Meet the winners

Founder of The Rising Loafer Cafe in Lafayette, CA, Maria contributes to citywide reuse efforts while also modeling her mission via her business. She has operationalized reuse in all parts of her business, partnering with Foodware To Go for takeout orders and using only reusable foodware onsite—among other creative initiatives like repurposing doors to create her cafe tables. An Indigenous Peruvian immigrant, Maria grew up in a village where she learned the fundamental values of her relationship with food, land, and planet.

Over the past three years, Kendra Schneider has been working hard to create a reusable takeout system—called Takeout Takeout—as well as a broader reuse ecosystem in Lansing, MI—with particular attention to equitable economic access to reuse. Confronting barriers to scale from funding to health code requirements, Kendra has forged ahead with pilots that have saved over 3000 items from landfills so far and has been met with enthusiasm from partner businesses and community members.

As a Sustainable Business Network Board Member and Director of ECHO Systems—a nonprofit network focused on waste reduction—Alisa drives reduce, reuse, and refill initiatives in Philadelphia while juggling other jobs. From leading a speaker series, to drafting policy, to helping street festivals reduce their waste and coordinating reuse with four grocery stores, Alisa is a catalyzing force within the organizations and communities she engages with to accelerate reuse in her city.