2026 Lifetime Achievement Award
Stephanie Sparkman
Director of Environmental ComplianceQTS Data Centers
Stephanie Sparkman, P.E., Director of Environmental Compliance at QTS Data Centers, was nominated for the NAEM Excellence Awards’ Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of a distinguished 35-year career advancing environmental compliance, governance, technology, and operational excellence across the nuclear, consulting, aluminum, e-commerce, and data center industries.
Beginning her career at Westinghouse Savannah River Company and progressing through leadership roles at IT Corporation, Alcoa, Amazon, BSI America, and QTS, Sparkman has consistently transformed complex environmental requirements into practical, scalable systems that strengthen compliance while enabling business growth. At Alcoa, she led Tennessee Operations through ISO 14001 certification, restructured environmental accountability into operations, reduced compliance issues by 80% in one year, and helped improve performance on a legacy smelter emissions issue by 30%. At Amazon, she helped scale the environmental compliance program from fewer than 50 locations to more than 1,500 globally, designed the activity-based Environmental Compliance Management System, helped develop automated waste and compliance tools, and championed a Tier II reporting transformation that saves approximately 15,000 hours annually. Today at QTS, she has established lifecycle environmental compliance processes and technology requirements that support the company’s rapidly expanding data center portfolio while strengthening collaboration among EHS, operations, sustainability, and regulatory agencies.
A Professional Engineer licensed in seven states, published author, industry speaker, trainer, and longtime advocate for elevating environmental compliance within business decision-making, Sparkman’s career reflects a consistent philosophy of simplifying and standardizing complex processes, using technology and data to improve performance, empowering operational teams, and sharing her knowledge to strengthen both organizations and the broader EHS&S profession.