2024 Making Waves Awards

Sanctuaries for the Skies

Stevenson High School

Abhay Agarwal, Eunhyul Chang, and Kush Nagrani

Creating garden sanctuaries to safeguard birds

As friends who united in the study of ornithology as part of an International Science competition, Abhay Agarwal, Kush Nagrani and Eunhyul Chang, learned about the current crisis regarding endangered birds and aspired to take action. They created Sanctuaries for the Skies and have planted gardens in several communities in and around the Midwest. Their mission is not only to prevent the mass extinction of birds, but also to nurture wild places and help birds sing their vibrant songs for generations to come.

Kira’s Flowers

Kira Santiago

Organic cut flowers and farm that keeps water, air and soil free of taxic harmful chemical that supports pollinators.

Kira's Flowers, Organic Cut Flowers Farm & Design . Grows organic flowers keeps water, air and soil free of toxic harmful chemicals and flowers supports a healthy chemical free food source for pollinators. Kira's flowers brings beauty to the world and joy to her customers and the special events in their lives..

Brockman Farm Family

Henry & Hiroko Brockman

Theresa Brockman

Terra Brockman

Three generations have made great contributions to organic farming in Illinois

The Brockman Farming Family is 3rd, 4th, and 5th generation of family of biologist-writer-farmers. Herman Brockman, the patriarch of the Brockman family, has done more for organic farming in central IL than anyone else. He grew up on a diverse farm in Danforth, IL and left the farm to become a professor of genetics at ISU. With his wife Marlene, they raised six children at their homestead in rural Congerville.
His legacy lives on through his six children, 4 of which are important figures in the organic farming world. In the 1990s, his son Henry Brockman, an organic vegetable farmer, alongside his wife Hiroko began a highly diverse, regenerative farm providing healthy food for families and restaurants across Illinois. This farm has been in operation for three decades and was one of the first organic vegetable farms in central IL. Terra Brockman, his eldest daughter, founded The Land Connection in 2001 which has trained many young beginning farmers and connected them to experienced mentors. In 2000, Teresa Brockman, another one of his daughters, began her own organic farm-- a highly diverse fruit and herb farm in Eureka. In 2017, the youngest daughter Jill Cummings, became the manager at Janies Mill, the first stone-ground flour mill in IL that purchases organic grain from many IL organic farmers. The 5th generation of the Brockman Family, Herman's grandchildren, are continuing his legacy-- Kira Santiago runs an organic flower farm in East Peoria and Sora Brockman is an integral part of her father Henry's organic farming operation.
Through their land stewardship, they have made major contributions to healthy water, soil, and air. The reason they should have this award is for their dedication to combating climate change through continued observation and intensive firsthand scientific research.

Jamie Brown

ECO Products

Eco-Products®, a Novolex® brand and certified B Corp, is a leading provider of foodservice packaging made from renewable and recycled resources. Eco-Products offers packaging with real environmental benefits, works with customers to improve composting and recycling, and collaborates with the broader industry to shift how businesses and consumers think about and manage waste. With the goal of Zero Waste as part of the company mission, Eco-Products is using business as a force for good.
Eco-Products have partnered with local businesses and schools to help central Illinois reduce their waste and support the growing demand for sustainability solutions in our communities.

Ty & Kami Paluska

Intuition Coffee

Sustainability is a value baked into Intuition Coffee through their use of fully compostable cups, lids and containers and help to reduce waste in all aspects of their business.

Sustainability is a value baked into the mission at Intuition and they put their money where our mouth is.
They offer full $1 off your drink every time the customer uses one of their logo mugs. ( if you’re an Acai bowl fan we have logo containers and you get get $1 off every time you use those as well), $.50 off if you use your own mug or use one of their in-house mugs. They buy fully compostable to-go cups from Vegware, lids, containers, gloves, and they back that up but paying to utilize a local compost company to compost these products, all of their food waste, and even all of their cardboard!
They also offer a variety of other types of incentives for the customer to reuse glass juice bottles, they use hemp based stickers for our packaging, biotre 2.0 bags for their retail coffee which are 60% compostable, and commonly re-use cardboard boxes when shipping out orders. There are a variety of other things they choose to do to help reduce waste and be a sustainable business