Dominique Drakeford believes that everywhere should feel like home. When she moved from Oakland to Brooklyn ten years ago, she immediately found in Bed-Stuy and Bushwick a community of places and people she wanted to embrace and change for the better.

Dominique realized early in her career that the sustainability movement was lacking inclusivity and that there was a large gap in the narrative – when she went to events there weren’t a lot of people who looked like her. “The voices and solutions of Black folks and people of color were often left out of the conversation,” says Drakeford. “Even though environmental issues disproportionately affect these communities.”

Drakeford started blogging half a decade ago about Black, brown, and indigenous environmental activists, amplifying diverse voices through her digital platform. Her focus was shining a spotlight on the designers, artisans, makers and educators who were changing the public perception of sustainability. “Educating our communities around sustainability is important because it impacts the connections we create with one another, which in turn affects how we heal our planet.”

Drakeford co-founded Sustainable Brooklyn as a way to bridge the gap between the mainstream sustainability space and targeted communities while elevating representation. Her goal is to make education about environmental and social justice issues more widely accessible and to help corporations take steps to become more conscientious about their footprint – all while spreading awareness about the impact Black and brown conservationists have on the world.

“I believe that community is one of our most sacred commodities and that if we can set an example in Brooklyn, then other cities are bound to follow. In the future, I hope to see more micro-communities working together toward the same goal: planetary health today and for generations to come.”