool for internal use in supporting clients facing environmental challenges due to climate change. CPAT enables the acquisition, visualization, and integration of climate change projections, facilitating the definition and implementation of risk management practices. Climate projections, typically designed for scientific research, require translation for business use. CPAT addresses this by navigating, obtaining and transforming large, complex publicly available climate projection data into business-relevant metrics. It provides industry-relevant metrics through a user-friendly geographic interface.
“In another year of strong growth for the environmental industry in 2024, a number of companies set themselves apart with their growth, innovation, or signature projects that merit the special recognition,” said Grant Ferrier, President and CEO of Environmental Business International and chair of the EBJ Business Achievement Award selection committee. “Pivoting with political change and overcoming the multiple challenges of inflation, supply chains, wage increases, labor shortages, and changing markets has almost become routine for the resilient leaders in the environmental industry.”
Representatives from EA, including MacFarlane; Brian Lesinski, Chief of Client Programs; Sarah Ridgway, Chief Transformation Officer; and Michael Battle, Vice Chair, attended the summit and awards receptions to accept the honors presented to EA.
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