The Dunwoody City Council honored community advocate Pattie Baker and the nonprofit Chattahoochee Riverkeeper as 2020’s “sustainability heroes” at its April 12 meeting.
Members of the Dunwoody Sustainability Committee — an advisory body which offers recommendations on sustainability issues in the city — chose the recipients of the 2020 Sustainability Hero Awards. This award program began in 2012 and honors individuals and organizations dedicated to sustainable practices.
Baker, who served on the Sustainability Committee during Dunwoody’s initial years of cityhood, is a founder of the Dunwoody Community Garden and a food pantry at Malachi’s Storehouse at 4755 North Peachtree Road. According to a press release, she advocates for alternative forms of transportation and “pedestrian-friendly policies.”
“This award is a really lovely surprise,” Baker said during the April 12 meeting. “I want to personally thank all of you at City Hall for everything you’re doing to make our city more resilient.
Chattahoochee Riverkeeper is an organization that works to preserve and restore the Chattahoochee River Basin. According to the press release, the organization has partnered with the Sustainability Committee for the past three years to do weekly water quality testing of Dunwoody’s watershed to promote clean water in the Chattahoochee.
Juliet Cohen, executive director of Chattahoochee Riverkeeper, accepted the award at the City Council meeting.
“This is such a great honor as we celebrate our 27th year,” Cohen said. “We’re testing at 195 stream and river locations from Clarksville to Columbus. We test nearly 250 miles of the Chattahoochee Watershed and lots of tributaries and lakes in between.”