Locals Share Green Action

Lorrie and Jeffrey Scott are brother and sister and co-founders of a small company, Green Village Biofertilizers in Denver, Colorado.  Their company produces a natural fertilizer made from fresh-water algae, selected fungi, soil bacteria, and humates.  They released their first fertilizer product early in 2020 and are working on many more to follow. Learn about their path of green action as they h...

Andrew Frank is the the founder of the nonprofit, Space Cadet, in Reno, NV.  Every yea Andrew Frank is the the founder of the nonprofit, Space Cadet, in Reno, NV.  Every year large amounts of retail displays/fixtures are being sent to landfills.  Andrew has made it his mission to prevent this from happening.  His Nevada nonprofit, Space Cadet, helps companies repurpose their components responsibly...

Among other numerous community service roles, Earstin Whitten is the co-founder and president of Soulful Seeds, a non-profit whose mission is to provide greater food security through community gardens and gardening education.  He is also affectionately known as the local “Guru of Garlic” as he teaches community members how to grow garlic successfully. Soulful Seeds, Reno, NV https://www.soulful-se...

Charles grew up in California, enjoying the outdoors, surfing, and working in restaurants as he attended school.  He ended up in Reno, Nevada and is now the program director of University of Nevada Reno’s Desert Farming Initiative.  He is an agricultural specialist for sustainable and organic farming practices.  His previous experience includes multiple diversified row crop farms, small-scale orch...

Emy Damian with a medical background found herself searching for safer cosmetics for her daughter.  Becoming informed opened her eyes to the hundreds of potentially toxic chemicals in over-the-counter beauty products.  Beautycounter provided her a unique opportunity to start her own micro business that provides safer cosmetic products.  For Emy this is not just a business, but a mission.   Faceboo...

Lorie English loves upcycling taking vintage feed sacks, and clothing and transforming them into great handbags, wallets, and pouches. It is a unique creative design challenge to work with these fabrics to produce unique bags in many popular styles.  All of the fabric, including the linings are made from other items.  ReCreated Website: https://www.recreatednow.com/   Instagram https://www.instagr...

Interview with David English, the founder of Black Owl Guitars in New Bern, N. Carolina, and wiring technician, Mark Schomaker.  Black Owl Guitars make full functioning strings instruments, amplifiers, and electric kazoos. Both of these musicians are talented creators that solve creative challenges to make instruments with great sound from what would have been waste.   http://blackowlguitars.com/i...

Katherine Prior is a full-time university student, at The University of Western Ontario and an eco-blogger and social media influencer with “SweetSustainability.ca”. She grew up caring and being inspired by nature but began to notice the unsustainable aspects of her life.  She has since grown passionate about saving the planet, imperfect low-waste living, ethical fashion, flexitarianism, conscious...

Lynn Mehl as an environmentalist has taken her passion to save the planet and has used it to take over and convert a conventional florist business into one of the first full-service eco-florist models of sustainability in the country.  Lynn while running her business also promotes, writes, and educates that this CAN be done and profitably.  Her goal now is to influence and promote green planet-fri...

Pennye Napier-Jones and her partner, Julie Piez, together are the co-founders and owners of The Big Bad Woof incorporated.  Their company specializes in premium, organic, holistic, locally-sourced,  and raw foods and supplies.  Big Bad Woof works to source products that are sustainable, locally-made, fair-trade, and made using sustainable manufacturing methods.

When Nicky and Dave had children that were born with severe allergies, they decided that switching to safer and more nutritious foods would be part of the solution for better health. Together, they now run Permaculture Gardens where they educate people with free webinars, educational blogs, and offer a garden mentoring program to help families grow abundantly. Permaculture Gardens has received the...

James Gatzke shares his background and experience that prepared him for his current conservation, restoration, and native plant nursery work with Walker Basin Conservancy in the challenging desert environment of Northern Nevada.

Steve Welzer was a founding member of the Green Party of New Jersey in 1997 and served on the Steering Committee of the US Green Party during 2012-2013.  He actively served the green movement by working in committees, running for office and editing, contributing to, and writing various green publications.  He is now working with a group of people to start an eco-village in either central New Jerse...

Chuck is one of the founders of Simply Living, nonprofit acting as a connector, organizer, and educator in the green community in Ohio.  Lynn also a board member of Simply Living and has been a fan from the beginning.  They both share the inspiring work that they are taking to grow greater green action through the use of multiple avenues to connect and educate the community in the Ohio area. https...

Rebecca Nutter is one of the founders and the Executive Director of the Minneapolis Toy Library.  Thanks to this library, over 350 families are able to share resources, cut down on their waste and consumption, and provide toys for their young children who often benefit from varied developmentally stimulating and age-appropriate toys. https://mplstoylibrary.org/

Crystal Dreisbach is the Founder & Executive Director of a non-profit organization called Don't Waste Durham which creates multiple solutions that prevent trash. She invented and operates GreenToGo, a city-wide reusable takeout container service for restaurants and grocery stores as well as additional innovative solutions for other types of waste reduction. http://www.dontwastedurham.org/  

Anna Tsantir is the cofounder of Two Bettys in Minneapolis, Minnesota.  Two Bettys is a green cleaning company that has combined their mission of using ecofriendly cleaners that are safer for their employees, their clients and their community with striving to support greater social justice, green living and community empowerment.  They are a company that pays their employees a living wage and bene...

With the ever-increasing recognition that our planet can neither provide endless resources nor absorb endless waste, a cultural shift has begun.  Maria and her co-organizers have set out to make it their mission to address the rest of our “junk”.  She is part of the Upcycle Alameda Meetup group in Alameda, California which brings people together focusing on finding the beauty in junk, by using dis...

Samantha Romanick, a microbiology PhD student, is the founder and operator of Black Rock Refill, a zero-waste business to help people in the Reno, Nevada and surrounding areas have options to reduce plastic waste in their lives.  Studying the biology of micro-plastic contamination in the environment, she knows intimately why we should consider minimizing our use of plastic and how to go about it....

Kelley and Susan met while teaching at the same school.  They found they were equally inspired by Reggio Emilia, a unique and successful approach to learning.  It inspired them to visit the birthplace of the philosophy in Reggio Emilia, Italy in 2010.  When they returned they took their inspiration and built a similar creative recycling center in the City of Alexandria.  Upcycle is now a community...

Luke and Shannon own Blustery Bovine, a 6-acre farm in Washoe Valley, NV where they raise cattle, pigs, goats, sheep, and chickens to supply food to their CSA and farm store. They have been using regenerative land management practices and methods that better care for animals and at the same time help to heal and replenish the health of wildlife, pasture grasses, and the soil.  

Gwen Bourne shares her small local flower business that she started after her semi-retirement.  She shares her passion for growing beautiful flowers without the need for toxic sprays and how doing so encourages and supports pollinators such as bees, butterflies, and birds.  

Vanessa Robertson is currently the Executive Co-Director of Envirolution which works with teachers and students, K-12 for "youth leadership development, and community outreach programs centered around energy efficiency, sustainability, and Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math (STEAM) career development." Over the years Vanessa has used her environmental studies degrees to work with envir...

Josie, originally from the Midwest, traveled to Reno, NV to participate in the Americorp program and ended up making Northern Nevada her new home.  After Americorp she went on to found a non-profit called Urban Roots.  Now working as a Montessori teacher, she looks back and shares the story of how she took her university education, Americorp training, and Permaculture training and used it to creat...

Tanner Petrilla has been working as a farm intern at four different organic farms learning what works best with various growing conditions, types of crops, and holistic land management methods.