Brookings Mayor Oepke “Ope” Niemeyer and the Brookings Sustainability Council presented the following awards at the Mayors Holiday Celebration and Awards Event onDec. 6:
Award Category: Industrial
Awardee: Millborn Seeds
The Sustainability Council Award program is designed to excellence in sustainable practices demonstrated by local businesses, organizations, and individuals, while promoting a culture of resiliency. Award winners contribute to a more sustainable city by embracing and promoting an approach to business and daily living that balances environmental responsibility, economic prosperity, and community equity.
The 2023 Mayors Award for Sustainability for the Industrial and Commercial category is awarded to Millborn Seeds. Since 1987, Millborn has been facilitating resilient crop systems that enrich land and lives. Their team makes sustainability simple by taking thousands of products and distilling them down into easy-to-use seed mixes allowing farmers and ranchers to ensure the resiliency of their land for generations to come. Millborn takes this approach beyond just agriculture and fosters sustainability in commercial, conservation, reclamation, and renewable energy industries. Millborn is a Brookings-based company that is positively impacting acres across all of North America.
Award Category: Nonprofit/Government
Awardee: Sarah Weber, Principal,Dakota Prairie Elementary
The Sustainability Council Award program is designed to excellence in sustainable practices demonstrated by local businesses, organizations, and individuals, while promoting a culture of resiliency. Award winners contribute to a more sustainable city by embracing and promoting an approach to business and daily living that balances environmental responsibility, economic prosperity, and community equity.
The 2023 Mayors Award for Sustainability for the Nonprofit / Government category is awarded to Dakota Prairie Elementary School! Sarah Weber, principal of Dakota Prairie Elementary School recently received funding and training to incorporate beekeeping into the learning environment at Dakota Prairie. Sarah participated in beekeeping training with other grant recipients from schools in our region and worked with the Sustainability Council and the Brookings City Council to amend the ordinance to allow beekeeping within the city limits.
The school has also worked with SDSUs Native Plant Initiative to incorporate native pollinator plants into the landscaping at Dakota Prairie to help support the bees.
Award Category: Individual
Awardee: Kirsten Gjesdal
The Sustainability Council Award program is designed to excellence in sustainable practices demonstrated by local businesses, organizations, and individuals, while promoting a culture of resiliency.
Award winners contribute to a more sustainable city by embracing and promoting an approach to business and daily living that balances environmental responsibility, economic prosperity, and community equity.
The 2023 Mayors Award for Sustainability for the Individual category is awarded to Kirsten Gjesdal. Gjesdal is recognized for her impressive work pertaining to Social Sustainability, while promoting a culture of resiliency in and around Brookings. She is the owner of The Carrot Seed Kitchen Co., which not only sells sustainable products, but also helps our friendly pollinators by hosting bee hives on the roof.
She fosters other local small businesses by coordinating the Brookings Farmers Market, as well as being the executive director of Downtown Brookings.
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