Stewardship partners thanked for busy 2014
At a pair of year-end celebrations, Johnny Atherton, vice president of Corporate Services and Community Relations, thanked dozens of community partners that helped make 2014 a successful year for Mississippi Power’s environmental stewardship efforts.
Tuesday night at Pascagoula’s Grand Magnolia Ballroom, Atherton joined Bruce Chinn of Chevron’s Pascagoula Refinery to applaud the efforts of The Nature Conservancy, The Audubon Naturalist Society and others who worked to protect and preserve the natural resources of south Mississippi.
“We are honored to support you, your teams and the others who share your stewardship vision,” Atherton said. “One of the main ways we serve our communities, outside of providing reliable electric service, is through our environmental stewardship efforts.”
At a Wednesday luncheon, more than 50 employees and volunteers from across the company celebrated the wrap-up of the 9th year of the Renew Our Rivers campaign at the Pass Christian Yacht Club.
This year, more than 500 volunteers removed more than 14 tons of debris during the seven Renew Our Rivers cleanups across the company’s 23-county service area.
“This has grown to be much more than ‘just a Mississippi Power event,’” Atherton said. “We had three new casino partners on our annual Deer Island cleanup, we continued our great working relationships with Keep Mississippi Beautiful, the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality and others. The people of Mississippi have embraced Renew Our Rivers and they have helped make it one of the state’s premier environmental stewardship activities.”
Environmental Affairs Director Mark Loughman highlighted other stewardship efforts that thrived in 2014, such as the annual “Bring It!” event, which saw more than 700 cars drop off thousands of pounds of household hazardous waste at Plant Watson.
“We also participated in the Guardians of the Gulf event and hosted the 11th Annual Southern Company/National Fish and Wildlife Foundation’s Stewardship Partners Meeting,” Loughman said. “Environmental stewardship is about partnerships and relationships and 2014 was a great year for working with our friends in the community.”