Sometimes, building a better future means hearing tomorrow’s voices today—and Freeport has been listening.
In April, Freeport employees joined college students from across the country at the 2025 WERC Environmental Design Contest at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces, New Mexico. Established in 1991, WERC, or the Waste-Management Education Research Consortium, is a contest that brings together student teams from across the country to tackle real-world environmental problems.
According to Ned Hall, Director-Environmental Services, WERC is one of the many initiatives the company supports as part of its commitment to responsible mining, and Freeport has sponsored the contest for well over a decade.
As a part of that sponsorship, Freeport proposed a task designed by Skylar Isleyen, Environmental Scientist I-Resource Management Center, and Leonard Santisteban, Chief Environmental Scientist-Resource Management Center.
Aimed toward future civil, environmental and chemical engineers, Freeport’s task focused on bioremediation, or the use of technologies that rely on living organisms to address environmental conditions—in this case, using fungi to remediate mining waters.
“The environmental technology team came up with several ideas, but we ultimately narrowed it down to Skylar’s pitch,” Santisteban said. “We're both biologists by training, so we understand the potential for biological organisms to help clean up mining-impacted sites, especially in remote areas that lack developed infrastructure. In terms of helping manage liabilities, we believe bioremediation shows a lot of promise.”
Skylar Isleyen (left) and Leonard Santisteban designed Freeport’s task for this year’s WERC Environmental Design Contest.This year’s contestants agreed.
Although the other tasks touched on a wide range of topics – including protecting water resources, optimizing energy storage from renewables and dust mitigation on lunar habitats – Freeport’s proved to be one of the most popular, with seven university teams taking up the challenge.
The company’s support didn’t end there.
In addition to designing one of the tasks, Isleyen also was one of the judges, alongside Chris West, Chief Environmental Engineer-Morenci, and Isaac Marquez, Environmental Scientist I-Chino.
Hall also was on-hand at the event, where he presented a trophy and cash prize to a team from Iowa State University, the recipients of this year’s Freeport-McMoRan Award for Innovation and Sustainability. This year’s recipients selected Freeport’s task for the contest, though it is not a requirement for winning. The award ranks projects on their real-life potential, demonstration of their effects, practicality, and impacts and benefits for the environment.
Freeport has presented the award at the contest since 2011, and Hall expects the company to continue to be involved in the future.
“The response to our task and the quality of the research we saw at WERC show great possibility for the future,” Hall said. “Freeport has some of the greatest subject matter experts in the field, but we’re proud to provide opportunities for new voices, and we’re already looking forward to next year’s contest.”