In a powerful display of ingenuity, leadership, and community impact, SGA Natural Gas Association proudly announces the winners of the 2025 SGA Awards. These honors spotlight the industry’s top innovators and changemakers, individuals and teams whose work exemplifies what it means to share knowledge, grow talent, and advance the future of natural gas.
- Sam Trowbridge, SGC Surveying – Chair’s Rising Leader
- Southern Star Central Gas Pipeline – Community Service, Southern Star Cares: Fueling our Communities
- Baltimore Gas & Electric (BGE) – Corporate Communication, Certified Safety Podcast
- Baltimore Gas & Electric (BGE) – Emergency Management, Key Bridge Collapse Recovery
- Williams – Engineering Innovation, Crossing the Coosa River
- Atmos Energy – Environmental, Social & Governance (ESG), Pollinator Garden That Powers Biodiversity
- TC Energy – Safety & Health, Coastal GasLink: Building an Extraordinary Legacy of Safety
The SGA Awards aren’t just accolades; they reflect the power of collaboration across our 550+ member organizations. Every nomination and vote is an investment in a culture of operational excellence and shared success. These stories don’t just celebrate what’s been achieved, they illuminate the path forward for us all.
As the industry’s trusted training and development hub, SGA curates and amplifies practices that move our industry forward. The SGA Awards spotlight breakthrough ideas and courageous leadership, so every member can adapt, adopt, and advance. Each winner contributes to a growing library of excellence that helps equip our workforce, elevate safety, strengthen resilience, and expand our collective impact.
THE WINNERS
CHAIR’S RISING LEADER
Sam Trowbridge, SGC Surveying: Bringing Clarity to the Field and the Future
Sam Trowbridge is part of a rising generation of leaders transforming how the natural gas industry works, on the ground and behind the scenes. With a sharp focus on GIS-powered innovation, Sam has led her team in delivering real-time asset tracking, automated dashboards, and visual QA/QC tools that improve safety, transparency, and operational efficiency.
But her impact doesn’t stop at technology. Sam is an active voice in SGA, YPP, and industry networks, sharing her expertise generously, growing her influence thoughtfully, and advancing the profession by encouraging others to do the same. Whether she’s presenting at a conference, helping colleagues become better ambassadors, or engaging students in energy education, Sam brings the full force of SGA’s mission to life.
She’s not just solving today’s problems; she’s investing in the industry and tomorrow’s leaders.
>>Explore Sam’s Full Story here
COMMUNITY SERVICE
Southern Star Central Gas Pipeline – Southern Star Cares: Fueling our Communities
Southern Star isn’t just delivering natural gas, they’re delivering impact. Through Southern Star Cares, a team member–funded nonprofit, employees turned compassion into action, awarding more than $128,000 to eight local organizations in 2024 alone. From life-saving emergency equipment to new Meals on Wheels vehicles, these grants are more than donations, they’re lifelines.
What sets this apart? It’s grassroots giving with a strategic pulse, led by employees, targeted to real community needs, and rooted in the belief that a strong industry serves people first. Southern Star is proving that when employees are empowered to give, the results ripple far beyond company walls, creating safer, stronger, more connected communities across their entire footprint.
This is what shared value looks like.
>>Read the Full Nomination
CORPORATE COMMUNICATIONS
Baltimore Gas & Electric (BGE) —Changing the Channel on Safety: BGE’s Certified Safety Podcast
Who says safety has to be boring? BGE flipped the script with its Certified Safety Podcast, a series of bite-sized, five-minute episodes designed to cut through the noise and make safety messages stick. By featuring real conversations with leaders and experts, these episodes became more than reminders, they became catalysts for action.
The result? A culture shift. Employees aren’t just hearing about safety, they’re talking about it, applying it, and owning it. And the impact hasn’t gone unnoticed; this creative communication channel has earned praise from senior leadership and inspired other teams to rethink how safety is shared.
For an industry where every second and every message counts, BGE is showing how smart storytelling saves lives.
>>Read the Full Nomination
EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT
Baltimore Gas & Electric (BGE) —Crisis Response in Action: Key Bridge Collapse Recovery
When disaster struck with the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge, BGE moved fast, executing a mission-critical emergency response to isolate and restore a 24” gas transmission line buried beneath the Patapsco River. This was no routine fix. It was a race against time, requiring 24/7 coordination across federal, state, and local agencies.
The outcome? Zero service interruptions. 165,000 customers protected. And vital progress toward reopening the Port of Baltimore. In the face of tragedy, BGE delivered precision, partnership, and poise, showing the entire industry what it means to be ready when it matters most.
This is emergency management at its finest: fast, collaborative, and community-first.
>>Read the Full Nomination
ENGINEERING INNOVATION
Williams Companies, Inc. — Breaking Ground and Barriers: Crossing the Coosa River
Some challenges aren’t just technical, they’re legendary. Williams tackled one of them head-on, completing a 3,400-foot horizontal directional drill under the Coosa River, a project that had stalled others for years. This wasn’t just an engineering win, it was a breakthrough.
By eliminating a major system bottleneck while minimizing environmental impact, the project unlocked more reliable, cleaner power generation for the region. It took vision, grit, and cross-functional teamwork to make it happen, and it sets a new bar for what’s possible in infrastructure innovation.
This is how you build the future: smarter, cleaner, and stronger.
>>Read the Full Nomination
ENVIRONMENTAL, SOCIAL & GOVERNANCE (ESG)
Atmos Energy — From Idle Land to Living Legacy: A Pollinator Garden That Powers Biodiversity
What happens when utility land meets employee imagination? At Atmos Energy, it becomes a living, blooming commitment to sustainability. By transforming unused property into a vibrant pollinator garden, Atmos didn’t just beautify space, they activated a mission.
This employee-led project features native plants, interactive tools, and educational walking paths, creating a certified habitat that strengthens biodiversity and builds environmental awareness. It’s sustainability in action, where operational stewardship meets community enrichment.
Because leading the energy evolution isn’t just about carbon, it’s about cultivating impact at every level.
>>Read the Full Nomination
SAFETY & HEALTH
TC Energy — Coastal GasLink: Building an Extraordinary Legacy of Safety
Extreme terrain. Massive scale. Thousands of workers. And zero fatalities over 57 million work hours. TC Energy’s Coastal GasLink project didn’t just move pipe, it moved the needle on what’s possible in industrial safety.
Guided by advanced safety strategy, human and organizational performance (HOP) principles, and a powerful cultural shift through the Extraordinary Legacy Initiative, the team forged a shared commitment to protecting people, no matter the conditions. This wasn’t compliance, it was conviction.
This project proves that when safety becomes culture, not just protocol, extraordinary outcomes follow.
>>Read the Full Nomination
What Can You Learn From These Winners?
Visit here to explore their full submissions and discover practical tools, new ideas, and proven strategies you can apply in your own programs.
View all submissions and the winners at https://southerngas.org/2025-sga-award-winners/
About SGA Natural Gas Association
Founded in 1908, SGA Natural Gas Association is the leader in natural gas training and professional development. SGA is a community of natural gas professionals across the U.S. and Canada. Representing the industry from drill bit to burner tip, SGA’s membership comprises more than 200 operators across the distribution, transmission, and gas supply marketing sectors and more than 350 industry partners. Through digital and in-person engagement, SGA members share ideas, resources, and best practices to develop people, relationships, and solutions.
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