On June 8th, one of our co-founders, Natalie Pien was recently honored by the Faith Alliance for Climate Solutions at their Sixth annual Sustainability Champions Awards in Oakton, Virginia. FACS does great work bringing climate solutions to the interfaith community and it was a great night to be there. Congratulations on the well deserved award Natalie!

Natalie had these comments upon receiving the award:

After rallying on the June 8 Biden, #NoMVP rally in D.C., I attended the Faith Alliance for Climate Solutions 2023 Sustainability Champions Award ceremony.  I was honored and humbled to receive one of the Individual Sustainability Champions awards.  I started the journey to reach the awards stage many decades ago.  In high school, I read Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring.  Its message about the harm human beings inflict on Nature stayed with me.  But, the seed of environmentalism didn’t germinate until much later in life.

I share my award with all the people who have mentored and worked with me along the way.  Many of them attended the ceremony, including two young children, Kelsie and Aidan, whom I have come to know through climate activism with their mother.  (Young Kelsie joined my Polar Plunge Team, raising funds to fight climate change!). Without the intellectual, emotional, and social support from people in my past and present, I would not be a Sustainability Champion today.  I am deeply grateful to all of them to help me become my true self.