Go Green With Us

Go Green With Us to protect and preserve our State Parks through resource conservation, sustainable operations, and recycling.

Sustainability efforts at Tennessee State Parks are as diverse as the Tennessee landscape - from recycling paper in park offices and installing energy efficient LED lighting to creating vegetative buffer areas around wetlands and shorelines at the golf courses.

Since 2015 when the Go Green With Us Program began, state parks have seen increased their environmental stewardship while reducing their carbon footprint. Many campgrounds are now trash-can-free and are served by conveniently located dumpsters and recycling bins. Some restaurants are composting food scrap waste and some have kitchen gardens, providing fresh seasonal herbs and vegetables to the kitchen.

2018 marked the inaugural Go Green With Us recognition awards program. Twenty-six parks have been recognized for taking positive steps to preserve and enhance wildlife habitat, protect land and water resources and reduce waste. Sustainability highlights include:

• Bicentennial Capitol Mall State Park is the first state park in Tennessee to be 100 percent  upgraded to LEDs throughout the entire park.
• Johnsonville State Historic Park is one of the first parks to host a Go Green education and outreach event teaching Jr. Rangers the importance of reducing waste by creating their own canteens to use and keep and not using plastic bottles and cups.
• Norris Dam Sate Park has built their own recycling bins and a divided recycling trailer.
• Henry Horton State Park is part of the TSP Honey Project. The Governor’s Table Restaurant composts food scraps and a green house and garden provides produce for the restaurant.
• Montgomery Bell State Park was honored for their on-site composting operation and participating in the EPA’s Food Recovery Challenge, which saved the park nearly $4,000 in diverted solid waste fees.
   

To see what other things parks are doing to Go Green, click on a park below.