Sustainability Matters Awarded $1,000 Green Grant

Congratulations to today’s award of our 2021 Green Grants, Sustainability Matters, in Shenandoah County, who will receive a grant award of $1000 for its Community Beautification project.

Sustainability Matters is a grassroots organization in rural Shenandoah Valley that provides knowledge, motivation, and a peer support to landowners, farmers, and small business owners, enabling them to implement positive environmental practices, support pollinators and wildlife, and grow their own food. They recently launched the project “Making Trash Bloom,” an initiative to plant landfill trash cells with native perennial meadows instead of turf grass. Landfills seal a 5-acre trash cell every 3-5 years, and the land can never be used to grow crops or be planted with trees. Turf grass, the current preference for planting trash cells, has little ecological value.

The plan for the Community Beautification project from Sustainability Matters is to plant native wildflowers on completed trash cells instead of turf grass, turning this under-used area into a crucial habitat for wildlife and pollinators. It will also be a beautiful area for the public to see as they go to or pass by the landfill. Grant funds will be used to purchase seeds and planting supplies for blossoming gardens at landfills.

Every year, government, non-profit, civic and service organizations in Virginia were invited to apply for grants for $500 to $1,000 describing how they plan to tackle an environmental concern in their community regarding Litter Prevention, Recycling, Cigarette Litter Prevention, or Community Beautification.  Since 2011, Keep Virginia Beautiful has provided $254,500 for 320 different environmental programs and projects all across the Commonwealth, due to the generosity of their partnership with Altria, as well as additional support from Coca-Cola, WestRock and Keep America Beautiful.