Columbia Center for Urban Agriculture: 2016 Mayor’s Climate Protection Agreement Award Winner
The Columbia Center for Urban Agriculture might seem like an obvious choice for the MCPA Overall Award, honoring two winners from 2015 who exceeded the sustainability measures that won them an MCPA award last year. Environmentalism is woven into their organizational fabric.
The CCUA advocates for sustainable urban farming, a form of microagriculture that provides fresh food grown in the middle of the city. The nonprofit cares for a handful of gardens around Columbia, including their own 1.3 acre urban farm, just off College Avenue. There, the CCUA grows vegetables and maintains a small chicken coop.
The CCUA won their 2015 award for environmental stewardship. Billy Polansky, executive director, says, “To us, being an urban based organization, that means getting our urban area in as good or better shape than we found it.”
Polansky recognizes that the CCUA is uniquely positioned to make an environmental impact, but he says other businesses can adopt the same principles, even by just letting employees enjoy the outdoors. “When people talk about the environment or nature, they think of Rock Bridge State Park or somewhere in the Ozarks, but it’s all around us,” Polansky says. Businesses could also follow the path of Kilgore’s Pharmacy, who works with the CCUA on a garden near the Providence Road Kilgore’s building.
“We’re really honored to be receiving the award again,” Polansky says. “[The work] is something that we’re going to have to do. If we’re going to live here, we have to take care of it.”
This article is part of a series on the Mayor’s Climate Protection Agreement awards. Check out our profiles of this year’s other winners.