Sustainability Award Winners 2026

Congratulations to all the individuals and organizations working to build sustainable communities. The award winners were honored at the 18th Annual Leadership in Sustainability Awards Celebration on September 16, 2026.

Walk N Roll

Walk N Roll (WNR) was founded in 2022 at Pleasant Hill Elementary by parent Cara De Jong to encourage students and families to walk, roll, or carpool to school each week in order to help build lifelong healthy and sustainable transportation habits for an entire community. This volunteer-led effort grew into a countywide initiative, with De Jong joining Advanced Mobility Group to support and expand WNR on behalf of the Contra Costa Transportation Authority (CCTA). 

 With school travel representing about 10% of morning peak-hour vehicle trips, WNR reduces traffic congestion, lowers greenhouse gas emissions, and improves air quality. In the 2025-2026 school year, with an average of 2,000 students participating weekly and many reporting continuing their habits throughout the week, 2.5 million driving miles and over 1000 tons of CO2 emissions were eliminated during school drop-off and pickup times. WNR has been piloted in Central County’s five cities over the past two years through the CCTA and provides a turnkey program to schools including all equipment, storage, and training. As of June 2026, WNR operates at 17 schools in the cities of Concord, Clayton, Martinez, Walnut and Pleasant Hill, averaging 2,000 weekly participants. Six of those schools receive Title 1 federal funding. Walk N Roll was also selected as the 2026 People’s Choice “One Planet Hero.”

Clementina “Sustainable Latina”

Clementina Martinez-Masarweh, the “Sustainable Latina,” addresses the growing impacts of textile waste, synthetic fabrics, and microplastic pollution on environmental and human health. Through education, film, art, and community engagement, Clementina expands access to environmental education by providing affordable and free repair, mending, and textile recovery workshops for students, families, and underserved communities, diverting more than 37,000 pounds of textile waste from landfills. 

Key partnerships with Clementina include Mt. Diablo Adult Education, Women in Cleantech & Sustainability, Fashion Revolution, Remake, Young Artist Academy, and other community organizations throughout California. Through these collaborations, Clementina delivers workshops, public events, exhibitions, and educational programs that advance repair, reuse, workforce development, and environmental stewardship while engaging diverse communities in sustainable solutions.

Clementina’s award-winning film Upcyclers: Fashion’s Climate Frontliners expanded awareness of textile waste internationally through film festivals screenings and global storytelling. Her zero-waste art and fashion installations have been exhibited in SF galleries, Los Angeles climate events, East Coast colleges, and community events, transforming waste into powerful visual storytelling. She has presented her work at the UN and educational institutions, inspiring audiences to rethink consumption and embrace repair, reuse, and responsible fashion choices. Clementina has turned environmental challenges into opportunities for climate action, workforce development, and lasting behavior change.

Habitat For Humanity’s Esperanza Place

What started as a vacant lot in the heart of Walnut Creek is evolving into Esperanza Place, a neighborhood of 42 sustainable and affordable homes. With the help of a community of volunteers, donors, and future homeowners, 23 homes are already complete. 

As the first zero net-energy development from Habitat for Humanity East Bay/Silicon Valley (Habitat), Esperanza Place is breaking barriers in the affordable green building movement. With rooftop solar panels, energy efficient insulation, advanced framing techniques, and water-efficient landscaping, sustainability is integrated throughout the design and construction process to ensure that Esperanza Place contributes more energy than it consumes. The residents consist of families earning up to 120% of Contra Costa County’s Area Median Income. Additionally, the development is subject to resale restrictions, which ensures that the units remain available for occupancy by low and moderate income households for 65 years. 

The project is high-density and transit-oriented, with BART, bus routes, and the Contra Costa Centre transit village all a stone’s throw away. The development includes nearby trails, sport courts, children’s play area, central courtyard, and numerous benches to enjoy the mature oak trees that were preserved during construction. With support from Greenbelt Alliance, Esperanza Place is setting a new standard in affordable housing and demonstrating that sustainable buildings and lifestyles are attainable for all Bay Area residents.

Lavanya Babbar & Kylie Luong, Rising Stars

Lavanya Babbar, a rising 12th grader at Dougherty Valley High School (DVHS), and Kylie Luong, a rising 11th grader at California High School, organize Teen Clothing Swaps that encourage local teens to exchange clothes and give pre-loved items a second life. What started as a simple idea quickly grew into a meaningful initiative to encourage eco-friendly habits and reduce the amount of clothing that gets dumped into landfills. Lavanya and Kylie collect and sort donations, market and partner with others, and set up welcoming spaces for local teens to explore new styles without spending money. So far, they’ve collected over 400 pieces of clothing.

The girls advertise clothing swaps with flyers at local coffeeshops and libraries, electronic notifications on Next Door, and notifying the community via social media and word of mouth. Partnerships with organizations like the San Ramon Library, schools, clubs, and DVHS California Scholarship Federation help get the word out. Remaining clothes are donated to Shephard’s Gate, a non-profit organization that helps women and children overcome abuse, addiction and homelessness. The Teen Clothing Swaps aren’t just an environmental win, but a powerful economic tool for easing the cost-of-living burden for households and for teaching the next generation the financial value of sustainable consumer habits. This initiative proves that anyone, regardless of age, can build a more sustainable and connected world.

Side Gate Brewery

Through initiatives such as water reuse systems, spent grain partnerships and a commitment to community-centered operations, Side Gate Brewery in Concord demonstrates that environmentally responsible business practices can also create financial resilience, deepen local partnerships, and foster stronger community engagement. They store water heated during brewing in a 600-gallon holding tank to reuse for the next brew. Because the water is already hot, the brewery uses less natural gas to heat it on future brew days, saving both water and energy. Ingredients are sourced locally whenever possible. 

Side Gate partners with local farmers who use their spent nutrient-rich grain as livestock feed, as well as with a bakery that creates dog treats. The brewery offers free or low-cost community events, workshops and family-friendly activities. They recruit employees from diverse communities and offer fair wages. Side Gate has remodeled their building to ensure the brewery and taproom are ADA accessible and designed to be welcoming to people of all backgrounds and abilities. 

The brewery hosts an annual Homebrew Competition that provides participants with firsthand exposure to Side Gate’s operational philosophy, including its sustainable water reuse systems, waste reduction initiatives, local agricultural partnerships and community-centered business practices.

Top Junk

Top Junk Removal, serving the Bay Area including Contra Costa County, operates with the core commitment of keeping waste out of landfills. They work with underserved communities by offering flexible payment plans, providing discounted rates to property managers to prevent illegal dumping, and organizing community cleanups. They divert up to 80% of everything they haul through recycling and donation partnerships, including ReSupply, Habitat for Humanity, Salvation Army, St. Vincent de Paul, and Goodwill. E-waste gets recycled responsibly, and appliances with Freon are brought to certified facilities before the rest of the unit is recycled. 

Top Junk started an annual clothing drive across Contra Costa County, collecting gently used items that go to Harbor House and Christmas For Everyone, where families receive them for free on Christmas Day. They train their 14-member crew so everyone knows which items go where, why specific partners are used, and how these choices affect the community. Serving 3,000 households and businesses so far means that thousands of items have been donated to support nonprofits, rather than ending up in landfills. Top Junk Removal’s model is simple but effective: partnerships over logistics, community over profit margins.

White Pony Express

White Pony Express (WPE) picks up highly perishable surplus food – including produce, proteins, and prepared meals within 24 hours to ensure peak nutrition and freshness, and delivers it to 144 nonprofits, including schools, food banks, and senior centers, within Contra Costa County. By intercepting 12,500 pounds of food daily that would otherwise end up in landfills, this program reduces potent methane emissions that contribute to global warming. WPE champions food justice by bridging the “eligibility gap” for the 50%+ of food-insecure households that earn too much to qualify for federal food benefits. Households get access to free premium fresh food through partner nonprofits and have more money left for other necessities. 

WPE’s CEO, Eve Birge, co-founded both the Contra Costa Food Security Collaborative and the California Food Recovery Coalition, which work to eliminate operational overlap and consolidate regional resources for maximum efficiency. WPE is built on a “volunteer-powered” model, utilizing 2,000+ active volunteers who work 364 days a year with a lean professional staff of just 17. Organization- wide involvement is total: staff and volunteers jointly operate the mobile fleet and process more than six tons of food daily.

See award winners from previous years