The Smith Gardner Scholarship: Investing in the People Who Will Carry the Work Forward
There’s a particular way Stacey Smith, President of Smith Gardner, talks about solid waste. He doesn’t frame it as an afterthought of modern life or a problem to be tucked out of sight. Instead, he describes it as essential infrastructure, the kind that quietly underpins public health, environmental protection, economic stability, and community trust. It isn’tglamorous work, but it’s foundational work, and when it’s done well, most people never notice it at all.
That perspective has shaped Smith Gardner for over thirty years. Founded in 1991, the firm has grown into one of the Southeast’s leading engineering companies focused exclusively on solid waste. What began as a small, highly specialized geotechnical practice evolved alongside the industry itself, expanding into landfill design, gas management, environmental permitting, compliance, and long-term operational support. In all that time, their core philosophy hasn’t changed: technical rigor, practical solutions, and a clear understanding that engineering decisions don’t live in a vacuum. They ripple outward into communities.
The Smith Gardner Scholarship through the Environmental Research & Education Foundation (EREF) is awarded in line with that same philosophy. It isn’t simply about writing a check. It’s about strengthening the pipeline of engineers and professionals who’ll be responsible for navigating a field that’s becoming more complex by the year.
A Partnership Grounded in Substance
Smith Gardner’s relationship with EREF goes back more than a decade, to a time when the firm was smaller, and every major financial commitment required careful thought. Stacey recalls listening to EREF’s vision and recognizing something immediately familiar.
“EREF embodied everything we cared about,” said Stacey. “It was immediately clear to me that this is us. We’re a part of this.”
That alignment was not about marketing or visibility; it was about substance. Smith Gardner’s work depends on credible, objective research that can be applied in the field, whether the issue involves landfill gas management, liner systems, groundwater protection, emerging contaminants, or evolving regulatory standards. In Stacey’s view, the most valuable research doesn’t sit on a shelf. It shows design drawings, permit applications, conversations with regulators, and meetings with local officials who want clear answers.
In a field where new contaminants and regulatory thresholds can shift expectations overnight, clarity matters. Research provides engineers with a shared foundation and creates a common language among operators, regulators, and communities. It helps avoid panic when headlines outpace facts, and it helps accelerate meaningful action when the sciencesupports it. That steady, evidence-based approach is one of the reasons Smith Gardner chose to invest early in EREF’s work and has continued to do so.
For years, that support took the form of annual unrestricted gifts and sponsorship of EREF initiatives. Over time, however, it became clear that formalizing that commitment through a dedicated scholarship would create an even more lasting impact. The Smith Gardner Scholarship, first awarded in Fall 2025 at the master’s level, represents an ongoing investment in graduate students preparing to enter the solid waste field. Rather than a one-time contribution, it reflects a long-term commitment to funding talent in a discipline that depends on both research and real-world application.
Two Pillars: Research & Talent
If research is one pillar of the industry’s future, talent is the other. And talent, Stacey will tell you, isn’t automatic:
“Many civil and environmental engineering students graduate with strong training in hydrology, structural design, and air quality modeling, yet have little direct exposure to solid waste systems. Few undergraduate programs devote sustained attention to landfill gas collection networks, leachate management strategies, composite liner systems, or the regulatory frameworks that define modern facilities. The result isn’t a lack of capable engineers. It’s a lack of awareness.”
In practical terms, that means firms like Smith Gardner often meet bright, capable engineering graduates who simply haven’t been exposed to solid waste. They come out of strong civil and environmental programs with deep knowledge of hydrology, structural design, or air quality modeling, but very little direct familiarity with landfill systems, leachate management, or gas collection infrastructure. It’s not a question of ability, simply a lack of exposure.
When those early-career engineers see the work up close, many are surprised by how intellectually demanding and operationally dynamic it is. Solid waste engineering requires systems thinking and a working understanding of soil mechanics, fluid movement, chemistry, and biology. Just as important, it calls for the ability to explain technical decisions in public forums where community members may be skeptical, concerned, or simply trying to understand what’s happening in their backyard. That combination of technical depth and public-facing responsibility isn’t common across every engineering discipline. It’s something that’s developed over time, through hands-on experience and mentorship in the field.
The master’s-level Smith Gardner Scholarship exists to create that exposure earlier. By supporting students who show interest in solid waste or related environmental disciplines, the scholarship signals that this field isn’t a fallback option. It’s a critical, evolving area of expertise that needs thoughtful professionals ready to engage with complexity rather than avoid it.
Stacey believes that once students understand the scope of the work, the appeal becomes clear. Solid waste engineering sits at the intersection of air, water, soil, and energy. It’sconnected to climate conversations, to circular economy initiatives, to local land-use planning, and to the practical realities of how communities function day to day.
Growing With the Industry
Smith Gardner’s story mirrors the evolution of solid waste over the past several decades. The field has moved from relatively simple disposal practices to layered systems of environmental safeguards that include, to name a few things, composite liners, leachate collection infrastructure, groundwater monitoring networks, and increasingly sophisticated gas control technologies. Those systems didn’t emerge overnight; they were shaped by research, regulation, operational lessons, and the industry’s eagerness to adapt and make progress toward better practices.
Today, with approximately fifty professionals dedicated to solid waste, Smith Gardner continues to refine its expertise while remaining focused on a single sector. With its growth, the firm has deepened its capacity to serve clients in ways that reflect the field’s growing technical and regulatory demands.
The scholarship reflects that same long-term mindset: expertise isn’t static – it has to be cultivated, transmitted, challenged, and strengthened by those entering the profession now. Supporting students through EREF is one way to ensure that knowledge doesn’t dissipate as challenges intensify.
