An Award-Winning Sustainability Initiative
Statewide program helps Tennessee State Parks ‘Go Green’
By Jefferey Spivey
Sustainability is a top priority for many of the nation’s parks, but passion doesn’t always translate to an impact. Park leaders are tasked with building and maintaining sustainability programs that deliver long-term results—even after initial enthusiasm wanes. It’s a difficult challenge. But the Go Green With Us initiative of Tennessee State Parks (TSP) offers a model for success.
Tennessee State Parks
The program, which won the National Association of State Park Directors’ President’s Award in 2022, takes a wide and nuanced view of green responsibilities.
“In my history with Tennessee State Parks, we’ve had sustainability programs that have come and gone,” says Mike Robertson, TSP Director of Operations. Of the program’s national recognition, and what has enabled its longevity, Robertson credits not the sustainability measures themselves, but the data collection behind them. “It was the fact that we had developed a program that had established metrics to determine our effectiveness.”
Driving that effectiveness are several moving parts, the result of a constantly evolving and responsive program. However, Go Green With Us began with a simpler goal in mind.
Bigger Than Recycling
Today, Go Green With Us is a fully comprehensive, statewide program focused on resource conservation, sustainable operations, and recycling and waste reduction. In a partnership between TSP and the Office of Sustainable Practices at the Tennessee Department of Environment & Conservation (TDEC), Go Green With Us also aims to set the standard for other park sustainability efforts across the country.
“We really want our park system to figure out what works best, implement those initiatives, track, and see where our program has gone, and then share what we’ve learned with other state systems,” says Kelsey Davis, Environmental Consultant with TDEC’s Office of Sustainable Practices and co-manager of Go Green With Us.
The program began in 2015 as a recycling initiative. Robin Peeler, TSP Area Manager and Go Green With Us Coordinator, identified a need for consistent standards throughout the state.
“I thought we’d have a bigger impact at the agency level,” Peeler says. “We just wanted to be uniform about it.”
She gathered key stakeholders into what became a steering committee for the earliest iteration of Go Green With Us. Joining the organization in 2017, Davis worked with Peeler to broaden the scope of the program. That same year, they launched a set of voluntary guidelines in nine categories:
1. Education and outreach
2. Energy efficiency
3. Green offices
4. Habitat and resource protection
5. Guest services
6. Maintenance procedures
7. Recycling and waste
8. Transportation
9. Water conservation.
“We just wanted to make sure every part of the park had some sort of sustainable training resource they could refer back to,” Davis says. This became one of the defining features of Go Green With Us—sustainability directives that touched every part of park operations.
Twenty-six of the state’s current 57 parks participated the first year, which Davis saw as a great response. She also noticed a level of friendly competition driving the participating parks to do more. In 2018, the guidelines transitioned from voluntary to mandatory, but in a way that acknowledged how hard parks leaders were working.
Across the nine categories are 100 prerequisite actions required for all parks and 215 recommended actions that be adapted as parks see fit. Each park team earns points for its completed actions and, based on end-of-year totals, achieves one of four recognition levels:
1. Bronze
2. Silver
3. Gold
4. Platinum.
In 2021, 28 parks earned Platinum status.
While the number of actions may sound like a lot, some different factors keep leaders and staff engaged. Chief among them is a passion for all things sustainable.
“If you get an engaged Go Green person or park manager, that just takes it to the next level,” Peeler says. Each park receives an annual Go Green certificate with its recognition level, which can be proudly displayed to park visitors. Peeler also states that not every prerequisite is labor-intensive. For example, TSP gift shops and camp stores stopped using plastic bags in 2018. This one-time switch required some initial work but is now part of daily operations, requiring no heavy lifting to satisfy the prerequisite.
Davis says that, among the inquiries received thus far from other state parks systems, there was strong interest in the recognition levels, specifically about how Go Green With Us adapted standards across parks of all sizes and capabilities. This consideration of fairness is part of what drives continued engagement among the state’s many leaders.
Recognition Drives Excellence
While all Tennessee State Parks have the same mission, they do so in different ways, and the recognition levels reflect that.
Within the program, the parks are divided into three tiers based on amenities, visitation, and staff. So, smaller historic parks that may have one or two staff members populate one tier; larger parks with golf courses, marinas, and restaurants sit in another. Regardless of tier, all parks must satisfy the prerequisites.
“There’s the very basic stuff, like turning off the lights, recycling, reporting leaks, repairing them immediately,” Peeler says. “A lot of that is absolutely required.”
Robertson says that participation in Go Green With Us is also factored into the performance-management process.
Based on each park’s amenities, though, the recommended actions offer unlimited potential to accumulate points toward the recognition levels.
Still, with requirements and guideline specifics aside, park leaders possess an internal drive that provides motivation.
“There is a component of pride that drives parks’ participation,” Robertson says. Achieving a high level, like Platinum, gives parks publicity within their communities and opens up opportunities to share the hard work with the visitors who either benefit from the initiatives or who can take part in their creation.
“The reward is nice,” says Regina Lowry, Park Ranger II and Go Green Contact at Platinum-certified Paris Landing State Park. “But it’s all about sustainability in the end. Whether you get an award or not, I’d still do it.”
And doing all it takes to Go Green is no easy task.
Tennessee State Parks
What It Takes To Go Green
Go Green Contacts like Lowry lead the charge at each of TSP’s 57 parks (the newest of which opened in 2022). These program representatives are typically park rangers or managers chosen at each park’s behest to ensure the appropriate level of commitment. Peeler points to long-term success at parks like Radnor Lake and Burgess Falls as proof of how far an engaged leader can obtain results.
While some tasks in the guidelines are part of daily operations, it’s the Go Green Contacts that decide exactly how they’ll meet or exceed the program’s standards. Some parks create Go Green committees with representatives from each of the parks’ operational areas, ranging from administration to maintenance. Other best practices include dedicated space in monthly meetings for Go Green updates.
“I’m constantly meeting with supervisors in different areas,” Lowry says. About the various Go Green tasks, she adds, “I want to make it doable and not [something] where they’re getting frustrated.” During the launch of new compost stations around Paris Landing, she partnered with lodge staff to solve members’ pain points. Meetings led to the use of biodegradable liners for easy collection and discarding of food scraps, and color photos of composting dos and don’ts for the kitchen staff.
Lowry has applied similar ingenuity to other Go Green tasks, like converting a park to LED and dark-sky lighting, and depositing composting jars at a park’s cabins to encourage seamless involvement from park visitors. But, even as the leader of a Platinum-level park, she’s still focused on doing more. One of her North Stars is installing a green roof, but, currently, the only eligible structure is marked for demolition.
“There’s other guidelines and activities out there that we can do to make up for that,” she says. “But it is a goal of mine.”
Beyond the dedicated reps at each park, funding is necessary to keep Go Green running. Without a designated budget, however, Davis and Peeler have had to become as creative as their rangers. Davis’ office supports various initiatives by securing grant funding, or by partnering with TSP to complete upgrades using deferred maintenance funds.
“We’re hoping, as it grows and we get more recognition, that we will be able to get some funding approved,” Davis says.
One way to demonstrate a funding need is a program’s impact, which spans far and wide.
Impact, Impact, Impact
Robertson has linked Go Green’s recent award win to its collection and use of data. In 2021 alone, TSP recovered and recycled 394 tons of material, composted 8.66 tons of food waste in just four parks, and replaced old water fixtures with low-volume alternatives in 55 parks. Zooming out, from the program’s inception through 2021, energy efficiency and water-conservation upgrades saved $1.8 million, 18,685,662 kWh, and 14,576 tons of CO2 emissions. And these are only the highlights.
Continuing a high level of impact requires constant reevaluation of a program’s standards, which happens annually. The Go Green With Us Committee gathers to assess and update guidelines, to incorporate new technology and techniques, and to keep parks relevant.
“Changing it up on them is actually a good thing because they can’t get relaxed about it,” Peeler says.
© Can Stock Photo / grafikeray
Davis also notes the committee is ready to set some larger goals now that the foundational elements are in place, including a broader 10-year sustainability plan. She and Peeler are also working to streamline the data-collection process, with a new GIS page for the parks to enter their annual reporting.
Parks systems motivated by TSP’s success have much to pull from. But the Go Green leaders stress patience and realism.
“This has taken five years to get us to where we are now,” Robertson says. “It is a continual process of review and implementing best practices and growing with the program.”
Davis suggests parks teams start with the low-hanging fruit—something simple and easy to understand, like the recycling program that launched Go Green With Us. Peeler and she also point out the importance of having passionate people at the helm, and Lowry advocates involving everyone on the team versus a single individual attempting to tackle such a large responsibility alone.
Lastly, Peeler speaks of the importance of having fun. Recognition levels inspire competition within TSP, something that keeps parks leaders pushing themselves to deliver.
Peeler’s ultimate vision for the program includes a stand-alone director and a separate Office of Sustainability. She has been drawn to Go Green With Us because of an individual passion, but she handles her program duties in addition to overseeing the parks in her jurisdiction. A full-fledged department would enable more than a single annual sustainability visit to each of the state’s parks.
However, some of the growth will unfold in unexpected ways as their progress is assessed.
“What if everybody gets Platinum?” Peeler wonders. “I don’t know—we change the points every year. So, we’ll just have to see where everybody lands. It’s a living program. And I really like that it keeps people engaged.”
Jefferey Spivey is a writer based in Urbandale, Iowa. Reach him at jeffereyspivey@gmail.com.