Carson City student, La Nova Beauty and Redwood Materials among 2023 greenUP sustainability award winners

Local non-profit greenUP! on behalf of several organizing partners, announced the winners of the 2023 Golden Pinecone Sustainability Awards.

The community is welcome to join the public event to congratulate our 2023 winners for their outstanding work. Recipients will be honored at a live Green Carpet Event at Great Basin Brewing Company Taps and Tanks in Reno April 13 from 5 to 7 p.m. to celebrate local individuals and organizations for their sustainability achievements.

Early ticket purchases are recommended and are discounted to $20 through the end of the month and will be $30 starting April 1st. Visit the Golden Pinecone Sustainability Awards webpage for tickets and join us for appetizers and beverages in your favorite thrifted, upcycled, and recycled clothes. Tickets are limited, so get yours before they sell out!

The Golden Pinecone Sustainability Awards returns to recognize sustainability leaders in our Northern Nevada community. The Golden Pinecone Sustainability Awards is a legacy event run for over 30 years, starting in 1988. The awards recognize businesses, individuals, educators, and organizations for their efforts to make our community sustainable and environmentally healthy. The awards event has created a community throughout the years that gathers persevering individuals to continue their inspiring work.

The 2023 Golden Pinecone Sustainability Awards is a Green Carpet Event hosted by greenUP!, Western Nevada College, Keep Truckee Meadows Beautiful (KTMB), Envirolution, and the Great Basin Outdoor School. Sponsors include Western Nevada College, the Reno + Sparks Chamber of Commerce and the Washoe County Health District.

Recognition is being given in 11 categories:
Educational Program – Great Basin Outdoor School

Educator – Nathan ‘Eric’ Heiselt: Science, History and Project Recharge Teacher at Silverland Middle School

Youth Leadership – Lucas Valdez: Student at Eagle Valley Middle School

Non-Profit Organization – Soulful Seeds

Individual/Volunteer – Kasey Crispin: Director of Riverside Farmers Market & Co-founder of Prema Farms

Sustainable Milestones – Elizabeth Guillen: Student at the University of Nevada, Reno and 2020-2022 ASUN Director of Sustainability

Green Dining Establishment – Great Full Gardens Café & Eatery

Toward Zero Waste – Space Cadet

Tier 1 Business of the Year – La Nova Beauty

Tier 2 Business of the Year – Strange Bikinis

Most Innovative Business – Redwood Materials

GreenUP! is a local 501(c)3 non-profit working with businesses to reduce their environmental impact through cost-saving practices and environmental education.

Background on Individuals and Organizations Awarded

Educational Program – Great Basin Outdoor School
Great Basin Outdoor School is an outstanding non-profit organization providing outdoor and environmental education to our community’s youth since 1998 with “hands-on discovery in the outdoor classroom”. The noteworthy environmental impact they deliver to their students and community has promoted lifelong lessons in keeping the environment healthy and pristine.

Through environmental education, students can explore, achieve, learn, and expand their knowledge to discover fundamental processes of the natural world, societal impacts, and sustainable lifestyle choices. Activities such as hiking, snowshoeing, learning about ecology, and our local watersheds inspire students to care for the environment and share responsibility for the health of future generations.

Sue Jacox, founder of Great Basin Outdoor School, has built a strong community and team that are eager to share their knowledge and experience of the natural world with curious students and their families. Her continuous input in the community has guided the youth toward a sustainable future.

Youth Leadership – Lucas Valdez: Student at Eagle Valley Middle School
Lucas Valdez, a student in Kimberly Tucker’s STEM and Robotics class at Eagle Valley Middle School in Carson City has been an active advocate for a clean community and watershed. Lucas won Envirolution’s sponsorship for his project “Pollution in Carson City.”

According to the Reno Gazette Journal, the Carson River is one of the most polluted rivers in Northern Nevada, and Lucas wants to help change that for the health of the community wildlife, and ecosystem. As a result of his project proposal, during the 2022-23 school year, Lucas has organized students and staff to engage in trash clean-ups around campus and nearby waterways, green spaces, and parks to improve downstream water quality in the Carson River. Lucas has organized and hosted an active clean-up event that cleans-up sectors in the watershed quarterly and is planning another for the end of the school year.

Educator – Nathan ‘Eric’ Heiselt: Science, History and Project ReCharge Teacher at Silverland Middle School

Nathan ‘Eric’ Heiselt has been an educator for 26 years at the middle school, high school, and university level, five of which in Northern Nevada. Nathan has been involved in the community by teaching other educators a sustainability curriculum. He has gone above and beyond to introduce an elective sustainability course at Silverland Middle School. His impact in promoting sustainability empowers students and other members of the community to embrace their role in our future generations environmental and societal health.

Some of his current works is helping a local educational non-profit, Envirolution, to develop a lesson on food and sustainability. The learning objective of this course is to help students understand the full life cycle of food at all its stages, including harvesting, processing, packaging, and transportation.

Nathan is also helping Envirolution and the community by putting together student-driven sustainability events focused on repurposing and proper recycling, such as a light bulb and battery collection event. Through the local community and the help of Envirolution, Nathan has taught and mentored 400 students in the last three years on topics of sustainability.

Non-Profit Organization – Soulful Seeds
Earstin Whitten and Dee Schafer-Whitten are co-founders of Soulful Seeds, a 501(c)3 non-profit dedicated to growing fresh food for our food insecure community members. Since 2017, Soulful Seeds has grown food in an approximately 1,000 square foot garden with the generous help of the Saint Mary’s Medical Group in Reno. They donate produce from this garden to local food pantries with the goal to educate the community that accessibility to healthy food is achievable.

Transforming 3-acres of turf into a regenerative garden to protect the health of the soil and conserve water are ways Soulful seeds can provide fresh food to the most vulnerable in our community. The garden they found has created an inclusive outdoor space that allows people of all backgrounds to provide for themselves and their families. In 2022, Soulful Seeds distributed 5,475 pounds of fresh food with the help of 262 unduplicated volunteers working 867 volunteered hours in the gardens.

Individual/Volunteer – Kasey Crispin: Director of Riverside Farmers Market & Co-founder of Prema Farms
Kasey is the director of the Riverside Farmers Market and has done incredible work in connecting farmers with members of our community to access healthy and sustainable food. Kasey actively advocates for eco-conscious practices to keep our Northern Nevada land safe and healthy such as advocating toward zero-waste.

At the farmers market, Kasey has advocated toward zero-waste events to build a healthy community that reduces unnecessary waste that can pollute our environment. As a community hub for ranchers, farmers, vendors, and creatives, Kasey has excelled in highlighting the Northern Nevada community’s motivation to stay green.

Alongside her noteworthy advocacy work, Kasey runs Prema Farm with her partner and family to promote regenerative farming practices. Land can commonly be taken for granted in a fast- paced society we all live in today, but Kasey and her family have worked thoroughly to give back to the land.

Prema Farms is a certified organic no-till farm offering a diverse and high- quality bounty of vegetables and flowers to local restaurants, grocers, and community members. With no-till farming practices, supporting natural ecosystem processes and water conservation are in the forefront of her work.

Sustainable Milestones – Elizabeth Guillen: Student at the University of Nevada, Reno and 2020-2022 ASUN Director of Sustainability

Elizabeth Guillen is a fourth-year student at the University of Nevada, Reno studying for a double major in Forest Ecology & Management and Environmental Science with a minor in Political Science. In her time as the ASUN Director of Sustainability, she worked toward promoting the EdPASS campaign which allowed any person with a UNR I.D. to ride all RTC buses in Washoe County for free.

According to data from RTC, the EdPASS Program has helped keep 1.3 million pounds of harmful greenhouse gases out from entering our atmosphere since its launch in 2019. The EdPASS also increased ridership from 1,818 in April 2020 to 6,410 riders in April 2022.

Elizabeth also worked to improve sustainability measure on the university’s campus by distributing $17,000 to student sustainability projects, improved recycling management practices, and implementing sustainably into the new University of Nevada Reno’s strategic plan, among many other projects.

Green Dining Establishment – Great Full Gardens Café & Eatery
Great Full Gardens Café & Eatery is a local hub for all things fresh and local. The eatery features an array of breakfast, lunch, and dinner items that cater to people with specialized dietary needs such as gluten-free, paleo, vegan as well as to people looking to explore a unique menu.

Much of their menu consists of local vendors and farmers that deliver fresh food daily. All their products are made with sustainability choices in mind, such as waste reduction, to cater to the community and our planet. They also encourage their staff to participate in the sustainability movement by collecting pre-consumer food waste such as compost or animal feed.

Great Full Gardens gives back to the community by partnering with local organizations like The Third Meal and The Eddy to provide our community's youth in need a place to dine while eating healthy and nutritious meals. Great Full Gardens also works with RootEd, an educational non- profit, by donating greenhouses to local schools.

Toward Zero Waste – Space Cadet
Space Cadet’s primary goal is to become a zero-waste retail store. They reuse, refurbish, and repurpose discarded retail fixtures to provide custom and cost friendly displays and in-store build outs. They salvage materials from major retailers, redesign and find the appropriate reuse opportunities for display stands, cabinets, etc. Space Cadet adopts policies and practices that reuses, shreds, and composts material to educate others on how to be sustainable. They have been active in the community by providing sustainable retail displays and signage to local businesses like the Waste Less Shop.

Since April 2019, Space Cadet has prevented over 100,000 pounds of would-be retail trash from entering landfills and 60,000 pounds of reclaimed material installed back in market. Implementing a circular supply chain approach in their own business, Space Cadet encourages sustainable practices that are adoptable by all retailers.

Tier 1 Green Business of the Year – La Nova Beauty
La Nova Beauty, founded by Laura Segura, is one of the greenest beauty salons in Northern Nevada. Based in Carson City, La Nova Beauty brings organic, eco-friendly, and sustainable products and treatments to the beauty industry. Laura believes that the beauty experience should not come as a sacrifice to environmental health.

La Nova Beauty focuses on reducing their waste footprint. La Nova uses plastic-free products and equipment made of bamboo, aluminum, and straw. They also use paper not foil — a sustainable alternative to hair foil made of repurposed construction waste that can be washed and reused. La Nova repurposes their glass jars and bottles, and through their Green Circle Salons certification, they divert all paper, hair, hair color, aluminum, and electronic devices from the landfill.

To curb their resource consumption and save on utility bills, Laura has installed LED lighting, sun-blocking window film, and low-flow faucet aerators throughout the salon.

Tier 2 Green Business of the Year – Strange Bikinis
Ali Conway, owner and designer of Strange Bikinis, has built a unique community in the fashion world. Strange Bikinis is a women-owned business that values sustainability and community over profit. Strange Bikinis believes in quality swimwear over quantity to reduce the environmental impact that big fashion corporations create. As a small business owner, Ali is always educating and promoting her following and customers about sustainable lifestyle choices.

Strange Bikinis are made in the USA and use recycled and biodegradable fabrics in their swimwear lines. Additionally, Ali creatively uses fabric scraps to create new and innovative products thereby reducing waste.
Each year Strange Bikinis organizes community events such as The Big Dip to encourage people to get outside and out of their comfort zone while supporting local charity that directly impacts the preservation of Reno -Tahoe.

Most Innovative Business – Redwood Materials

Redwood Materials is creating a closed-loop, domestic supply chain for lithium-ion batteries across recycling, refining, and remanufacturing of sustainable battery materials. Their efforts toward a sustainable and decarbonized transportation sector are technological advancements aimed to help solve our global environmental issues.

Redwood Materials is making innovative changes toward recycling lithium by taking end of life lithium-ion batteries, such as old cell phones and electric car batteries, to recycle and fully refine the metals recovered and to remanufacture them into new battery components.

A circular supply chain is one of the many steps that need to be taken toward a more sustainable future. As an innovative industry that is becoming recognized around the world, it is a great honor to have Redwood headquartered in our capital and represent our Northern Nevada region.