Renew Our Rivers began with one Alabama Power employee who had a vision to improve the health and beauty of the Coosa River near Plant Gadsden where he worked.
Since the first community cleanups in 2000, Alabama Power employees and community volunteers have made a remarkable impact in protecting waterways in their communities through Renew Our Rivers. With humble beginnings at the generating plants and lakes managed by Alabama Power, thousands of volunteers have spread the program up rivers and tributaries, creating more than 30 cleanups to remove trash across the state’s watersheds.
Today, Renew Our Rivers engages thousands of partners across Alabama — and in surrounding states. The cleanup campaign is a unique partnership of community organizers and volunteers, Alabama Power plant and stewardship employees, Alabama Power Service Organization members and company retirees who together remove hundreds of thousands of pounds of trash from waterways across the Southeast each year.
Renew Our Rivers’ Impact
• First community cleanup: 2000
• Total trash removed: More than 13.5 million pounds
• Alabama trash removed: More than 10.5 million pounds
• Alabama volunteers: More than 56,000
• 2013 Alabama trash removed: More than 380,000 pounds
• 2013 Alabama volunteers: More than 5,700
Education
Through programs like Renew Our Rivers, Alabama Power is a partner in promoting conservation stewardship in communities across the state.
For more than a decade, the company has helped create and distribute more than 50,000 Message in the Bottle coloring books focused on conservation and litter prevention to schools across the state.
The Alabama Power Foundation is also making its mark on protecting our state’s resources with the launch of “Students to Stewards,” a program designed to encourage conservation education. Through a competitive application process, the program will provide support for dynamic projects and lesson plans that teach the next generation about our state’s unique ecosystems – encouraging students to become better stewards of our natural resources.