Each year EBI, Inc. and its award selection committee present Business Achievement Awards in a number of categories to worthy recipients in the environmental and climate change industries. EBI has two business achievement award programs: one for Environmental Business Journal® (EBJ) and one for Climate Change Business Journal® (CCBJ).
The EBJ Technology Merit Award goes to Melissa Russo and the team leading the SCS RMC Drones with GIS program. This RMC program provides landfills and solid waste operations across North America with the technologies to optimize operations and address major challenges. As presented at the U.S. EPA’s recent Landfill Technology Workshop, SCS RMC combines sensors with SCS drone-based technologies and GIS to monitor landfill gas (LFG) emissions and detect leaks, eliminating a significant portion of the manual effort from quarterly compliance while performing operations more safely and accurately. Captured emissions data is useful for optimizing well fields, tackling odor issues, and quantifying emissions for renewable natural gas projects. The secure application enables supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA), data management, and can automate regulatory reporting needs. Aerial surface emissions monitoring collects real-time, accurate data, which is critical for operations to keep a wellfield balanced. Data collected can also visualize below-surface conditions for individual wells or well clusters in trouble areas; zoom in to inspect an individual well’s liquid levels, pump locations, surface, subsurface, and perforated piping; and detect which wells need servicing and their impact on emissions. Thermal imagery and a 360-degree camera inspect the structural integrity of landfill flare systems, and a combination of aerial and terrestrial LiDAR imagery creates Building Information Modeling, detailing the physical and functional characteristics of buildings and other assets.
The EBJ Project merit Award goes to SCS Engineers & Grow America for the Casa Ramona remediation work. Grow America and Casa Ramona won a $4.9-million Site-Specific Cleanup Grant. SCS Engineers led the grant application and is the environmental consultant implementing funded restoration efforts. Casa Ramona has served the San Bernardino, California, community for several decades as a community-based non-profit organization. Debris from fire and demolition had left lead and asbestos-containing materials on its proposed site for community services, including childcare and senior housing. With funding under the ECRG grant, SCS performed the priority cleanup activities: removal, packaging, and disposal of lead and asbestos materials and removal of possible asbestos-impacted soil following the South Coast Air Quality Management District Procedure 5. The community can reuse the site for crucial low-income senior housing and a community center. Congratulations to Cristobal Ramirez and his team.
The awards will be presented at the 2025 Environmental Industry Summit in April.
