Sustainability Award Winners 2024

Congratulations to all the individuals and organizations working to build sustainable communities. The award winners were honored at the 16th Annual Leadership in Sustainability Awards Celebration on September 18, 2024.

Amy Golan

Amy Golan is the proud owner of Planet Renu in Walnut Creek. This zero-waste refillery is a vibrant hub for sustainable living practices and eco-friendly products and also serves as a community gathering space where individuals can learn, engage, and collaborate in environmental initiatives. Amy also operates a mobile store that travels to various community spaces, ensuring convenient access to refillable and eco-friendly products.  This innovative approach eliminates the need for shipping and promotes sustainable consumption habits across diverse settings, including farmers’ markets, schools, churches, and office spaces. 

Amy actively engages with the community, inspiring the next generation of sustainability leaders to drive positive change. She regularly hosts educational workshops that provide practical, actionable steps that empower individuals to reduce their carbon footprint. She is deeply committed to fostering sustainability leadership among local youth through green teams and mentoring programs. Currently, Amy is spearheading an innovative initiative to introduce refilling stations in major retail stores, with two regional stores already committed to piloting this idea.  This groundbreaking initiative has the potential to revolutionize the way we consume and reduce plastic waste on a significant scale. Amy exemplifies the qualities of a true sustainability leader – passion, dedication, and innovation. Her outstanding contributions and unwavering commitment to creating a better world along with her relentless pursuit of a more sustainable future has had a profound impact on our community and beyond.

Contra Costa Fruit Rescue

Contra Costa Fruit Rescue (CCFR) is an all-volunteer gleaning program of Forestr.org, a non-profit based out of Castro Valley that rescues food that would otherwise go to waste. This food is mostly from homeowners as well as commercial orchards and is upcycled to local food distribution partners throughout Contra Costa County. CCFR has rescued over 110,000 lbs. of fruit, which is the equivalent of 91,667 meals recovered, 6.42 tons of CO2 kept out of the environment, and 886,820 gallons of water saved.

Fruit Rescue is run by six harvest leaders who work with fruit donors and local food distribution partners in their area. They currently operate in fifteen cities within Contra Costa County and support twelve food distribution partners. Working with over 1,400 volunteers at more than 165 harvest events annually, they rescue approximately 5,000 lbs. of fruit every month of the year. Harvests range in size from a single person to one hundred people at a commercial orchard. This service is free to the fruit donor and supported through the generosity of individual donations and grants.

CCFR raises awareness in the community during harvests, community events, and small group events. By connecting surplus with demand, CCFR contributes to food security and improved nutrition, reduces food waste and its negative effects on the environment, and fosters a stronger sense of community.

Phillip Cao – Rising Star

Phillip Cao is a graduate of Northgate High School in Walnut Creek, where he has been an advocate, practitioner, and educator of sustainable practices through thrifting. While a freshman, he created Phil’s Store to reduce new clothing purchases and increase accessible clothing for everyone. Phillip tapped into the teen community while also supporting more established Contra Costa County thrift stores. 

While a member of Northgate’s Student Leadership program, Phillip started the Thrifting Club, which quickly became a hit among his classmates. For his Senior Project he researched the history, practices, culture and economics of reusing products. He investigated consumerism and sustainability and completed a hands-on experiential project in the community, where he donated clothing to thrift stores, volunteered his time, and spearheaded reusable clothing collection drives, including one at Trinity Center in Walnut Creek. 

In Phillip’s culmination presentation, he educated his peers on the need for conservation and reuse, and then repeated the presentation to a formal evaluation panel of teachers and community members. He shared that he grew up in a frugal household with immigrant parents where reusing items and wearing second-hand clothes was the norm. With ingenuity, resourcefulness, magnetism and kindness, Phillip created a campus culture that celebrated a mindset shift in creating a more sustainable and economic environment for all. 

Sustainable Move Out –
St. Mary’s College

Every May after final exams and graduations, thousands of college students move out of campus dormitories and off-campus housing in the Moraga area. They leave copious amounts of furniture, clothing, household goods and other items in parking lots, on sidewalks, and throughout the community.  

For the past two years, Saint Mary’s College, Republic Services, Mt. Diablo Resource Recovery, and RecycleSmart have collaborated in a partnership that directs Saint Mary’s Climate Action Corps Fellows, Sustainability Interns and their Sustainability Director in the following actions:

• Leave ten large donation bins near residence halls during Move-Out week for 1300 residents 
• Conduct outreach campaigns through flyers, live presentations, emails, and news articles on SMC website
• Sort and organize donation bins 
• Manage campus “Free Store”  

Mt. Diablo Resource Recovery & Republic Services donates these services: 

• Recycling for faculty and student papers, cardboard, and other recyclables 
• Graphic design for flyers, mailer outreach, and phone call blast reminders to property managers of off-campus apartments in student-dense areas 
• Collect reusable items, including furniture, clothing, kitchenware, and other household appliances 
• Supply large debris boxes for non-reusable items 

RecycleSmart also helped coordinate and monitor this annual program, which has been extremely successful and shows how different stakeholders can come together to reduce waste and positively benefit the environment.

Kristin Bowman

Kristin Bowman has spent the last eight years as a Water Conservation Representative at East Bay Municipal Utility District, where she leads the Landscape Advisory Committee (LAC), a key stakeholder group of landscaping professionals in Contra Costa and Alameda Counties who provide direction for outdoor water conservation programs. She has done a tremendous job keeping this unique group of volunteers engaged and up to date on the latest water conservation practices to spread in the community, organizing free forums, workshops, and webinars for the LAC to learn, share, and debate (spray vs drip irrigation!?). Most recently, she hosted a webinar about AB1572, the statewide irrigation ban on decorative turf, bringing representatives from the California Department of Water Resource and Southern California Water Districts to help local landscapers and municipal staff understand the bill and brainstorm ideas for working together.

Kristin’s work in the community includes supporting demonstration gardens, community gardens that save water, promote biodiversity, and educate visitors about sustainable gardening best practices. She approaches these projects through the lens of “placemaking,” which involves community engagement and partnerships, rather than a top-down approach. Placemaking centers neighborhood needs and participation to create spaces and demonstration gardens that help the community thrive. She works with many of EBMUD’s large landscape customers and HOAs, including Rossmoor in Walnut Creek, helping with the transition from lawns to gardens and assisting with irrigation upgrades.

Kristin is an innovator and creative problem solver, always thinking about new ways to engage residents and businesses. It’s her work with people that sets her apart, and her contagious
enthusiasm that raises everyone up.

Mighty Market

Mighty Market is a women- and family-owned business that, since its opening in downtown Martinez in 2020, offers locally sourced products, including pantry items, brushes, containers, skin care products, kitchen supplies, cleaning  products, and much more. Their focus on reusable and sustainable alternatives helps residents replace toxic products with environmentally-friendly- and safe alternatives. By offering refillable options for everyday household products, they provide a practical solution to the growing plastic pollution problem. Customers can bring their own containers to refill items such as soaps, shampoos, household cleaners, laundry detergent, and even personal care products.

Mighty Market engages the community through workshops and through support of environmental nonprofits. Their workshops include candle making and  bath bomb crafting, promoting hands-on sustainability practices. Partnering with 1% for the Planet, Mighty Market donates one percent of all sales to support sustainability initiatives worldwide. Updates are given to customers to inform them of the money raised, and the progress they have made. This initiative not only funds conservation efforts, but also engages the community in global environmental stewardship. By reducing plastic, supporting local business, and educating residents, Mighty Market creates a  ripple effect of positive change in Martinez and beyond.

Sustainable Walnut Creek

Since its founding in 2008, Sustainable Walnut Creek (SWC) has worked to foster city-wide sustainability through events, programs, and advocacy that promote environmental health. The all-volunteer group devoted many hours to producing Walnut Creek’s 2024 Earth Day. This event filled Civic Park with festive and educational booths, giving high impact exposure to both nonprofits and local businesses. Other free public events sponsored by SWC include Sustainability Weeks, Earth Month, Eco-Fest and Parking Day. The group organized Walnut Creek’s first Climate March as part of the Walnut Festival’s Twilight parade.

An example of the huge impact that SWC has had through collaboration with other groups is their promotion of the MCE model for sourcing electricity from solar, wind and other renewable sources. Subsequently, the City mandated the model for all Walnut Creek citizens. The group was influential in developing the community-wide Recycle Compost and Waste Ambassador program and contributed to the City’s Sustainability Action Plan. SWC has worked with numerous groups throughout Contra Costa County, including the Contra Costa County Library, Ruth Bancroft Garden, Contra Costa MoveOn, Mt. Diablo Unitarian Universalist Church and Third Act, on sustainability-promoting activities and actions. Through their own events and programs, as well as through collaboration with other groups, Sustainable Walnut Creek has made a substantial contribution to the environmental health of our community.