Staff

Lori De La CruzLori De La Cruz, ABC, Principal

The only environmental consultant in the U.S. who is also an Accredited Business Communicator.

Blue Marble Media's “Compost-ology” program earned the City of Euless the City Livability Award (for small cities) from the U.S. Conference of Mayors in 2006. Selected from a pool of 250 applicants, three former mayors chose the Compost-ology program based on leadership, creativity, innovation and its broad impact on the quality of life for residents.

Most recently Blue Marble Media has been leading a lecture series at North Lake College in Irving, Texas. She makes presentations and leads discussions on sustainability issues as they relate to American history. The iYes North Lake website offers an online curriculum and a forum for students to discuss questions presented at the end of each lecture.

Blue Marble Media developed the Irving YES (Youth for Environmental Sustainability) education project. Each week throughout the 2010/2011 school year, students at 6 secondary schools in Irving, Texas, are learning about sustainability issues through hands-on experiments such as building solar ovens, miniature watersheds, vermicomposting bins, composting bins, community gardens and making toxic-free cleaners. The participating schools are Nimitz, Irving High, Singley Academy, MacArthur, North Lake College and the University of Dallas. The entire curriculum is online so that it can be accessed anywhere, from any web-enabled device. It can also be updated quickly and efficiently.

The Irving YES project grew of out the Green Teens sustainability education project which ran through the 2008/2009 school year at Birdville High School in North Richland Hills, TX. In addtion to hands-on experiments, they also launched and maintained the school’s commingled recycling program and participated in a peer-to-peer education process through online tools, electronic media and campus-wide programs.

Blue Marble has completed the Interfaith Stewards Toolkit for faith communities. This 320-page book focuses on our relationship with the Earth and how to decrease our impact on the environment through thoughtful discussion and hands-on activities for all ages. Interfaith Stewards is designed to enlighten, educate and change the habits of the faith communities by focusing on energy and water conservation, gardening, landscaping, waste reduction, green housekeeping and other issues of environmental stewardship.

The Ecological Compass™: A Guide to Sustainability is a workbook to guide families through environmental lifestyle practices that are not just good for the environment, but also beneficial for their families and their budgets.

Qualifications:

Lori began developing award-winning environmental education programs as a Public Education and Recycling Coordinator for the City of Fort Worth and in Euless as the city's Communications/Marketing Manager.

She launched Blue Marble Media in 2004 as a consulting firm that develops and implements environmental and  educational programs for local governments, non-profit organizations and businesses.

Her honors include awards for environmental education programs, photography and magazine, newsletter and web site design. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Communications/Public Relations from the University of Texas at Arlington’s Honors Program.

Lori is very involved in the professional community and currently serving on the board of directors of the North Texas Corporate Recycling Association and accreditation chair for the International Association of Business Communicators – Fort Worth Chapter. She is a member of the Solid Waste Association of North America, The Natural Step Network – USA,  the Society for Texas Environmental Professionals and the Texas Solar Energy Society. She has also served on the boards of the Texas Association of Municipal Information Officers, the Urban Management Assistants of North Texas and the Tarrant County Corporate Recycling Council.