Dr. Deb Rudnick is one of this year’s recipients of the 2021 Kitsap County Earth Day award for her contributions in a wide variety of sustainability areas. Deb is one of the go-to people on the island when it comes to environmental leadership. Of her many facets of volunteer involvement, two of which she is especially proud of are 1) 16 years chairing the BI Watershed Council and running its salmon monitoring program and 2) being one of the primary authors of the city’s Climate Action Plan (CAP) to cut greenhouse gas emissions, which was adopted by the Bainbridge Island City Council in November 2020.

Deb is also an active Zero Waste member, helping at the Styrofoam collections and 4th of July discard stations; a member of the Bainbridge school district’s waste management team and head of the PTO sustainability leaders; co-chair of the Rotary Auction green team; co-founder of the BI Beach Cleanup and Earth Month/Celebrate Trees!; and creator of #TrashTuesdays to encourage litter pick-up during Covid.

Deb has also served on the Land Trust board, helped plan the annual ABC environmental conference, and participated in weed pulls and mussel monitoring.

Thank you, Deb, for your well-deserved award and for your continued commitment to making our community a better place to live!