Southface Institute, a national nonprofit headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, that leverages advocacy, education, and services to create sustainable communities, will honor Ambassador Andrew Young during the 2025 Visionary Awards at the Georgia Aquarium. The keystone fundraising event honors those who have led sustainability efforts in Georgia and beyond. Ambassador Young will receive the 2025 Argon Award for Excellence in Sustainability.  

The Visionary Awards will be Oct. 30, 2025, from 12 pm - 2 p.m. at the Georgia Aquarium. 

Ambassador Andrew Young to Be Recognized for His Sustainability Efforts

 Andrew Young has earned worldwide recognition for his impacts in civil and human rights. Through the Andrew J. Young Foundation, the Ambassador supports many of the sustainability issues important to Southface. The new technologies and ideas supported by the Foundation work to solve the hunger crisis, the global shortage of protein, supply chain challenges and other innovations needed for a sustainable future.

• Through his partnership with Forever Young Aquaponics, he promotes cutting-edge, sustainable food production. Their Aquaponics facility, under construction in Clayton County, is a high-tech, closed-loop greenhouse that will produce 1,500 pounds of fresh, organic greens and vegetables each day and over one ton of fish per week. The project was envisioned and incubated by the Foundation, and serves as a model for sustainable, profitable, scalable, and replicable projects around the world.

• The Foundation has also partnered with the Andrew and Walter Young YMCA to operate an aquaponics farm. For ten years, the youth-focused aquaponics education program has engaged students in hands-on STEM learning, food production and sustainability. The goal of the program is to empower the next generation to be environmental stewards and innovators.

• Another important project being incubated at the foundation is harnessing the power of the Lemna aquatic plant to produce protein for human consumption to fight malnutrition worldwide. 

• These projects have zero discharge in the environment while solving major worldwide problems. 

“Southface is honored to award Ambassador Andrew Young with the Argon Award,” says James Marlow, President of Southface. “The Ambassador has worked for the majority of his life to find and show the humanity in the world and the importance of each person in addressing issues from civil rights to public health and sustainability.”