SCSers are excited to celebrate our clients who continue to make great strides toward sustainability this Earth Day. As one of the nation’s top environmental consulting and construction firms, SCS Engineers has been dedicated to helping companies develop sustainable solutions that balance today’s financial, environmental, and bureaucratic challenges since its founding a few weeks before the very first Earth Day in 1970. Below, we’ll share a few examples of how our team and clients are making eco-friendly and sustainable impacts.
Chris Jimieson, PE, a project manager in our Madison, Wisconsin office, is sharing his story with our SCS Young Professionals across the U.S. He’s describing his journey from a dedicated and concerned parent observing recyclables being landfilled, to teaching and engaging students, and now to developing policy around district recycling in the Madison Metropolitan School District. It’s a win-win for Madison and our Young Professionals!
The City of San Diego implements a waste reduction program that funnels unsold grocery store inventory to non-profit food programs for distribution to the community. In addition to directly benefiting the people of San Diego, this program resulted in a significant decrease in food waste in local landfills, thereby increasing the lifespan of those landfills and reducing the cost of that utility over time.
A power company using coal (many still do as they transition to renewable energy sources) has taken several eco-friendly steps, optimizing the sustainability of both the plant and the company. They’re now desulfurizing flue gas, preventing air pollution and creating a by-product to make gypsum. And fly ash, another by-product of creating energy, is now being sold to concrete companies for reuse. Wastewater is pretreated for safety and chemical characterization during the permitting process, and regular sampling during operations ensures fluids are non-hazardous and unchanged. These modifications have allowed them to provide energy at a reasonable cost, qualify for government incentives offered to companies that employ green practices, and protect health and human life. That’s sustainability!
Technology is impacting the waste management industry in amazing ways, too. Drones with sensors can fly over a landfill, detecting methane leaks and allowing technicians to visualize below-the-surface conditions. The result is safer, faster, and more efficient landfill operations. Captured methane is turned into Renewable Natural Gas as a clean-burning energy or fuel source. Special sensors and automation can remove organic waste reused as by-products to create compost. Plastics, paper, and cardboard become new products. The use of technologies significantly cuts the amount of greenhouse gases that once went airborne after being buried in a landfill. All you need to do is recycle!
Finally, we’re also excited to be joining an array of Earth Day 2025 community events nationwide and globally – you can too! Find an event close to you here!
Together with our clients, SCS Engineers remains committed to advancing sustainable practices that make a meaningful difference. This Earth Day, and every day, we celebrate progress, partnership, and the promise of a greener future.
Over the past 55 years, SCS Engineers has established a leadership role in comprehensive solid waste management and environmental services, which would not have been possible without the support of our municipal clients and industry. There were fewer than a handful of engineering firms specializing in environmental consulting when SCS was founded in 1970.
Today, the firm supports a wide range of environmental solutions in different industries and business sectors. Fifty-five years ago, no one could have imagined using drones and satellites to collect information for landfill operations or utilizing carbon sequestration in an environmentally safe manner. CEO Doug Doerr says:
Our greatest reward is client satisfaction. Thanks to you, our clients, SCS Engineers has received numerous awards and industry recognition for its research achievements and technological innovations, which protect human health and the environment while enhancing operational efficiency. We take pride in operating and maintaining critical environmental infrastructure that the public and businesses depend on. Our employee-owners know how to solve problems and, drawing on our deep bench of engineers, scientists, and consultants, move forward as a team.
SCS’s business model features regional and satellite offices situated near client sites, with mobile offices co-located on project sites. “The model has always worked well for us,” President Curtis Jang recently stated. “Our professionals and technicians live nearby; our distributed network means we are nearby project sites instead of flying, or working online.”
“We’re proud of the care and contributions by our colleagues over the years, and now,” states Eddy Smith, COO. “That sense of responsibility and ownership, along with SCS’s camaraderie and high-quality results, brings our clients back.”
The environmental consulting firm started as a partnership between Bob Stearns, Tom Conrad, and Curt Schmidt on April 1, 1970, in Long Beach, California. The three engineers knew and respected each other’s strengths and capabilities: Stearns was an expert in solid waste, Schmidt was a water and wastewater engineer, and Conrad was a jack-of-all-trades with experience in civil engineering, solid waste, water and wastewater.
By the late 80’s, SCS Engineers had created new specialty practices, under the name SCS Field Services, to perform landfill and landfill gas system construction, operations, monitoring, and maintenance. The firm was proud to offer comprehensive services, but it knew from its experience that each landfill and solid waste operation is unique. SCS OM&M now operates 27,500 LFG extraction wells and supports over 650 landfills across the nation. SCS Field Services Construction is a Class A – General Engineering Contractor with Hazardous Materials Certification. SCS believes that by overlapping design, construction, and operational activities, it has led to the innovations listed as SCS Firsts on their website and saved their clients money.
In 1986, the firm also made a significant and strategic decision to create an employee stock ownership plan. Chairman Jim Walsh explains, “As an ESOP company, our employees own shares in SCS Engineers and all its practices. We felt that ownership inspires better performance and that our staff deserve control in the decision-making and direction of the company. It has proven to be a successful business model for the firm.”
Combining SCS’s expertise in solid waste management, landfills, and regulatory compliance, SCS Energy was created in 2001 to focus on the design and design-build of landfill gas-to-energy (LFGE) systems. SCS now has one of the longest and most successful biogas practices in the United States, primarily in Renewable Natural Gas. SCS designs, constructs, and operates more RNG, LDFE, and DGE facilities than any other environmental engineering firm in the nation.
Growing and expanding its environmental expertise to serve other industries and sectors, SCS draws on specialized practices to continue to support a growing number of public and private clients under the SCS Engineers umbrella.
SCS Field Services® Construction | SCS Field Services® OM&M
SCS Energy® | SCS Tracer Environmental® | SCS Technology Services®
SCS Management Services®
SCS continues to develop technologies and programs that help clients lower their operating costs and reduce their environmental impact. The technologies and applications used in landfills have found applications in agriculture, heavy industry, manufacturing, and municipal settings. These advances enable the development of more efficient infrastructure and processes, supporting companies in their transition to renewable energy resources while maintaining sustainable practices and minimizing additional expenses for consumers.
SCS clients entrust the firm with managing more than 40 million metric tons of anthropogenic CO2e greenhouse gases annually. The firm collects and beneficially uses or destroys enough methane to offset greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from more than 8.7 million passenger cars annually. These figures do not include the significant emission reductions achieved through carbon sequestration, waste diversion, recycling, and repurposing waste into useful products, such as Renewable Natural Gas, compost, or supporting municipal programs that donate perfectly edible food to those in need.
“We attribute our success to our loyal clients who entrust us to address the complexities of environmental challenges,” says Nathan Hamm, CSO. “We are proud of our employee-owners who create the technologies, practices, and systems that make a sustainable, positive impact while being economically feasible.”
Over the years, SCS expanded and hired many talented people. They guide the firm, maintaining the founders’ focus on adopting their clients’ environmental challenges as their own and fostering a culture of success for employees by sharing equity ownership. The firm helps clients minimize waste and pollution while providing GHG-lowering carbon capture, monitoring, control, and accounting solutions, as well as sequestration solutions, with a proven ability to mitigate and remediate air, water, and soil pollution.
“SCS’s culture attracts professionals with diverse expertise, enabling the firm to grow organically. It is on track to reach nearly 1,400 employees this year and has achieved year-over-year record-breaking revenues,” says CPO Stacey Dolden. SCS’s core capabilities include solid and hazardous waste management, renewable energy, remediation, and environmental compliance and sustainability, aimed at reducing or preventing GHG emissions. Over the last two decades, the demand for SCS expertise has expanded into various areas, including remote monitoring and control technology, wastewater and water reuse, composting, sustainable materials management, industrial health and safety, and risk management planning. The firm maintains a deep technical bench, a wide range of industry experts, and extensive knowledge of federal, state, and local environmental regulatory systems, which enables clients to shorten project timelines, control costs, and meet evolving regulations.
Earth Day is also celebrating its 55th Anniversary this year – the first Earth Day took place just a few weeks after the start of SCS. We’ll be at Earth Day events around the country serving hundreds of communities, charities, and associations. We hope to see you there! SCS Engineers remains passionate about continuing to provide superior client service and solving the environmental challenges of the 21st Century.
Click to find an Earth Day event near you.
Take Action:
Play with ReFED’s interactive, fun, and educational tool!
Earth Day is a great time to remind you that food waste reduction is a top climate change strategy! As you’ll see in this addicting, educational, and fun ReFED tool – everyone helps make a difference. Every small change citizens and businesses make has a major impact on our planet’s health and well-being. Try it out and see how we are building solutions to reduce the 91 million tons of surplus food annually in the U.S.
The ReFED Insights Engine offers the most comprehensive examination of food waste in the United States by incorporating current data from a variety of sources, including public and proprietary datasets, expert interviews, case studies, and industry research. This powerful engine has several components, including:
Food Waste Monitor – A centralized repository of information built with data from more than 50 public and proprietary datasets and providing granular estimates of how much food goes uneaten in the U.S., why it’s happening, and where it goes.
Solutions Database – A stakeholder-specific, comprehensive cost-benefit analysis of 40+ food waste reduction solutions based on a range of impact goals, plus detailed fact sheets on each.
Impact Calculator – An interactive resource that quantifies the greenhouse gas emissions reduction, water savings, and donated meal recovery potential of different food surplus management scenarios in the U.S. by sector and food type.
Capital Tracker – A dashboard to monitor the flow of capital into food waste innovation, allowing users to understand the landscape, identify key players, and plan out future funding strategies.
Use a reusable water bottle, drinking straws, and shopping bags.
Around 380 million metric tons of plastic are being produced yearly; that’s roughly the same as the entire weight of humanity. Approximately 91% of plastic is not recycled. Roughly half of our global annual plastic production is destined for a single-use product.
The average per person use is astounding; some can take 1,000 years to disintegrate.
Think of the money you’ll save along with planet Earth!
These kids are among the more than 1,200 students and their families who took the pledge to recycle right at the 10th Annual Earth Day Event celebration hosted by Waste Management at Monarch Hill Renewable Energy Park. SCS Engineers professionals contributed their support and know-how to celebrate and educate at the environmental event.
For the past decade, the event has offered students hands-on recycling, renewable energy and environmental-related activities. One of the most popular activities at the anniversary celebration was a wind machine in which students hilariously tried to catch swirling “hurricane debris.” The most recent storm, Hurricane Irma, added 660,000 tons of debris into the landfill in just four months. Experts explained other inner workings of the Renewable Energy Park such as how landfill gas becomes electricity and “clean” renewable energy.
The day’s activities included stations where students target what can’t be recycled in a bow and suction cup arrow game; don WM vests and hardhats beside the CNG truck which reduces greenhouse gas emissions, make a landfill out of candy before taking a bus tour of the real landfill and use recycled materials to make art with Young at Art and musical instruments with the South Florida Junior Chamber Ensemble.
Proving that being good to the environment is a winning strategy, Miami Dolphins’ former wide receiver O.J. McDuffie and former cornerback Patrick Surtain were on hand to sign autographs and take photos, many of which were shared on social media at #greenbroward, a local initiative in Broward County by Waste Management designed to engage and educate the community on sustainability efforts.
As part of the Earth Day festivities, Waste Management also awarded funds to all participating schools. The Dumpster Art Contest featured the handiwork of 14 schools that all took home gift cards to Michaels for future art projects.
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