Jacksonville business leader and infrastructure innovator Aaron Zahn, a national leader in the wastewater infrastructure and organic waste industry, has been named the 2015 Young Floridian by the University of Florida’s Bob Graham Center. Making the announcement, Director David Colburn said, “Aaron has applied his entrepreneurial talents to create technologies that help preserve our state’s most precious resources to help improve the quality of life in our state.”

As president and CEO of BCR Environmental and NuTerra, Zahn has counseled the U.S. EPA, World Health Organization, Florida Department of Environmental Protection, and state and local leaders on the economic and environmental impacts of innovation in wastewater and organic waste infrastructure. Under his leadership, BCR Environmental has attracted more than $20 million of corporate private equity investment in Florida and completed more than $100 million in public-private-partnerships. Over the past 10 years, the company and these partnerships have reduced the cost of wastewater sludge management for Florida’s cities by an average of 40 percent, eliminated more than 18,000 megawatts per year of energy consumption, addressed environmental issues such as nutrient pollution, and provided for the recycling of over 120,000 tons/year of organic waste. BCR is the only company in the world to work with the U.S. EPA to develop new technologies nationally certified for the treatment of organic waste into marketable products.

In October 2013, the company joined with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and Republic Services to provide compost to Clara White Mission’s White Harvest Farms project. The farming grounds were established to offer job training and creation for homeless and low-income veterans. The reusable materials provided by BCR reduced water consumption by about 16,000 gallons per acre per year and minimized nutrients and groundwater pollution. In 2015, BCR Environmental was selected by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection to receive the Environmental Excellence Award for the State.

About the Bob Graham Center Young Floridian Award
Former Governor and United States Senator Bob Graham and the Bob Graham Center for Public Service at the University of Florida have established the Bob Graham Center Florida Citizen of the Year & Young Floridian Award. The award recognizes individuals who have made substantial contributions to the state of Florida both professionally and civically. Two external panels of leading citizens select the winners.

About BCR Environmental
BCR Environmental Corporation is a U.S.-based developer of innovative, scalable, economical and environmentally advantageous wastewater treatment and conversion technologies. BCR’s patented solutions — CleanB, CleanB-AC and Neutralizer — are the first EPA-approved technologies for binding nutrients into and reducing solid mass for reuse in high-value marketable end products. Filling a centuries-old gap left by traditional technologies, BCR technologies simplify and enhance disinfection, stabilization, deodorization, and reduction of biosolid mass and organic waste. Its technologies are 50 percent more cost effective than traditional and alternative biosolids and organic waste systems. In addition, they reduce energy consumption by about 95 percent and eliminate nutrient pollution by keeping nutrients in biosolids. By reducing the facility size needed for wastewater treatment and organic waste/biosolids management, BCR technologies help eliminate the need for costly plant expansion to meet increasing demand, and allow plants to repurpose tanks for stormwater run-off and reuse, water storage and other environmentally beneficial practices. For more information, visit www.bcrenv.com, follow us on Twitter or call 904/819-9170.

About NuTerra
NuTerra designs, builds and assumes full project accountability for up to 20-year sustainable wastewater treatment/organic waste projects and biosolids management solutions that deliver municipalities on average operating savings greater than 40 percent and more than a 90 percent reduction in energy consumption. In the industry’s most collaborative public-private partnerships, NuTerra efficiently addresses capital and operating expenses, regulatory compliance, public sentiment and environmental issues (i.e. noise, odor, material handling, and carbon footprint). Its progressive project delivery method is the most cost-effective approach for addressing population growth, urban encroachment and failing infrastructure with a dramatic reduction in facility size. NuTerra reduces investment and risk by using the industry’s only certified before-and-after economic models based on real/verifiable operational and financial data, feasibility analyses, and EPA nationally approved advanced technologies. The company can also obtain financing for projects to address escalating capital requirements that are typically underfunded, and offers municipalities total waste reutilization as a source of revenue by recycling nutrients into high-value, marketable biosolid end products that address diminishing disposal outlets / landfill capacity, escalating unit costs, increasing environmental regulations and rising energy costs. For more information, call 904/819-9170.