The National Stone, Sand & Gravel Association (NSSGA) announced the recipients of its Environmental Excellence Awards and the winner of the 2023 Environmental Leadership Award.
The Excellence Awards recognize operations that actively demonstrate a commitment to the exemplary use of environmental controls and systems. NSSGA recognized a total of 10 Gold, 11 Silver and 84 Bronze winners during the first session of the association’s Legislative & Policy Forum.
“All NSSGA members are responsible environmental stewards of the land they operate on,” said NSSGA President and CEO Michael Johnson. “The environmental awards create an annual forum to showcase companies’ innovative practices within the environmental sector. Each year the bar gets set higher by the award winners and I thank each of them for their contributions in making the entire industry better.”
Additionally, Kurt Blase was recognized as the 2023 Environmental Leadership Winner. He was lauded for his career of enforcing reasonable federal standards for the industry since 1994. Blase also worked with NSSGA to mitigate unreasonable standards in the Clean Air Act. His expertise with these regulations has been vital to aggregate producers’ everyday success.
North East Quarry, Bluegrass Materials LLC, Martin Marietta was announced as the 2023 Environmental platinum winner, which is the top-scoring gold.
NSSG’s 2023 Community Relations Excellence winners, as well as its Stars of Excellence awards were also presented. The Community Relations Excellence Awards recognize producers’ achievements for their generous contributions to the community in which they operate and enhance public perception of their business, their facility and the industry.
This year, NSSGA saw an increase in the amount of award applications and recognized 10 Gold, 13 Silver and 59 Bronze winners. Reostone Quarry of Rogers Group Inc. was awarded the Platinum award.
“The Community Relations awards highlight the integral part that facilities play in their local communities,” said Johnson. “Strong community relations efforts create strong relationships at every level which allows for our member facilities to continue to succeed and thrive. It is my pleasure to recognize all our winners today.”
Additionally recognized were Hunter Stone Quarry and North East Quarry, both of Martin Marietta, as Stars of Excellence winners. This award is presented to an operation with multiple Gold Awards in Safety, Community Relations or Environmental Excellence within five years.
A complete listing of the 2023 Award winners can be found at nssga.org/awards.