Shelly Douglas - The Nation’s Largest Earth Day Service Event

[00:00:00] Adam: Hello, welcome to another episode of Green Champions.

[00:00:13] Dominique: Thanks for joining us in a conversation with real people, making real environmental change in the work that they do. I am here with Adam, the social enterprise extraordinaire.

[00:00:23] Adam: And I'm so glad to be alongside Dominique, the sustainability expert. We bring you guests who saw the potential for impact of their jobs or community and did something about it.

[00:00:33] Dominique: From entrepreneurs to artists, scientists to activists, this podcast is a platform for Green Champions to share their stories and plant new ideas.

[00:00:42] Adam: So whether you're tuning in from your daily commute, relaxing at home, or taking a nature walk, today you're gonna hear from Shelly Douglas. Last time we got to hear from Shelly on her experience growing up and actually becoming an expert in the sustainability world and her background of becoming an executive director in Green Columbus at a young age, and a little bit about what her passions were, kind of drawing her into this area. 

Today we're gonna dive deeper into the amazing work that Shelly does through Green Columbus, including the work planting trees or providing resources to anyone to get their hands dirty and improve the environment of the community and this pretty rad Earth Day celebration that they do every year. Let's dive right in.

[00:01:20] Shelly: Glad to be back.

[00:01:22] Dominique: Okay, Shelly, we are very excited to dive into kind of the Green Champion side of the amazing work that you've done, we got to hear, you know, the background to getting your role and what you love about it and what motivates you. 

But, help us get a sense of what is Green Columbus? Like, what is a day at your job?

[00:01:39] Shelly: Yeah, so just to go back to the beginning, Green Columbus was founded in 2007 because there was kind of a group of friends, a group of people that were like, "There's not really anything fun going on in terms of Earth Day" or, just environmental projects, just kind of things to go out there and get involved in your community. And so they had this idea to host an Earth Day celebration, and that was how we ended up here. It just has grown and grown and now we are a year round nonprofit. And we're not just Earth Day anymore, we have programming all throughout the year and the core of our programs is to improve equitable outcomes, environmental outcomes for people of Central Ohio. And I think what kind of sets us apart from other groups is that we make it fun. So, our Earth Day campaign has a celebration. We do a monthly a networking event called Green Drinks. And so we can get into these things more, but our goal is to, one, get people to come out and take part in community projects because we think that makes them leave with a stake and they're kind of invested in it and maybe if they planted a tree every time they drive by, they'll check on it or, you know, they won't litter anymore 'cause they came to a litter cleanup. 

So, one is getting community members involved in these projects and two is making the projects happen. We're really good. We consider ourselves a 'do tank', not a 'think tank' because everything we do is very boots on the ground, out in the community work. And so, even though we have one staff person and a whole lot of volunteer board members, we're able to get a lot of work done. And I think that's kind of our defining characteristic, is that we make it fun and we get it done.

[00:03:38] Adam: That's beautiful. 

Well, can you paint a picture of what this looks like for Earth Day, right? This is not like a small scale, 5 people going out and planting a tree.

[00:03:48] Shelly: Yeah. So a fact for you is that Earth Day Columbus is the largest volunteer driven event for Earth Day in the country. So we have the largest concentration of volunteers coming together for Earth Day right here in Columbus. So this is something really special that we have going on here. And the whole point of the first Earth Day was to do a year's worth of work in a day.

So they just wanted to activate everyone, get out, get it all done, and one day and we're done. So we have evolved since that time. And every April we do an entire month of service now. And these aren't just tree plantings, they're also litter cleanups, invasive species removals. There are recycling events. There are beautification events. And our whole goal is to make it easy for people to host these events. So if you've never hosted an event, if you're just a couple of neighbors getting together and wanting to do something, Green Columbus is going to help you. 

So, we make a volunteer signup page for everyone who registers their event. We provide free soil and mulch. We provide trees, seeds, and plants. We work with Keep Columbus Beautiful so that they can get shovels, wheelbarrows, litter grabbers. And so kind of the whole point of Earth Day Columbus is to activate people who aren't necessarily green champions or environmental professionals to get involved and kind of adopt these projects on their own. 

And so anyone can submit an idea for Earth Day, and basically all you need is like, "Hey, we're gonna do a litter cleanup in this neighborhood." And then we can build it from there. And our goal is to get volunteers out there, get you all the supplies you need so that it is doable to host events like this. And that's kind of our main goal of Earth Day. But then we have a really fun community celebration at Genoa Park after, because we want Earth Day to be fun, and we want kind of that doom and gloom aspect of climate change to not prevent people from coming out and getting involved. So we have a really fun event with food trucks and bands and kids tents and whatnot to celebrate our volunteers. But I feel like sometimes people think that's the main event is our celebration at Genoa Park, but it's really about all the volunteers, and the 160 work sites that happen in April.

[00:06:17] Adam: Fantastic. So, 160 work sites. How many volunteers come out and like, how much stuff do you actually do?

[00:06:23] Shelly: Yeah, so 2023 was one of our biggest years, and this year we, at those 160 events, we had 4,000 volunteers. We planted 72,000 trees, 3000 native plants and 10 acres of prairie seed. And so we kind of see it as, you know we're a nonprofit but we are distributing almost to other nonprofits or small community groups that need to get started for the year, and it's like we can rally people up to get out there. Yeah. 

[00:06:54] Adam: Wow, that's, you shared that in our last podcast and that 72,000 trees just blows my mind. So that is fantastic. But that's also a great call for like people who see something in their community where they want to host a project that they can actually go through you, get that registered and help get some support for that. 

[00:07:13] Shelly: Absolutely. Yeah. So we, basically all the way up until April, except project ideas on earthdaycolumbus.org, there's all the info you need on there, but even if it's just your neighbors or if you, at your job, a couple of you wanna organize your own event, we can help you plan that. That's what we're good at, is helping people who've never done it before do it. But you can just submit your idea and we will go from there.

[00:07:42] Adam: Okay. 

Now I'm really curious about this 'cause Dominique was hinting that planting a tree is more than just like digging a hole and putting a tree in. What's like the quick rundown of like how you plant a tree?

[00:07:52] Dominique: I was joking with Adam that there's sometimes that joke that I've heard you say of like, "If you've never planted a tree wrong, you've not planted a tree." So, yeah.

[00:08:00] Shelly: Correct. Yeah. So for Earth Day, the seedlings are pretty small. So these are for restoration projects. 

So like along the river or land that's been reclaimed, so these are seedlings. And yeah, they're about between maybe 12 to 24 inches and events typically, we have some events for Earth Day that plant 500 in a day. You know, not even a day, at a two hour event.

[00:08:25] Dominique: How many people is that? 

[00:08:27] Shelly: Yeah, so the seedlings go pretty quick. You need to, you do need to shovel, but you don't have to make a big hole, but you do have to shovel for each one and put it back. I'd say, you know, one person might be able to plant like 50 in an hour, maybe? If you are really going at it. But, a lot of times we partner up so that one person's shoveling and then one person's kind of planting. And then sometimes they'll put up tree tubes or something that add extra time, but the seedlings go rather quick because you don't have to dig a very big hole. But we do some plantings for Earth Day that are what we call balled and burlapped trees. And so these are the real big ones that you see, get delivered and they're sitting with the burlap sack on the bottom. Those are really labor intensive, and if you don't plant them correctly, they're not gonna live. They might live for like five years and then they will die.

[00:09:24] Adam: So what does that mean, like planting it correctly or incorrectly? Like how do you incorrectly plant a tree?

[00:09:30] Shelly: Yeah, so there's a few key things that can go wrong when you're planting a big tree. And so these trees have been grown in the ground and then they dug them up, they yanked them out, and they covered the roots. So they're going through a hard time already when they get to you, they're a little bit in shock. So, you really wanna try not to disturb the root ball too much before it goes into the ground 'cause those roots are already a little stressed, but it's important to plant the tree at the right height. So that's kind of the main thing we see go wrong with tree plantings, is that the hole's way too deep and trees should not look like a telephone pole going into the ground. They should have a little bit of a outward growth pattern at the bottom. 

It kind of gets a little wider on the bottom. So if you, the saying is, " Too low won't grow. Too high, it'll die." So same thing if you know you have roots sticking out above the soil, that tree's not gonna live. So getting the, what we call the root flare, right where the roots start, right at the ground level is important. 

And mulching is actually one of the biggest killers of trees is incorrect mulching. So mulch is important to keep moisture around the roots of trees, but what we see at most places is a mulch volcano. So if you look at probably any parking lot that has trees, there's probably a big mound of mulch and that is actually gonna kill the tree eventually. And so you want it to look more like a donut, almost. Like you almost wanna make a little kind of moat around so that the water goes in towards the roots. And when it's the volcano, it's all kind of running away from the roots and that mulch up against the trunk is gonna cause problems for the health of the tree. And so correct mulching is one of the most important parts of of planting a tree. 

[00:11:27] Dominique: Trees are usually planted not always by community members. It's by like cities or municipalities or whoever else is putting a tree down. Is it really common for trees to be planted incorrectly even when not done by like a lay person?

[00:11:41] Shelly: Absolutely. I would say Green Columbus takes way more caution when planting trees because our money is really important to us and we have limited resources, so we know that we do not wanna waste our money of that tree dying, so we're very careful about it. But I think people who plant trees for money sometimes are just trying to get it done as fast as they can. We have experienced trees that were planted by contractors that still have like the burlap on the bottom of the trees, you're supposed to cut that off. In the cage, there's a wire cage, you're supposed to take all that off. We've seen people just stick the tree in the ground with all that still on so the roots will never be able to kind of expand. 

[00:12:27] Dominique: That's very sad, like a really sad image of it just being in a cage in the ground.

[00:12:31] Shelly: Yeah. And a lot of times trees come with twine or like a tag on 'em and sometimes they won't cut those off and that'll eventually girdle the tree. And it's just a little thing that like someone forgot to snip the the last piece of twine off of the tree and if it stays there, eventually that tree's gonna not be able to grow any farther and it's gonna kind of choke itself out.

So there's definitely a lot of work to be done in terms of correct tree planting, but I know that the, ISA, the certified arborists, just released new ideal standards for tree planting. 

[00:13:08] Adam: wait, so where do people find these tree planting standards?

[00:13:11] Shelly: Definitely the internet is how I learned and how I teach other people. There's a lot of really great videos. The city of Columbus actually has a really great tree planting video on YouTube. But we like to look at the Ohio Department of Natural Resources Guidelines, the certified arborist ISA guidelines, and we kind of learn everything we do from them. We often have a arborist come out to our plantings to walk around and make sure that before the tree is planted and mulched that it's at the right height and kind of double checking these things because we want to do it right. So we rely on other people's guidelines.

[00:13:54] Adam: Fantastic. Well, we'll include some of those links in our show notes up on thegreenchampions.com, so if you're curious, and you're listening, you can find them there.

[00:14:01] Dominique: Yeah. And speaking of Green Champions, I think it's just really cool to have you here because like you are twofold, a green champion , got to hear last time a bit more about your journey and like overcoming some unique circumstances to , doing cool stuff. You've already dropped a lot of really cool stats of just getting us a sense of how big the impact of Green Columbus is and you literally are Green Columbus. I just wanna say that one more time. Not only is this one of the most impactful organizations that I think just operate so smoothly in Columbus, but also I think you managed to do all of it with the teeniest team. But I wanna mention that you also are basically a creator of Green Champions by function of what you do with these host sites. So I kind of want to make sure, we talk about what it means to , engage with you guys and how you've made that so tangible for one other organizations to learn from. But I think also for people to be like, "Oh, that literally could be me," 'cause I think that's really cool what you do. 

So help me understand. So if I'm driving every day to work as people do, and I am noticing like a littered corner, it's always really sad and I don't know how I have a role in making that better.

I mean, I don't have any of the supplies I need. I don't know how to, I would need more hands and myself. Can like you just help me walk through a scenario like that where someone could feel really helpless at creating something in their local community or a place they see a problem?

[00:15:28] Shelly: Yeah, definitely. I think the first thing that kind of stops people from getting started is like, "Am I allowed to do that?" Like, I feel like it's very worrisome about being on someone's property or you know, just being somewhere you're not supposed to be. So that's kind of like the main thing we wanna help you figure out, because we work directly with the city and we work directly with Ohio Department of Natural Resources, Ohio Department of Transportation so we can. 

First of all, you don't have to worry about that, like we will help you figure that out. But I think just the best way to get started is to start telling people about , what you wanna do, and because that's gonna help you kind of like get your event started. Like when somebody asks you, "Okay, what are you gonna do?" Yeah, we're gonna clean up this corner. Me and so and so are gonna push for it. And so for Earth Day specifically, all you'd have to do is go onto our website and put in litter clean up and here's the address. And there's space for all the other things, but you can, we can pick the date and things like that later and Keep Columbus Beautiful has a free tool library. All you have to do is submit a little request online and come and pick it up. And so that's another thing you don't have to worry about is getting the supplies. They even have trash bags, they have litter grabbers, they have gloves, they have vests. And so you'll just need someone to come pick those up. Super easy. It'll probably take you five minutes to pick up your tools. And then, you know, you need more hands, you need people out there to help you actually pick up the trash. And that is where Green Columbus comes in because we have such a large network of volunteers. We have like a map of all of our events on the website, we'll put you on that map. We even have corporate groups that are looking for opportunities. A lot of times that if you don't know anyone who wants to come out and help, that doesn't mean you can't have the event. Like, you don't have to single handedly go out and recruit every volunteer. We often have a group of 10 that are looking for a litter cleanup, and we can just match them with you and they can come and fill all your spots. And the litter cleanup example specifically is even, super easy when you're done with the litter cleanup. Keep Columbus Beautiful will come pick up your bags for you if there's not a dumpster there. They will literally, you just put the bags, you'll mark the spot, tell 'em where you left 'em, they'll send a truck, they'll pick 'em up. So there's a lot of structures in place to make this very easy. Really all you need is the idea and the motivation.

[00:18:07] Adam: That's fantastic. So if you see something and you have no idea where to start, really the resources are there on Green Columbus. People can go submit their idea and then get connected to the right resources in order to make that happen. 

[00:18:20] Dominique: Yeah. And we're talking about Green Columbus in Columbus. Do you happen to know if is this particularly unique that we had this in Columbus? Like do you have any awareness of anyone's listening, from like a different place? 

[00:18:32] Shelly: So Keep Columbus Beautiful is an affiliate of Keep America Beautiful. So I think, you should check first to see if you have a Keep America Beautiful tool library in your area. If not them specifically, I know there are some other groups that do tool rentals for small costs or kind of like a deposit type situation. But I would just start, I'd start to see if you have a free tool library through your city government. And then Green Columbus is specific to Columbus, but there's local groups like us everywhere. I think watershed groups are a really great place to start. They often are kind of stewards of the environment and doing things like litter cleanups and tree plantings and things like that. But I get emails all the time of just, how do I, "Maybe I don't wanna host my own event, but I wanna learn what it's like." I'm like, "Okay, come volunteer, sign up or come out to one of our tree planting events and see how it goes. And if you think it's something that maybe you could lead one on your own." And I think there's kind of opportunities to get involved before you go out and try to start things on your own also.

[00:19:46] Dominique: Yeah. And that does feel like one of those things where it's like we need leaders in these spaces, but we also need followers 'cause if we didn't have followers or people who have to join into efforts, there'll be a bunch of leaders standing in a field screaming about their initiative. So that makes, that's just nice to also know that maybe the way you get involved is like finding opportunities and just showing up and being a helpful hand.

[00:20:07] Adam: Well, and if it's not April and it's not Earth Day, and you're like me and you're like, "Hey, I just want to connect with other people doing interesting sustainability stuff," what do they do?

[00:20:16] Shelly: Yeah, so we, like I mentioned, we're a year-round operating organization and something we do every month is Green Drinks. It's basically just a informal meetup of people interested in the environment. A lot of times it's environmental professionals, but not always. We have a lot of people who their job is very far from the environmental realm, so they like to come to kind of, it's either their passion or to kind of bring themselves back down to understand where, what their impacts are, but we meet monthly. It's usually at a local bar or brewery or venue. And as the name suggests, we always have some sort of drinks going on. And there's actually a joke that Green Columbus started around Earth Day and beer, because Green Drinks is kind of where the creators of Green Columbus met and talked about this idea to create this nonprofit. So we hope that people will come to these events and sit with someone new and chat with them about what they have going on. And we always try to make it fun. There's always a theme. We did a clothing swap, we did, we're gonna do a movie night. We've done trivia. So there's all kinds of things going on. And for those people who maybe don't wanna plant a tree or can't really do that boots on the ground. 

[00:21:37] Dominique: If you just wanna drink beer and chat with your friends.

[00:21:39] Shelly: You don't wanna get dirty. You just wanna like meet some new people and see what's going on, that's really what that space is for.

[00:21:47] Adam: What different topics do you explore there?

[00:21:49] Shelly: Green Drinks has been going on since 2007, so we have done all kinds of topics. Some of our programs in 2023, we did a waste diversion night where people could learn how to recycle and compost at home. We did a movie night. We screened the movie 2040 with Studio 35. And we did sustainable fashion. So we learned about the impacts of the textile industry. We did do a trees Green Drinks, where we talked about Green Columbus's tree plantings for the year. And we always do a big Earth Day kickoff Green Drinks so that people can come out and start generating their ideas for those projects and learn how to get started so that it's like April hits and you're panicking. It's like you have time to kind of form your idea. But we're always looking for new people to come out to Green Drinks and even, you know, speakers or anything like that. It's just casual and fun and trying to make it kind of a low stakes environment to meet new people. 

[00:22:57] Dominique: We talked a lot about the highlights and like it's a champion story, so that's how it should be. But I'm curious 'cause I know that you see also a lot of opportunity and like need for improvement. 

What are some of the things that you face every day of like, " Ugh, we just really need financial support for this," or "We really need to fill this gap." Just, you've gotten volunteers active, you've been able to put so many trees in the ground and are able to just create this wonderful network of year round engagement. But like what's missing and when you think about long-term Green Columbus goals or goals for improving our environment locally, like what really is standing in the way?

[00:23:38] Shelly: The most common pain point for every nonprofit is funding and access to funding. It's, I won't say easy, but it's easier to encourage someone to fund trees and like environmental events than it is for someone to fund me and to fund not the, not glamorous things. I mean, Green Columbus doesn't even have an office, so we save on like kind of every penny we can. But those overhead things and in things like staff are gonna become our bottleneck to if we wanna grow is, you know, we do really great at what we do now, but there's so much work to be done that I think it's kind of unreasonable to be like, "All right. Well, we've maxed out. This is all we can do." I think we need to always be planning to grow because I said our tree canopy's at 22% and the temperature is expected by 2050 to be a completely different climate zone than we're in now.

So there's that urgency behind us of like, we need to grow, we need to add on more people. And I think just partners being willing, one, to fund the not glamorous things is really important. To give you an example, I have a Hyundai Sonata and people call it my truck. That is not a truck, if you're not familiar with that style of car. But I always have at least 10 shovels in my car. I think right now I have two post pounders and a blowtorch and like a hundred trash bags. And so we can't, for the life of us get funding like for a truck. And something we haven't touched on yet really is that we operate our own tree nursery. So we grow trees and we give them away for free from our Linden nursery. And I am driving a Hyundai Sonata and we don't have any other kind of resources. We have to spend money renting a truck and anytime we have to pick up, we have 3000 trees at our nursery. I have to pick up 3000 pots every year. 

[00:25:39] Dominique: You, let's just do one second. So you do enough.

[00:25:43] Shelly: Yes.

[00:25:44] Dominique: But so adding to Shelly's Green Champion resume is you also, that you manage 3000 trees?

[00:25:51] Shelly: Correct. Yes. Yeah. 

[00:25:53] Dominique: Where do the other trees come from, when we've talked about trees and other stories? Like what, give us an idea where the trees come from.

[00:26:00] Shelly: Yeah. So for Earth Day, because 72,000 is a mass amount of trees, we actually order those from a nursery out of state. We do only order native Ohio trees.

[00:26:14] Adam: Why is that important?

[00:26:15] Shelly: Trees that are native to Ohio are more drought tolerant, they're more disease tolerant because they're adapted to live here. And also they provide more wildlife benefits. So a tree that is not native to Ohio or the United States, our species aren't gonna really know how to use that. It's just gonna kind of be an ornament. 

Whereas something like an oak tree can host up to 500 species of birds, butterflies and moths. And, in addition to them being adapted to live here, they're also providing those benefits to the environment. And our climate is warming here in Ohio, so some of these native things are starting to shift a little bit where we're not planting them as much anymore because they might not make it in the warmer temperatures. So that's always something to consider. Just 'cause it's native doesn't mean it's the best option. But we do all natives because that is what is meant to be here, and that's what our species can use. 

And then for our tree nurseries, kind of similarly, we buy them as seedlings, usually about 12 to 24 inches. We plant them in pots in March, 3000 of them. And then we grow them in our community nursery, through October, and they'll be about 4 to 6 feet tall in October. . But what's unique is then our giveaways in October are homeowners, so they actually get to come pick up a free tree, and that it could cost probably a hundred dollars at the nursery and they're getting it for free. It is time consuming to grow trees, but we do that with volunteer support and we're located on a land bank property, so it's just a vacant lot in the middle of houses. So that's just kind of another example. You don't really need, like I said, we don't have a truck. We have one person. We're on a vacant lot and we're giving away 3000 trees every year. 

[00:28:06] Adam: Well, what kind of trees are they that you give away?

[00:28:09] Shelly: So once again, we only grow native trees in our nurseries. In 2023, we did river birch, tulip poplar, red oak, red maple, hackberry and sycamore. 

And so we try to do large canopy trees because we feel that we only have space to grow 3000, so we should make the most impact we can by growing the biggest trees that are gonna provide the most shade that we can. And then maybe someday, if we filled every single space in Columbus available for large trees, well we might start providing some smaller ones, but for now, we have the big ones.

[00:28:48] Dominique: Yeah. And you mentioned the tree canopy, like the 20% number. So for us to stop being the largest growing heat island in the nation, do you know how many trees that is we need?

[00:28:59] Shelly: Thousands and thousands, like a lot. I think that Columbus has an Urban Forestry Master Plan, it's called, and they have identified kind of what we're gonna need to close that gap. But it's tricky because the city of Columbus can only plant on public property and right of way and things that they own. Actually about 70% of our existing canopies on private property. So Green Columbus feels very responsible to kind of pick up that end of tree planting. Because it's great if our right of ways and our parks are all planted, but if our homes are in the scorching heat and our schools, our kids are playing on blacktop and hiding behind dumpsters during recess 'cause it's so hot, we're not really solving the issue. And so it's gonna, it's gonna take a lot of trees, but most of them are gonna have to be on private property. Which is kind of concerning 'cause the city can't kind of just sweep in and do it. it's gonna take thousands and thousands of new trees.

[00:30:01] Dominique: Well, that'll give you some climate anxiety.

I wanted to kind of bring us back together and just say like, if someone's listening and wants to maybe get involved as a green champion in the space, we talked a lot about some of the barriers, so like native tree, understanding of why it's important and also just like maybe the education gap there, need for funding. If someone's hearing all of this and is feeling like, "Oh my gosh, I wanna get more involved," or "I wanna help in this space," any little things you wanna share with anybody of like how they can become a champion and contribute to this tree canopy issue. 

[00:30:32] Shelly: Volunteer, please. And one thing that I think is unique about volunteering with Green Columbus is that there are opportunities for you to get really up close to the programs and what we do. Yes, we need people to come out and fill pots with mulch and plant trees, but we also have all volunteer board members. We have a volunteer committees, and anything that I'm not doing is being done by a volunteer. So it's not just digging around in the dirt and being outside. It's helping us with fundraising. It's helping us, you know, showing up to Green Drinks an hour early and helping us set up or, you know, just offering to pick something up. I have a volunteer that'll go shopping at Lowe's and will do a phone sale and just, there's a bunch of little ways to get involved. And if you go to our website, greencbus.org, we actually have a volunteer intake form and you can mark anything on there from tree planting to, 'I wanna be a board member.' And so there's, kind of anything you're interested in, we can help you get involved in that, either with us or with someone we're connected with that is looking for that.

[00:31:45] Adam: Awesome. So if you're listening, go check out greencbus.org and I love this. I feel like I learned a lot about trees today, which would never have crossed my mind. So if I ever plant a tree, I know not to just dig a really deep hole and then build a volcano mulch on top. I know how to take things off a little bit more properly.

But also like, if I see something in my neighborhood where it's "Oh, that's, I'd love to do something about that, but I don't know where to start," you know, looking up for posting a project or reaching out to the local communities wherever I live. So thank you so much for sharing that. 

[00:32:22] Dominique: Yeah. Thank you. And maybe you should be sponsored by Hyundai for how much you managed to do with their tiny car. But thank you so much. The reason we wanted to have a podcast like this was we think someone like you deserves to have microphone far more often than they get one. So thank you so much for proving that we're right by having so much to tell us. Sorry we couldn't get to more things that I know are in your brain. But thank you again for spending time with us and sharing all of this and probably educating a lot of people about how you became Shelly, who does all this amazing stuff, but also how you create a space for everyone to get involved.

[00:32:58] Shelly: Well, thank you for giving me a mic to talk everyone's ear off, and I hope that, you know, you learn something, or at least when you drive down the street and look at the tree canopy, you can recognize that you know it's important and we need some more of 'em. So, yeah. Thank you.

[00:33:13] Dominique: All right. As always, our guests are chosen because they have found a unique way to champion sustainability. We're here to put real names and stories behind the idea that no matter your background, career, or interests, you have the power to create sustainable change. 

[00:33:27] Adam: If you know a green champion, that should be our next guest, email us at thegreenchampions@gmail.com and check out our show notes on thegreenchampions.com. Until next time, keep learning, keep growing, and keep championing for a brighter, greener world. 

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