Dan Levy, AECOM Vice President, joins ABO’s Board of Directors
The Algae Biomass Organization (ABO) welcomes AECOM, the world’s premier environmental engineering and infrastructure firm, as the group’s newest gold-level member. Dan Levy, AECOM Vice President, was also elected to ABO’s Board of Directors.
AECOM has a record of successfully executing the largest, most complex environmental engineering projects across the world. Their expertise spans design, transportation infrastructure, water, energy, and construction services. For the past 2 years AECOM has been a leader in Harmful Algal Blooms (HAB) research and is now complementing that work with a focus on technology transfer, applying its research and practical solutions to address a growing environmental crisis. In 2019, AECOM partnered with local governments and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) on the Harmful Algal Bloom, Interception, Treatment and Transform System (HABITATS) research project to demonstrate a rapidly deployable system that mitigates large HABs in an economically viable and sustainable manner.
AECOM’s use of its unique algae harvester platform and its partnership with Bloom, who transforms algae into biofoam, gained national attention after its role in cleaning and restoring 22 residential canals during the 2018 HAB crisis in Florida. The innovative and modular design is scalable to any size and provides a “No Harm” solution for mitigating this global crisis. An overview of AECOM’s 2018 emergency HAB work can be found on the Environmental Law Institute’s blog and details about the 2019 HABITATS research project can be found on NPR.
“Removing harmful algae from local waterways and transforming the biomass into useful products is a novel problem solution. It is a privilege to be working with a trade organization dedicated to making technologies like this successful,” said Levy. “ABO is the leading source of expertise and advocacy that can accelerate the deployment of solutions like ours capable of transforming HAB-infested waterways into clean water.”
Levy comes to ABO’s board with 34 years of experience leading solutions to environmental challenges. In addition to serving as a Vice President for AECOM’s environmental business in the Americas, he is National Director of AECOM’s innovative algae mitigation and prevention program. Levy and the Algae Solution Team have been on the cutting edge of research of harmful algae blooms, long before HABs gained national attention, developing the company’s treatment technologies.
Levy received an honor award for innovation as the co-inventor of the patented SEDCUT dredging technology that was developed for the removal of nutrient-rich sediments, a technology that was proven successful in collaboration with the South Florida Water Management District and USACE. AECOM is also a recipient of a 2018 National Western Dredging Association Environmental Excellence Award, 2018 Florida Department of Environmental Protection’s Southeast District Superior Excellence Distinction Award for outstanding environmental practices, and the 2019 Environmental Business Journal Award for Social Contribution for development of the innovative algae harvesting program.
“AECOM is setting a new standard for mitigating algal blooms by transforming the environmental challenge into an economic opportunity, while delivering clean water at the same time,” said Mark P. Allen, P.E., ABO’s board chairman and vice president at Accelergy Corporation. “We are pleased to have an engineering powerhouse like AECOM as an ABO member and Dan’s expertise in algae technology development on our board of directors.”
For more information about AECOM’s environmental services, visit: https://www.aecom.com/environment