To celebrate and create awareness of a historic environmental cleanup of a future retail site on the Reno-Sparks Indian Colony (RSIC).
Nevada Brownfields Program, a land-recycling effort overseen by the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection (NDEP), joined efforts with the RSIC on a site cleanup. The site, formerly a machine shop, a commercial printer and a sheet metal fabrication factory, was highly contaminated with lead and asbestos. NDEP’s Brownfield’s program awarded RSIC $950,000 in grant funds to restore the land, putting it back into productive use. The site now hosts a retail center that opened in late 2010. The project was the first of its kind in Nevada and the first on an Indian-owned site in the entire Western region.
The Nevada Brownfields Program is a resource for funds to be used by land owners and developers to allow contaminated or perceived contaminated land to be rehabilitated and reused.
We worked with RSIC, NDEP and the Environmental Protection Agency to determine the target audiences.
We recommended and managed a press event format to illustrate and celebrate the collaborative effort needed to restore a once contaminated site. Attendees included all contributing agencies as well as regional media and local and state elected officials.
A press conference was held at the site. We produced a media kit that was distributed to all major regional media outlets. We also pitched the story by desk-side meetings.