Announcing the Recipient of the 2022 Ingrid Rasch Legacy FunD
At the end of 2021, the Earth Economics Board of Directors created the Ingrid Rasch Legacy Fund in honor of our Board Chair of 13 years, Ingrid Rasch. Ingrid has been instrumental in helping to build the board and set strategic direction for our organization, doubling our board’s size and bringing in a diverse group of talented people from different industries that share Earth Economics’ vision. With the Fund, we honor her legacy and aim to spur innovative ideas and support environmental stewards who are forging change within their own communities.
Each year, the Ingrid Rasch Legacy Fund will enable Earth Economics to provide pro bono technical assistance to one non-profit or community-based organization to advance local solutions to environmental injustice, climate hazards, and the threats of displacement. We launched the inaugural application cycle in late summer and are immensely proud to announce the 2022 recipient of this award. A hearty congratulations to Amigos de los Rios for their successful application and admirable work to green schoolyards in Los Angeles County!
Amigos de Los Rios: Greening Schools in los Angeles
Photo Credit: Amigos de los Rios
Jackson Elementary School; Altadena, CA
Photo Credit: Amigos de los Rios
Amigos de los Rios is a non-profit based in Los Angeles, California that for nearly 20 years has been committed to improving the built environment and bolstering civic engagement in under-served communities. They work to empower community members with shared values of environmental stewardship, cultural awareness, and the power to affect positive change.
One key initiative is to create the Emerald Necklace: a natural infrastructure network of green spaces, green schools, parks, and trails throughout under-served communities in the Los Angeles Basin. As part of this initiative, Amigos de los Rios has transformed schoolyards at 16 schools and counting across Southern California. Greening schoolyards comes with a host of benefits: climate-friendly solutions to the heat island effects created by outdated, often toxic asphalt blacktop schoolyard models; opportunities for regenerative open play spaces; stormwater runoff solutions; and improved mental and physical health for students and educators.
Earth Economics will be partnering with Amigos de los Rios to measure the impact of greening schools. Our benefit-cost analysis of Green School projects will help reveal the public cost savings and multiple co-benefits of investing in greening schools. With this data and information, Amigos de los Rios will be able to make the case for future investment in green infrastructure initiatives and inform dialogue with the Los Angeles County Board of Education.
We are thrilled to partner with Amigos de los Rios and look forward to sharing project updates as the work progresses!
Graphic Credit: Amigos de los Rios
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