GreenSource DFW and the nonprofit Memnosyne Institute chose recipients of their ninth annual Sustainable Leadership Awards on November 12 to celebrate the North Texas green community amid an ongoing pandemic. More than 50 people attended the virtual event, emceed by Green Source DFW Director Wendel Withrow from his Carrollton office.

Olinka Green and Marsha Jackson won the Environmental Justice category. Green has been a social and environmental activist for 20 years in Dallas. Last year, she traveled to Washington, D.C., with Corey Troiani, of Texas Campaign for the Environment, to lobby the U.S. Environmental Agency to speed-up cleanup at the Lane Plating Superfund site in South Dallas. Jackson is the founder of Southern Sector Rising, a coalition fighting against racist zoning in Dallas. 

Winners in the Environmental Science and Innovation category included Texas Nameplate Company owner Dale Crownover, Good Faith Energy and Deb Terrell. Crownover reinvented the name plating business, eventually building a state-of-the art, green manufacturing facility in 2017. They now are a model for the industry.

The Conservation Activist Award was awarded to Brandon Belcher, a preserves manager for The Nature Conservancy. Working out of the Clymer Meadow Preserve, he is one of the top local experts on native prairies in North Texas.

The Green Project or Program Award went to the city of Fort Worth Residential Food Scrap Composting Pilot Program, the first of its kind in North Texas. In its first year, the program has enrolled more than 1,000 residents and diverted 70 tons of food waste from the landfill.

Tammie Carson was the winner of the Coke Buchanan Volunteer of the Year Award. The Arlington-based activist has been a fixture in the Arlington environmental scene and a volunteer in almost every local effort to advance environmental protection, racial justice and animal rights, including the in Liveable Arlington fight against gas drilling.

The Environmental Reporting Award went to the Green Source DFW team of reporters Andrea Ridout, Andrew Ridout, Amy Martin, Betsy Friauf, Jim Domke, John Kent, Marshall Hinsley, Minnie Payne, Julie Ryan, Michael Smith and Green Tip Guy Jason Winningham.