Nashville Earth Day Announces 2024 Environmental Project Grant Recipients

Centennial Park Conservancy increases commitment to local environmental programs, awarding $60,000 in event proceeds to fund 21 initiatives across the city

Centennial Park Conservancy, the nonprofit organization committed to preserving and enhancing Centennial Park and the Parthenon and providing accessible cultural, environmental and educational programming for the community, announced today the organizations and projects that will receive Nashville Earth Day’s 2024 environmental project grants.

Centennial Park Conservancy’s financial commitment to environmental conservation has expanded significantly year over year. This is the sixth year that CPC has used proceeds from the Earth Day celebration to underwrite environmental projects across the city, awarding a record-setting $60,000 to help fund 21 projects. For comparison, six projects were funded by the initiative in 2022.

“We are so grateful to Centennial Park Conservancy for their robust support of these critical projects,” said Metro Parks Director Monique Horton Odom. “Their support of schools and community groups, in particular, helps inspire the next generation of environmentalists and improves parks and public spaces throughout the city. We are deeply grateful to the Nashville Earth Day initiative for helping keep Nashville green year-round.”

“We are thrilled to be able to expand our environmental grant program, increasing the available dollars and the number of projects we can fund,” said Centennial Park Conservancy’s Vice President of Programming Justin Branam. “It is entirely thanks to the enthusiastic participation of the sponsors, vendors, and especially the attendees of Nashville Earth Day that we are able to support these important projects that benefit the entire Nashville community.”

The projects receiving funding from Nashville Earth Day 2024 are:

Supporting the composting program at Aventura Community School, in partnership with Compost Nashville
Restoring and redesigning the native pollinator garden at Bicentennial Capitol Mall State Park, including educational and interpretive signage
Improvements to the Buchanan Arts Community Garden, including weather-resistant signage, seven new garden beds, and the addition of rain barrels, a composting zone and a garden shed
Development of a native plant pollinator garden at Crieve Hall Elementary School, in partnership with Crieve Hall Elementary School PTA
Expanding the Cumberland River Compact Residential Pocket Prairie program, including de-paving and replanting impervious areas such as parking lots
Supporting the Restore The Forest program to continue to repair the ecosystem of Beech Grove Hill in Shelby Park with Friends of Shelby Park & Bottoms
Engaging Edgehill-area youth with arborist and landscape architect career training; including mulching, planting trees and clean-up work with Friends of the William Edmondson Homesite Park and Garden
Planting 25 native trees and installing a pollinator garden at Thurgood Marshall Middle School, and providing students with trees or food plants to plant at home, coordinated by Green Interchange
Stream clean-up in Richland Creek, improving riparian buffers and replacing invasive plants with native trees and perennials, with the Harpeth River Conservancy
Park maintenance and pollinator-friendly planting at the Triangle Pocket Park Pollinator Pathway, in partnership with the Hillsboro-West End Neighborhood
Acquisition of rain barrels to sustainably support and tend the community garden at Inglewood Elementary School
Installation of bat and bird houses at the arboretum at Ellington Agricultural Center; completion of the pollinator garden at Percy Warner Park; and purchase of native bee structures, all via the Master Gardeners of Davidson County
Providing annual care for 300,000 bees that reside in hives located in Centennial Park in partnership with Nashville Area Beekeepers Association
Renovation of the rain garden at McCabe Community Center, replanting the center’s green roof with native plants, and installation of a new pollinator garden, supported by the Nashville Parks Foundation
Planting 30 trees at a Metro Nashville Public School (partner school yet to be determined); purchasing tools to facilitate this and all future tree-planting events; and giving away 150 trees at a Musicians Corner event at Centennial Park in 2025, all via Nashville Tree Foundation
Constructing a greenhouse and adding five new garden beds at Norman Binkley Elementary School, coordinated by the Norman Binkley Elementary School Parent Teacher Association
Establish a pocket grassland at Stratford STEM Magnet High School to facilitate a multi-year student research opportunity and serve as a living lab for science classes, via the Stratford STEM Magnet High School Interdisciplinary Science & Research Program
Maintenance and support for the Tennessee Environmental Council’s “Generate Some Buzz” pollinator garden program and its wildflower seed scholarship program
Addition of native shade and fruit trees to the community garden and urban foodscape at Trinity Community Commons, establishing a native perennial pollinator garden, building more community garden beds and establishing a water catchment system
Support for funding an extracurricular learning garden program at Inglewood Elementary School, a pilot program that can be expanded to additional schools in future years, via Turnip Green Creative Reuse
Educator training sessions that will teach K-12 teachers how to bring sustainability practices into the classroom by Urban Green Lab

Since 2020, proceeds from Nashville Earth Day have funded the planting of more than 325 trees; cared for over 300,000 bees; planted or improved 20 community and pollinator gardens; cleaned up 16 waterways; donated 2,450 trees; removed invasive plants; and provided education to thousands of adults and children in parks and classrooms across our community. In total, $160,000 has been given back to the community by Centennial Park Conservancy through Nashville Earth Day’s environmental project program.

Nashville Earth Day is grateful for the generosity of the corporate and foundation partners who make the annual event and environmental projects possible. The program’s organizers are also thankful to the individuals at organizations such as Cumberland River Compact, Nashville Area Beekeepers Association, Tennessee Environmental Council, Nashville Tree Foundation, and Urban Green Lab who work tirelessly to educate, inspire, and create positive environmental change on a daily basis.

Learn more at nashvilleearthday.org/environmental-projects.

NASHVILLE EARTH DAY 2024 PARTNERS AND SPONSORS

Centennial Park Conservancy presents Nashville Earth Day in partnership with Urban Green Lab. The program is sustained by Amazon, Nissan, and HCA Healthcare Foundation, and sponsored in part by WM.

Nashville Earth Day is organized by Centennial Park Conservancy, with support from Metro Parks. The program is made possible with support from the following socially responsible organizations who share our mutual respect and concern for the environment and desire to inspire positive environmental change in our city.

Presenting Sponsors:

Amazon • Nissan • HCA Healthcare Foundation

Sustainability Sponsor:

Supporting Sponsors:

Ankura Consulting Group • Kroger • Nashville Parks Foundation

Primrose Schools of Nashville • Republic Services • Tennessee Valley Authority

Additional support provided by:

AARP • Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee • Drive Electric Nashville
Goodwill Industries of Middle TN • Manuel Zeitlin Architects • Power Home Remodeling
Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation
TuneCore • The Village Fund

Media Partners:

Blackbird Media • Do615 • Lamar Advertising Company • Lightning 100 WRLT
Nashville Scene • The Nashvillian • The Tennessee Tribune • WMGC El Jefe • WSMV 4

Event Management Partners:

Centennial Park Conservancy • Metro Parks • Urban Green Lab

In-Kind Sponsors:

6th Man Movers • Radios615