2020 Green Tie Award winners

Since 2009, the Green Tie Awards have brought together South Carolina’s business, political, and conservation communities to honor the achievements of leaders who have protected our air, land, and water in the General Assembly and within their communities.

2020 Green Tie Honorees:

• Sen. Tom Young
• Rep. Beth Bernstein
• Rep. John King
• Marilyn Hemingway (CEO of the Gullah Geechee Chamber of Commerce)

This year, coming together to protect South Carolina’s special places is more important than ever.

On Tuesday, September 22nd we will celebrate this year’s honorees and express our appreciation for their tireless efforts to protect our beautiful state during a live, online event.

Senator Tom Young
Senate Conservation Leadership Award

Senator Tom Young grew up in Aiken and graduated from the USC and then the USC School of Law.  He is the Chairman of the Aiken County Legislative Delegation and served in the S.C. House of Representatives from 2009 through 2012. In the Senate, he serves on the Judiciary and Fish, Game, and Forestry Committees, among others.

With a career devoted to public service, protection of South Carolina’s natural resources has been a consistent focus of his work. Senator Young has consistently fought for land and water protections by supporting efforts like the Conservation Bank, opposition to Offshore Drilling, and surface water protections. Over his career in the Senate, Senator Young has an 85% lifetime score and 109% 2019-2020 score on the CVSC Conservation Scorecard.

Senator Young jumped into a leadership position in 2016 to pass a three-year moratorium on the use of eminent domain laws for construction of petroleum pipelines by private, for-profit petroleum pipeline companies.  At the same time, Young led the fight to enact legislation that would set up a petroleum pipeline study committee which met numerous times and concluded their work on December 21, 2017.

His latest bill in 2020, S.1100 would have made it extremely difficult for private, for-profit petroleum pipeline companies to use our state’s eminent domain laws to condemn private property over which they would intend to route a pipeline. Additionally, S.1100 takes great care to protect conserved land, special places and those lands under a conservation easement. Unfortunately, this legislation did not pass before the 2020 legislative year was cut short.

Senator Young is a supporter and negotiator. He will help us work towards the best outcome for South Carolinians. He’s thoughtful and dedicated to protecting our air, land, and water. He’s proud of his state and what his district has protected.

Senator Young is an avid outdoorsman and he and his wife Heather are timber landowners. They have two daughters Hailey and Ashley.

Representative Beth Bernstein
House Conservation Leadership Award

Representative Beth Bernstein was raised in Columbia, growing up in the same community in which she lives today. Representative Bernstein earned her undergraduate degree from the University of Georgia in 1991 and earned a law degree from the University of South Carolina School of Law in 1994. Upon graduating from law school, she began practicing law with her father and brother, Lowell Bernstein, and formed what is now known as Bernstein and Bernstein, Attorneys at Law.

Representative Bernstein is the recipient of the John W. Williams Distinguished Service Award, a member of the 2015 Class of Liberty Fellowship, a 1998 Graduate of Leadership Columbia, and in 2006, she was selected as one of Columbia’s Top “20 under 40.”

Representative Bernstein has served District 78 since 2013. She has a 95% lifetime score and a 109% 2019-2020 legislative session score on the CVSC Conservation Scorecard. Representative Bernstein is someone you want in your corner. She is a steadfast environmentalist. She has championed clean air and water, fought hard against the ban on plastic bag bans bill in the House, and has been an active supporter of efforts to stop offshore drilling. She worked to reauthorize the Conservation Bank and was a founding member of the Energy Caucus, working with fellow legislators to pass clean energy reforms in 2019.

Her experience as an attorney has been particularly useful in fights to prevent rollbacks to core environmental protections, showing time and time again that she is a lawmaker and a resource we can depend on. While the conservation community fought to save the automatic stay, for example, Rep. Bernstein did the hard work in the Judiciary subcommittee with Rep. John King to slow down the bill. Time and time again, she’s gone to the well and worked across the aisle to push back on bad legislation, like the attempt ban the use of home rule for plastic bag ordinances. And she has celebrated efforts locally to do the right thing – like the passage of a local plastic bag ordinance in the Town of Arcadia Lakes. Rep. Bernstein will be there every step of the way.

Representative Bernstein lives in Columbia with her husband Rip and their two daughters Caroline and Isabel.

Representative John King
House Conservation Leadership Award

Born in Rock Hill, South Carolina, Representative John King received his Bachelor of Arts in Sociology from Morehouse College. Representative King went on to receive an Associate of Applied Science degree in Funeral and Mortuary Science from Gupton Jones College of Funeral Service in 1998. He also received his Master of Education degree in 2006 from Strayer University.

Rep. King is the former Chief Minority Whip for the South Carolina Democratic House Caucus, former member of the Chester County Council, and former Chair of the Legislative Black Caucus. He currently serves as an Adjunct Instructor at Clinton College and is Director of Christopher King’s Funeral Home.

Serving in the House since 2009, Representative King is one of the most energetic and honest supporters we have in the House. He has an 85% lifetime score and a 106% on CVSC’s 2019-2020 Conservation Scorecard. He fights for clean air and water and supports efforts to protect our rights to a clean environment, including the Environmental Bill of Rights introduced and championed by the late Representative Joe Neal.

With a decade of service to the State under his belt, Rep. King is an ally and conservationist we can count on. He is a fierce defender of doing the right thing and he will always tell you exactly where you stand with him. The honesty, passion, and perspective that Rep. King brings to the conservation movement’s work in the State House has been key to our success. For example, when he learned about the impact that a rollback of the automatic stay would have on the ability of South Carolinians to protect themselves from polluters, he jumped into action. He worked with Rep. Bernstein in Judiciary sub-committee to slow down the auto stay bill and attempted to amend it. And from his experience with a hazardous waste incinerator in Rock Hill, he knows the impact that bad industry practices can have on communities and will fight tirelessly to protect them.

Rep. King diligently works to educate other legislators about our priority issues, regularly whips votes in support of conservation, and takes the time to connect CVSC with other members of the House and share how Conservation Voters can help with issues facing their district.

Representative King lives in Rock Hill where he is a member of Freedom Temple Ministries.

Marilyn Hemingway
Harriet Keyserling Conservation Advocacy Award

A native of Georgetown, SC, Marilyn Hemingway’s ancestral roots extend from Horry to Beaufort Counties and include a long line of civic, educational, and political family achievement embedded in the traditions of the Gullah Geechee community. Ms. Hemingway earned her Bachelor of Science in Journalism from the University of South Carolina and is a certified Impact Economics Consultant (College of Charleston) and a registered fundraiser with the state of South Carolina.

Ms. Hemingway founded the Gullah Geechee Chamber of Commerce, a business membership organization whose mission is to raise global awareness, profitability, and sustainability of African American businesses in the Gullah Geechee community, and currently serves as the CEO. In this role, she is a passionate advocate for clean, affordable energy for all and a force in the fight against offshore drilling, testifying in front of the South Carolina Legislature and local government bodies on these and other environmental issues impacting the Gullah Geechee community.

Through her tireless efforts, she empowers marginalized communities – those disproportionately impacted by pollution and climate change – to be part of the solution.  Mrs. Hemingway created the “Agenda for Action” to raise awareness of clean, renewable energy opportunities and lift the voices of low-income communities and communities of color so they are heard during the policy making process. She presently serves as co-chair of the Environmental, Energy and Climate Justice committee of the SC Conference of the NAACP and as 2nd Vice President of the Georgetown NAACP Branch #5520.

Ms. Hemingway loves her family and community and always finds time to help others in need. Marilyn is the daughter of the late Peter H., III and the late Mattie Daniels Hemingway. She is the granddaughter of Mr. Peter Hemingway, II and Mrs. Pauline Dunmore Hemingway Lawrence and Rev. Dr. George Goings Daniels Sr. and Mrs. Wilhelmina Mays Daniels.