On Saturday, October 26, 2024, we gathered at Camp Pollock (1501 Northgate Blvd, Sacramento, CA 95815) for our annual Environmentalist of the Year Awards Ceremony.
At the event, we enjoyed the following:
Music: Midtown Jazz – A fantastic instrumental band playing a mixture of smooth jazz, R & B, and latin music.
Wine: Sand Point Family Vineyard – The Lange family has been farming since the 1940’s around Lodi. They feature sustainably grown, single-vineyard, socially conscious wines.
Bogle Winery – A Certified Green sustainable vineyard committed to preserving the land for generations.
Beer: King Cong Brewery – A community driven brewery serving the Northern Sacramento area. Their mantra is “Community, Culture, Creativity”.
History
Since 1973, with the Environmentalist of the Year Award, we have been honoring people who work hard, inspire others, and have accomplishments that further the ECOS mission to achieve sustainability, livable communities, environmental justice, and a healthy environment for residents of the Sacramento region.
2024 Awardees
Barbara Leary
Environmentalist of the Year
Barbara Leary is the Executive Committee Chair of the Sierra Club Sacramento Group and has been the group’s representative on the ECOS Board for over ten years. She has been involved in many important and controversial efforts to protect the environment and improve prospects for sustainability. In partnership with ECOS, 350 Sacramento, Sacramento Climate Coalition, and others, Barbara has been a true leader in advocating for climate action by counties and cities in the Sacramento region. She has called to inhibit sprawl, promote infill development, reduce car-based GHG emissions, expand carbon sequestration, and increase biodiversity.
Barbara has served for many years on the Folsom Planning Commission, focusing on land use patterns, zoning, traffic safety, walkability, and trees. She served on the Folsom Parks and Recreation Commission and the Arts and Cultural Commission, and currently serves on Folsom’s Water Visioning working group and its River District Master Plan committee.
Barbara actively supports SMUD’s efforts to achieve carbon neutrality and preserve natural and archeological resources, as well as the Natomas Basin Habitat Conservation Plan, South Sacramento Habitat Conservation Plan, and 30X30 California, the State’s initiative to conserve 30 percent of California’s lands and coastal waters by 2030.
Presenter: Sean Wirth, Conservation Committee Chair, Mother Lode Chapter of the Sierra Club, and Co-Chair of the Habitat 2020 Committee of ECOS
Anushka Kalyan
Rising Star Award
Anushka Kalyan is a high school senior who has worked with ECOS for over two years. In 2023, as part of the Earth Day planning committee, she suggested the theme “GROW NATIVE” for Sacramento Earth Day 2023, which quickly shaped the entire event. She showed intelligence, energy, ideas, and enthusiasm to such an extent that she was appointed to the ECOS Executive Committee in 2024. With Luz Lim who is now an ECOS Policy Analyst, Anushka started the ECOS Environmental Justice Team. Anushka is also the Placer County representative on SACOG’s Mobility Zones Task Force, a member of 350 Sacramento, an action lead for Fridays for Future, a co-signatory of the USA National Youth Statement for COP29, and a public speaker/organizer of numerous climate rallies.
Award Presenter: Susan Herre, AIA AICP, President of the Board of Directors of ECOS
Sacramento Area Bicycle Advocates (SABA)
Transportation Award
As a non-profit organization, SABA is a long-standing advocacy leader in the Sacramento region for bicycling and streets that are safe for biking. SABA engages with local governments to make street infrastructure changes to improve safety for bicyclists and pedestrians, and to remind elected officials of biking’s benefits to air quality and public health.
SABA encourages bicycle riding in a number of ways: It highlights community events as bikeable destinations, shows how to use a bike for short trips, provides bike maintenance and repairs, teaches bike safety, matches bike donors and recipients, and provides support for businesses to become bike-friendly. The organization works tirelessly with innovative programs such as Bike Valet, Ride Ready Repair, BikeMatchSac, and Lights On to make the Sacramento region a safer, cleaner, healthier, and happier place to live and work.
Award Presenter: Jennifer Finton, Chief Executive Officer of Breathe California Sacramento Region
The Cosumnes Coalition
Water Award
The Cosumnes Coalition, a partnership of the American River Conservancy, Cosumnes Culture and WaterWays, Landmark Environmental, Fishery Foundation, and Trout Unlimited, is a steward of the Cosumnes River at the watershed scale. The partners work to enhance and maintain headwaters’ meadows, connected tributaries, a diverse native ecosystem, intact cultural resources, and flows of cool, clean water to support habitat and human needs.
The Cosumnes is California’s last western Sierra free flowing river that remains hydrologically connected and is not controlled by federal or state water projects. It is home to a Chinook salmon run, the largest remaining Central Valley riparian forest and intact floodplains, is an important part of the Pacific Flyway, and hosts hundreds of threatened and endangered species.
Overdrafting of the river all along its course for human water supply, and excessive groundwater pumping in the Central Valley section have impacted river ecosystems and have therefore challenged the Cosumnes Coalition’s stewardship efforts. However, through collaboration with agencies, landowners, tribes, and other NGOs, the Coalition has leveraged resources and experiences for more effective outcomes, making the Coalition’s support of the Cosumnes River an example of collaboration at its best.
Award Presenter: Mike Eaton, Director, Cosumnes River Project, The Nature Conservancy, 1995-2007; ECOS Board Member 1983-1995; ECOS President 1985-1986; ECOS Environmentalist of the Year 1987
Become a Sponsor
We invite you to become a sponsor of the 2024 Environmentalist of the Year Awards. Explore your sponsorship opportunities here. As a sponsor, you’ll receive tickets to the event, plus recognitions. See the details.
Sponsorships are a primary source of funding for ECOS. Since the 1970s, ECOS has been on the front line in policy battles for a sustainable region, a green economy, and environmental justice. Your sponsorship allows us to continue our work. With your support, we can inspire and motivate others to act for a more sustainable future.
Purchase a Ticket
If you don’t care to sponsor, buy a ticket! Saturday, October 26, 2024, at 5 pm at Camp Pollock by the American River! It will be an enjoyable, memorable event — honoring local environmental leaders. Join us!
Many Fields of Endeavor
Through the Environmentalist of the Year Awards, we honor local leaders in many fields:
- TRANSIT: Work to increase awareness of the importance of expanded transit and infill development to housing affordability, the economic revitalization of inner suburbs, reduction of vehicle trips and related green house gas emissions;
- ANTI-SPRAWL: Stand up against sprawl development and for the key anti-sprawl planning action from 1993, the Sacramento County Urban Services Boundary;
- CLIMATE: Study local government climate plans, make comments and recommendations, and advocate with elected officials and staff to make aggressive and well-supported plans, so our region can be a leader in reversing unhealthy climate change;
- AIR: Implement air quality monitoring as the first step toward air quality improvement;
- HABITAT: Outreach to neighborhoods and elected officials to increase awareness of the importance of our region’s wildlife habitat and habitat-supportive farmland; the landmark 1997 Natomas Basin and South Sacramento Habitat Conservation Plans; Sacramento’s location in the Pacific Flyway and in one of the Earth’s biodiversity hotspots;
- ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE: Work to lessen environmental injustices stemming from the past, such as redlining, and happening now, such as air pollution from freeways;
- SERVICE: Serve faithfully on the ECOS Board for many decades;
- FUNDING: Work to promote ballot measures to fund transit, safe and complete streets, and affordable housing;
- WATER: Work tirelessly to improve the management of the region’s surface and ground water quality and supply.
Hashtag: #sacenviroawards
