OK Sustainability Summit Success – It’s A Wrap!

OK Sustainability Summit – connecting sustainability-minded people and organizations in Oklahoma

People from businesses and organizations, and individuals, across Oklahoma joined together for the first OK Sustainability Summit August 17, 2023 in the venue at Plenty Mercantile in Oklahoma City. Traci Walton of Plenty Mercantile and Marla Cloos of Green Home Coach are hosting the Oklahoma Sustainability Summit with the plan to make it an annual event. 

When asked “Why a Sustainability Summit?” Traci and Marla shared that we “want to uplift and connect sustainability-minded people and organizations in our community and region, and we decided to just do it!” 

Hosted by Traci Walton of Plenty Mercantile and Marla Cloos of Green Home Coach

Traci and Marla have known each other for several years and had started talking about doing something together to champion the sustainable missions they both had chosen to pursue in their lives and businesses. This spring, they landed on the OK Sustainability Summit and are excited to see it come to life. 

Plenty Mercantile: Traci Walton is a wife and mother of 4 kids, grandmother of 2, a mom to a Great Dane and a 21 year old scrappy little cat.   She Co-founded PLENTY Mercantile in 2012 on a sustainable platform with her oldest daughter Brittney Matlock.

She serves on the board of Automobile Alley and The Business Improvement District Board. She loves Oklahoma City.  Today she shares Plenty Mercantile’s journey to B Certification. 

Green Home Coach: Marla Cloos helps businesses and people discover and create better homes to live in or work on for healthier, more comfortable lives. She hosts the Everyday Green Home podcast and Everyday Green Home shop. She is an NGBS Verifier, NAR Green and Wellness Within Your Walls certified pro. 

Also a workforce development champion, she has helped bring Build My Future construction career exploration day and Construct My Future construction camp to OKC. She is a proud “grammy,” mom and wife. She is here to share Connecting the Dots between Humans, Health and Homes, along with a worksheet and resources.

Thank You to our Sponsors and Speakers

A big thank you to our sponsors and everyone who devoted their afternoon in support of a sustainable Oklahoma.  Our hope is to converge every year and connect organizations and individuals working towards a more sustainable Oklahoma. We will be reaching out to all of you for speakers for the next one. 

The entire event, and especially the Snacks and Sips reception was a zero waste event thanks to Fertile Ground composting. Containers were marked for recycling, composting and washing. The sugarcane forks also go in the specially marked bucket. Everyone enjoyed the time to mix, mingle and connect over light snacks and beverages. 

OK Sustainability Summit sponsors and speakers generously shared their knowledge with participants. 

• Circle IT: Mike Foley represented Circle IT, a national electronics reuse and recycling firm located in Oklahoma City. Their support as one of the few B Corp Certified businesses in Oklahoma, was appreciated. 
• Fertile Ground: Ofelia Ochoa outlined their services offered in the OKC community for composting and recycling. Fertile Grounds also provided the services to help the OK Sustainability Summit be a Zero Waste Event. 
• Oklahoma Conservation Commission: Marcus Long revealed the services and assistance available to Oklahoma citizens. Their “mission is to conserve, protect and restore Oklahoma’s natural resources, working in collaboration with the conservation districts and other partners, on behalf of the citizens of Oklahoma.”
• OKC Sustainability Office: T.O. Bowman shared community sustainability efforts, including insights in the recent Heat Mapping project conducted by several hundreds of OKC area volunteers and several agencies. 
• Verbode: Sarah Bytyqi founded Verbode as a green real estate business in OKC and helps to preserve and protect OKC history with their work in historic neighborhoods across OKC. 

This was a great success- please join us in a Hip, Hip, HOORAY! for a sustainable Oklahoma.

Questions?

Please contact Marla at 405-237-8188