2020 Sustainable Eden Prairie Award winner Girl Scout Troop #17913 

The City of Eden Prairie recognized Sustainable Eden Prairie Award winners at the Oct. 20 City Council meeting.

The Sustainable Eden Prairie Award recognizes significant and innovative investments that contribute to the overall vitality and sustainability of the community.

Student members of the Sustainability Commission — Anisha Singhatwadia and Ellianne Retzlaff — presented the awards.

Landscape

Cheri Nehl was honored in the landscape category for her contributions to several sustainable landscape and water quality projects at her residence and citywide. At home Cheri converted one-third of her grass to native plants, installed a rain barrel and planted two rain gardens. She also received a grant to implement a shoreland restoration project and removed more than 2,000 buckthorn plants. As part of the Mitchell Lake Association, Cheri helped obtain grants to implement nine shoreland restoration projects on Mitchell Lake. Cheri is a Master Gardener who has taught several summer classes for youth at Prairie View Elementary on topics such as native plantings and recycling.

The Preserve Association was also honored in the landscape category for recent innovative projects. Through a partnership with the Riley Purgatory Bluff Creek Watershed District, the Preserve Association used goats to remove buckthorn, installed native plantings and converted turf grass to low-maintenance prairie grass. This work improved the look for the entire neighborhood and provides examples of sustainable practices for the community. It also allows a wide variety of wildlife to flourish in the area.

Waste

Girl Scout Troop # 17913 was honored in the waste category for its school supply recycling/repurposing program. Three years ago, the 10 troop members realized that school supplies leftover at Eagle Heights Spanish Immersion School at the end of the school year were going into landfills. They worked with their principals, teachers and janitorial staff to collect, sort and process unused crayons, markers, pencils and erasers. Troop members sharpened like-new crayons, pencils and markers, added erasers as needed and donated them to schools and local women’s shelters. They also sent old markers back to Crayola for recycling, repurposed unusable pencils into bird feeders and removed paper from broken crayons to create fire-starters for camping. The troop sold the fire starters and donated all proceeds to help other Girl Scout troops buy supplies for their Gold and Silver Award Projects. Through these efforts, Troop #17913 diverted an estimated 300 or more pounds of school supplies from the landfill over the last three years! The troop members have also participated in the City’s annual Park Clean-Up Day and adopted the Richard T. Anderson Conservation Area as their mission.

Once Upon a Child in Eden Prairie was also honored in the waste category for its reuse and recycling program. So far this year, the local store has helped local families reuse or recycle 95,286 units of children’s clothing.

Water

Fairway Woods Condominium Association was honored in the water category for installing a rain garden and native landscaping on its property to stop erosion into Purgatory Creek. The rocks and deep roots of the native plants help water infiltrate into the ground instead of washing sediment into the creek.

This award program aligns with Sustainable Eden Prairie, an ongoing effort focusing on education and implementation of sustainable practices to protect the environment and natural resources our community enjoys. The four nomination categories reflect the initiative's focus areas — energy, landscape, waste and water. There were no entries submitted for the energy category in 2020.

Learn more at edenprairie.org/SustainableAward.