Love Your City Awards Celebrate Impactful Businesses and Organizations
NEW ORLEANS – Business consultant Liz Shephard created the Love Your City Awards to “celebrate environmental and social impact achievements and empower change-makers to take on the next steps in their sustainability missions.” Or, to put it another, she wanted to honor people and businesses working to make a greener and more equitable New Orleans.
“New Orleans has been exposed to more challenges than most cities,” said Shephard. “We are on the front lines of climate change, wealth disparity and any number of public health issues. At the same time, the city is made up of resilient people, with a resilient spirit, and a sense of place that is also unparalleled to many communities. With the increasing awareness around the challenges we face, we are able to turn these challenges into opportunities to unite our community and become a more sustainable city.”
Local business and community leaders gathered for the eighth annual Love Your City Awards on Jan. 30 at the Sheraton New Orleans Hotel. Honorees ranged from Harrah’s New Orleans and Magnolia Physical Therapy to Schmelly’s Dirt Farm, purveyors of top-quality compost.
“The impetus behind the Love Your City Awards remains recognizing and praising positive change in our community,” said Shephard. “My greatest concern for New Orleans is resistance to vulnerability – a kind of ‘digging in’ that prevents us from understanding each other and our interconnected worlds. Prior to Katrina, I believe this kind of fear of change and closed mindset was even stronger. Ten years ago, you couldn’t mention climate change in a professional setting without fearing it being too ‘political.’
“Things are changing. And what gives me hope is an increasing vulnerability and open-hearted living that the young people who stepped up on stage demonstrated Thursday night. From poetry, to dance, to spoken word – our young people were not afraid to acknowledge our challenges and discuss them. What gives me hope is the open-heartedness that everyone who attended demonstrated – the joy that was present in honoring one another despite these issues truly being grave.”
2020 Love Your City Award Winners
Culture: Studio BE
Economic Opportunity: Operation Restoration
Education: Electric Girls
Energy: HI New Orleans
Food: Schmelly’s
Health: Harrah’s New Orleans
Housing: Jericho Road Episcopal Housing Initiative
Resource Management: CompostNOW
Stormwater Management: Green Light New Orleans
Transportation: HI New Orleans
Best in Show: GoodWood NOLA
People’s Choice: Magnolia Physical Therapy
