Since our founding in 2013, we at Tugboat Institute® have eagerly anticipated having a platform to publicly celebrate and recognize extraordinary Evergreen® leaders and companies for their impact in society and as vehicle to build general awareness of what it means to be an Evergreen company.

Today, we are thrilled to announce our inaugural Best Evergreen Companies™ list and the first Evergreen Company of the Year™ award winner!

First, we are honored to share the Best Evergreen Companies list, each of whom exemplifies excellence across all the Evergreen 7Ps® principles. Their dedication to their business excellence is characterized by determination, patience, and an unwavering desire to improve. As reflected in the list below, outstanding Evergreen companies exist in every industry from finance to technology, and from consumer packaged goods to construction. Their sizes, ages, ownership structures, and geographies vary widely as well, confirming that excellent Evergreen companies can and do exist everywhere. The winners are listed alphabetically, not in rank order, as we aim to celebrate each of these remarkable companies equally.

BEST EVERGREEN COMPANIES™

Awesome
Betts Company
Bishop-Wisecarver
ECRS
Edward Jones
Enterprise Mobility
Essential Ingredients
High Plains Bank
In Time Tec
John Burns Research & Consulting
Meijer
Radio Flyer
Redeemers Group
SAS Institute
Savage Services
Smiley Technologies
SRC Holdings Corporation
Stotz Equipment
Supportworks
Telligen
Test Double
Text-Em-All
The Motz Corporation
Torch Technologies

Some of these company names are household names that we all know and respect, while others may be unfamiliar. We encourage you to learn more about them, as some may be in your community, employ someone you know, or significantly impact the areas where you live. These and other Evergreen companies continuously strive to improve while staying true to their Purpose.

And with that, we are thrilled to announce the company that rose to the top in our assessment that we have named the very first Evergreen Company of the Year:

EVERGREEN COMPANY OF THE YEAR™

O.C. Tanner

Led by Tugboat Institute® member Dave Peterson, O.C. Tanner was founded in 1927 by Obert C. Tanner and initially made class rings and commemorative pins for high school and college graduates. Almost a century later, the company has evolved into a complex market-leader in employee and customer appreciation software and consulting. Obert Tanner’s primary goal was always to serve his customers and his community to the best of his abilities, often going above and beyond for them, and to find ways to give back to his community, specifically in education, wherever possible. His spirit and intention are alive and powerful in the company today.

O.C. Tanner hosted Tugboat Institute @O.C. Tanner in Salt Lake City in 2023, and it is an exemplar of Evergreen excellence indeed, across all the Evergreen 7Ps® principles. Their Purpose is simple but powerful: To help people everywhere thrive at work. They are ethical above all else and their People First culture and policies are second to none. Their attention to Pragmatic Innovation has allowed them to evolve and essentially enter a new industry, re-inventing themselves to stay competitive and thriving as the world changed around them. Their growth has been thoughtful and Paced, allowing them to Persevere for the long term, through good times and bad. Over time, they have been consistently Profitable, which has enabled them to be better and better at innovating, supporting their people and communities, and broadening their reach, both geographically and through a number of industries. Finally, there is no better example of a Private company. Obert Tanner was committed to ensuring that his company would last, that it would always be privately held, and that ownership and leadership transitions would happen seamlessly and without strife. His work on this front is indeed another example of extraordinary innovation.

O.C. Tanner represents the best of what it means to be an Evergreen company. They are a wonderful example and confirmation of what is possible, when a company commits to this path and has the patience to let their success build and compound over time. We are honored to award them the very first Evergreen Company of the Year designation.

MORE ABOUT THE BEST EVERGREEN COMPANIES™ LIST AND EVERGREEN COMPANY OF THE YEAR™ AWARD 

The Best Evergreen Companies list and the Evergreen Company of the Year award give us, at Tugboat Institute®, an opportunity to celebrate and elevate wonderful Evergreen companies and our Evergreen movement, in a language that society understands. We chose not rank order our Best Evergreen Companies list to avoid unnecessary competition between these exceptional companies that earned a spot on the list, allowing us to celebrate all equally. Companies become eligible for inclusion on this list by either becoming Certified Evergreen® or by hosting two-and-a-half day Tugboat Institute Exemplar Visit. Both of these paths require a deep, introspective dive into practices across all of the Evergreen 7Ps® principles, and provide tangible measures of Evergreen maturity across each of the principles and into overall excellence. The winner of Evergreen Company of the Year in turn will be awarded to one company that truly distinguished itself over long periods of time thus earning the extra recognition of this pinnacle award that can be won only once.

In the years and decades to come, our vision is for this recognition and award program to gain increasing awareness and scope over time, moving from a single list to several that celebrate and recognize even more Evergreen companies across various sizes, industries, demographics, and geographic regions. We believe that lifting up one Evergreen company lifts up all Evergreen companies, and we are pleased to have created this new program to do just that.