Anna Clark

Description of Individual or organization

Anna Clark is the president of EarthPeople Media, a strategic communication firm serving start-ups, mid-sized enterprises, Fortune 500s and NGOs. She is the author of Green, American Style (2010) and a pioneer of sustainability and corporate social responsibility (CSR) consulting in Texas. An independent journalist and media advocate, Anna’s voice has appeared in Huffington Post, GreenBiz.com, Guardian Sustainable Business, Al Jazeera English, The Christian Science Monitor and The Dallas Morning News.

Leadership (Nominee demonstrates leadership through example, knowledge, attitude)

Ten years ago, Anna had her first child and made the decision to dedicate the next phase of her professional life to promoting sustainability. After reading about Walmart’s aspirations to 1) be supplied 100 percent by renewable energy, 2) create zero waste, and 3) sell products that sustain people and the environment, she anticipated that small and mid-sized suppliers would follow suit. In 2005, she launched EarthPeople, a boutique sustainability consultancy aimed to help these enterprises enjoy the benefits of being part of the change.

It was a slow start in Dallas, but visionaries inside and outside of Texas kept her busy and inspired. Five years after starting her practice, she acquired her first Walmart supplier: Scotch Corporation. Her firm helped Scotch calculate greenhouse gas emissions, leverage efficiencies, and report to the Carbon Disclosure Project, leading to a 100 percent improvement in their score on the Walmart Sustainability Supplier Assessment. Scotch recently hired her firm to support them for the sixth consecutive year.

In 2014, Anna rebranded her firm to EarthPeople Media to reflect her specialty of sustainability communication, storytelling, reporting and public relations. Carving out a niche in an emerging field has been challenging but rewarding. Anna has had the opportunity to work with wide range of organizations from innovative clean tech startups such as Plugless Power to Fortune 500s such as JC Penney and NGOs such as IFC, a division of The World Bank. She has also presented at conferences in Dallas, Houston, Chicago, Orlando, New Orleans and Dubai.

Environmental Impact (Nominee demonstrates a positive impact on the local environment via policy change, product offering, significant volunteer contribution or other achievement)

Anna lives in the second LEED Platinum certified home in Dallas, built by award-winning green builder Alan Hoffmann. Nine years since moving into our home, she is still an enthusiastic advocate for green building. Her house saves her family hundreds of dollars per month on energy and her xeriscaped lawn saves also money on water. She believes the indoor air quality has also prevented her children from suffering allergies.

In addition to living green at home, Anna is a passionate advocate for sustainability in all its forms. As an example of the depth of her interest in protecting the environment, she was a founding member of a coalition involving the Humane Society of the United States and Shark Stewards, a San Francisco-based non-profit. Seeing other states end the sale and consumption of shark fins, she helped assemble the first coalition that led to the second, which ultimately succeeded in making Texas the first red state to restrict shark fin consumption and commerce. Governor Abbot signed the bill into a law in May 2015.

Anna wrote about the campaign’s success here in Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/anna-clark/texas-bans-shark-fin-trad_b_776.... Her strategic role and voluntary support of this effort reflects her enthusiasm for promoting green causes and enlisting others to take part in them.

Community Impact (Nominee demonstrates commitment to DFW green community through involvement with causes, business ventures or organizations)

In the past 3 years, Anna has volunteered her time to the following organizations: