Each spring, Environmental Initiative recognizes the individuals, organizations, businesses, and communities who’ve joined forces to create a better environment for all Minnesotans at the Environmental Initiative Awards. Environmental Initiative, a local nonprofit organization, announced the winners of the 2018 Environmental Initiative Awards at the 24th annual ceremony and dinner in Minneapolis on May 23.
“The achievements of this year’s winners may challenge how many of us think of the environmental movement. That’s because the impacts you see reflected this year are not only on natural resources, but on people, the communities in which they live and how they intersect with our economy,” says Environmental Initiative’s Chief Executive Officer, Mike Harley. “It’s really important to celebrate and share these success stories.”
The 2018 Environmental Initiative Award winners are:
Courageous Innovators – Demetria Fuller and Adam Pruitt, Co-Founders, BrightSide Produce. Demetria Fuller and Adam Pruitt co-founded BrightSide Produce, one of the nation’s only financially sustainable businesses for distributing fresh fruits and vegetables to small stores in underserved urban neighborhoods. When Fuller and Pruitt were 16 years old (in 2014), they were concerned by the lack of healthy items in their neighborhood stores in north Minneapolis. They worked with their mentors at two local non-profits — Project Sweetie Pie and Community Table Co-op — and the Minneapolis Department of Health to diagnose the problem. BrightSide now delivers fruits and vegetables to 24 stores in north and south Minneapolis, providing store owners with a distribution option that is unavailable elsewhere in the Twin Cities. In 2017, BrightSide established a second operation in San Diego, Calif., in collaboration with San Diego State University.
Critical Collaborator – Ellen Anderson, Executive Director, University of Minnesota Energy Transition Lab. Anderson’s achievements result from her service in the Minnesota Senate, her leadership at the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission, and her current position as a policy researcher and analyst at the Institute on the Environment at the University of Minnesota. As a Minnesota Senator (1993-2011), Anderson built bipartisan relationships to pass landmark legislation like the Next Generation Energy Act and the Renewable Energy Standard. After chairing the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission from 2011-2012, she organized hundreds of key leaders in the Environmental Congress in 2013, including inter-generational voices through the Next Generation Youth Environmental Congress. Summarizing her career of energy and environmental leadership, Executive Director of Fresh Energy Michael Noble, said: “No single public-sector leader has had more influence on Minnesota’s success as a clean energy leader than Ellen Anderson.”
Energy and Climate – Community Solar for Community Action (CS4CA). This project tackles a systemic problem of energy poverty by equipping communities with clean, renewable, and reliable energy while reducing carbon emissions and democratizing access to solar. CS4CA is administered by the Rural Renewable Energy Alliance in partnership with the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe, multiple utility companies, and Cass, Beltrami, Hubbard, and Itasca counties. Over the life of its five solar arrays, the project will avoid more than $900,000 in electricity costs and generate an estimated 6,426,316 kWh of clean, renewable energy. CS4CA can be replicated with community action partnerships across the country.
Environmental Innovation – Dave Larsen American Indian Tour. Spearheaded by North Hennepin Community College, the Dave Larsen American Indian Tour is a semester-long college class and five-day tour for American Indian high school and college students. The goal of this project is to create learning environments that are respectful of cultural practices in order to enhance Indigenous voices and visibility in the environmental movement and educational system. This project partners across six high schools, the University of Minnesota, and several tribal nations and colleges, including the Lower Sioux Community and Fond du Lac Nation and Tribal College.
Rural Vitality – Root River Field to Stream Partnership. The Root River Field to Stream Partnership is a water monitoring effort in southeast Minnesota that combines data collection, strong personal relationships, and conservation action. Administered by the Minnesota Department of Agriculture, this project conducted intensive surface and groundwater monitoring in order to determine the effectiveness of agricultural conservation practices. By working closely with water conservation districts and farmers, and because of that relationship-building, 98% of farmers in the study area participated in on-farm walkovers to identify critical conservation needs. As a result, 13 new water and sediment control basins and catchment ponds were installed, 200 acres of cover crops have been planted, a total of 90 grass waterways spanning more than 65,000 feet have been installed in high priority areas, along with many other protections.
Sustainable Leadership: Large Employer – Land O’Lakes SUSTAIN. Land O’Lakes SUSTAIN engages with agriculture realtors and farmers to drive on-farm land, water, air, and profitability solutions. Agriculture retailers, long-trusted advisors to farmers, are trained by SUSTAIN staff in specialized practices, products, and cutting-edge technology that advance system-wide on-farm conservation. Additionally, Land O’Lakes SUSTAIN assists farmers with becoming certified in the Minnesota Agricultural Water Quality Certification Program (MAWQCP) by engaging and educating farmers on benefits, acting as advisors in grant processes, and harnessing existing data collection capabilities. The joining of regulatory bodies, private sector interests, and farmer perspectives to create jointly implemented stewardship solutions is groundbreaking.
Sustainable Leadership: Small Employer – Liberty Apartments and Townhomes. The Liberty is a leading-edge effort for the Twin Cities metro and rental apartment living as a whole. The Liberty was developed as a sustainable solar community of 55 townhomes, 200 apartment units, and a community clubhouse and pool equipped with 1,448 solar panels that provide 452.93 kW of power. With the help of TruNorth Solar, the St. Paul Port Authority, and many other partners, residents of Liberty will be consuming clean energy from day one, offsetting 5,518 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions over 25 years.
About the Environmental Initiative Awards
Each year, Environmental Initiative honors innovative projects and leaders that have achieved extraordinary environmental results by harnessing the power of partnership.
About Environmental Initiative
Environmental Initiative is a nonprofit organization that builds partnerships with business, government and nonprofit leaders to develop collaborative solutions to Minnesota’s environmental problems. The organization has honored collaborative environmental projects through their annual awards program since 1994. www.environmental-initiative.org.