Encinitas seeks nominations for its 2025 Environmental Award Program

January 20, 2026 - The City of Encinitas Environmental Commission is proud to announce the opening of nominations for its prestigious Environmental Award Program (EAP), now in its eleventh year. The EAP seeks to recognize deserving individuals, businesses, and non-profits for their commitment to environmental stewardship and outstanding environmental achievements in the City in 2025. The Excellence in Environmental Stewardship award is granted to one for-profit and one non-profit business. The Environmental Hero award recognizes one individual adult and one youth for outstanding environmental achievements.

Encinitas' Environmental Award Program is the first award of its kind in San Diego County and is one of only a few in the United States. For more information about the history of the award, please visit https://www.encinitasca.gov/awardhistory.

Nominate an individual or a business in Encinitas: https://www.encinitasca.gov/EAPnominations

Deadline for Nominations: Friday, February 27, 2026, 11:59pm

The 2024 Environmental Award Program Winners were announced at the April 23, 2025 City Council meeting, and award winners received recycled glass trophies made by San Dieguito Trophy. Please see information below on the 2024 winners:

Excellence in Environmental Stewardship - For-profit Business: Nectarine Grove
Nectarine Grove not only serves really good food, but they are also a leader in proper organic waste disposal. Their food is primarily served on reusable dishware, which customers then bus themselves. Nectarine Grove's mission is "Healthy Food for a Heathy Community." They aim to achieve this mission by serving dishes made from organic, local, and sustainable ingredients, and properly disposing food waste to lessen the methane produced in landfills. Nectarine Grove also gives back to the community in support of the Community Resource Center, Feeding San Diego, and food donations to Scripps Encinitas, in addition to other charities.

Excellence in Environmental Stewardship - Non-profit Organization: Plastic Beach

Plastic Beach, led by Matthew Clough, has a vision that includes creating a more sustainable world through proper plastic wrap recycling. By educating retailers, collaborating with recyclers, and finding like-minded partners, Plastic Beach has worked tirelessly to remove soft plastics from our waste stream. The soft plastic wrapping surfboards, retail parts, clothing, dry cleaning, grocery items, bubble wrap, and more cannot be recycled in EDCO's resource recovery facility, because it clogs their system. Plastic Beach, however, collects this material and ships it to businesses that recycle soft plastic to make new products, preventing nearly 100,000 pounds of the material since 2019 from being landfilled. Plastic Beach is helping both individuals and businesses lessen their plastic footprint and is making a true difference in our environment.

Environmental Hero - Adult: Jim Brown

Jim Brown is a 77-year Encinitas resident and has become a champion for cleaning our streets. Jim is a retired Marine and learned early the value of service. About 10 years ago, while walking for exercise, he finally got tired of stepping over the trash. He now goes out for trash walks about 150 times a year, resulting in an estimated 1,000 walks to remove litter so far. Jim likes to stop and say, "Hi," to like-minded people he sees picking up trash. Recently, Jim was the first person to join Street Stewards, a program where you adopt the area of your neighborhood to clean up trash along the street. As individuals or families adopt streets, these areas are highlighted green on the Street Stewards Coverage Map. Jim would like to see all of Encinitas "go green." Jim is 80 years young, and environmental hero for cleaning our community.

Environmental Hero - Youth: Jay Burke

Jay, a 17-year-old senior at San Dieguito Academy High School, is a committed environmentalist. He is a founding member of the North American Butterfly Association's (NABA) Butterfly North San Diego Coastal Count Circle. Jay contributes valuable data on butterfly populations, aiding in conservation efforts. Jay promotes sustainability through native landscaping, habitat restoration, and volunteering at the San Elijo Lagoon and San Dieguito River Valley Conservancy Exploring Our Sense of Place (ESP) program. He is also pursuing certification as a California Naturalist. Jay's commitment to environmental education and stewardship makes him an outstanding young leader in local conservation and an environmental hero.

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Photographed are the 2024 Environmental Award winners with a representative from Senator Blakespear's office, the City of Encinitas Councilmembers, and two Environmental Commissioners.

Front row: Carol Parker - Environmental Commission, Matt Rubel - District Representative from Senator Blakespear's Office, Matthew Clough - Plastic Beach, Jim Brown, Jay Burke, Rhiana Glor and partner - Nectarine Grove, Mayor Bruce Ehlers

Back row: Mark O'Conner - Environmental Commission, Councilmember Luke Shaffer - District 1, Councilmember Jim O'Hara - District 2, Councilmember Marco San Antonio - District 4