Cartersville Brewery Wins Greenie Award

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The Coosa River Basin Initiative has named four local businesses and one local government as winners of its inaugural Greenie Awards.

The awards recognize extraordinary efforts to protect and preserve natural resources in the upper Coosa River basin of northwest Georgia and northeast Alabama. Each of the winners will be recognized April 2 at the organization’s Green Gala.

Anheuser-Busch’s Cartersville Brewery will be recognized for efforts in water conservation. Though brewing beer is a water-intensive process, the Cartersville brewery has led the way in water efficiency. From 2009 to 2012 it was the lowest water user globally of Anheuser-Busch-InBev’s 129 breweries. Initiatives at the plant developed in 2013 have the potential to save an addition 40 million gallons of water annually.

The city of Lyerly will be recognized in the category of outdoor recreation. The small town in Chattooga County, which has a population of 540, secured a Recreational Trails Grant from the Georgia Department of Natural Resources and is now building a paddling trail on the Chattooga River.

The Rome law firm of McRae, Stegall, Peek, Harman, Smith and Manning will be recognized for their efforts in land protection. In addition to assisting clients with conservation easements to permanently preserve properties, the firm purchased and protected threatened ridge top property in Floyd County.

Mohawk Industries, the world’s largest flooring company based in Calhoun, will be honored for the company’s efforts in sustainability. The company converts nearly 5 billion plastic bottles each year into carpet fiber and processes about 24 million pounds of tires into outdoor welcome mats. In 2012 it initiated a zero process waste to landfill program and has since internally certified 25 of its facilities for recycling or reusing 100 percent of their process waste and sending none to landfills.

Green Carbon, Inc. will be honored in the category of innovation. Green Carbon, affiliated with Rome-based OTR Wheel Engineering, has developed its Thermal Vacuum Recover (TVR) that converts discarded tires into oil, carbon black, steel and process gas that can be recycled and used as energy sources.

The Green Gala will be held at Barnsley Gardens Resort in Adairsville. The event will include a cocktail hour, dinner, awards ceremony and silent and live auctions. Seats for the event are available at $225 are may be purchased online.

“These businesses and local governments deserve recognition for their efforts in solving environmental problems and preserving our land and water,” said CRBI Executive Director David Tucker. “CRBI is excited about initiating this tradition of recognizing the good works of citizens living in North America’s most biologically unique river basin.”

Host for the Green Gala include Jeb Arp and Luke Chaffin, Mike and Kate Barron, Joe and Cheryl Burch, Todd and Dale Carroll, Norman and Dot Fletcher, Jim and Jenny Langford, Ben and Sarah McElrath, Bob and Mary Norton, Martin Peters, Tim and Lynn Spratling, Chad and Kristi Taylor and Dee and Molly Yancey.

For more information about the organization, contact Tucker at 706-232-2724 or dtucker@coosa.org.

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