Ann Martinson receives Green Leaf Award

• Ann Martinson, left, receives her Green Leaf Award from Sue Anderson

Ann Martinson, left, receives her Green Leaf Award from Sue Anderson, a member of Sustain Hudson’s board of directors. Submitted photo

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Ann Martinson is the first 2012 recipient of Sustain Hudson’s Green Leaf Award.

The retired homemaker, pastor’s wife and nurse has incorporated a host of sustainable practices in her lifestyle, according to Stewart Erickson, president of Sustain Hudson.

“Ann practices sustainability every day. She does it in the little things, and she does it in the big things she does,” Erickson said. “She is very conscious about her ecological footprint, as well as what she can do culturally to promote a strong community.”

He added that Martinson does some “very crafty little things” that the organization thought would be good for other people to hear about.

Martinson brings her own canvas bags to the grocery store. She bicycles to the farmer’s market to purchase fresh locally grown vegetables and fruit. She dries her laundry the old-fashioned way — on an outdoor clothesline.

Martinson also repairs jackets and gives them to the needy. She and her husband, retired Lutheran minister Paul Martinson, drive a hybrid car and live in a house with almost all its windows on the south and east sides to take advantage of passive solar heat.

Their yard doesn’t have any grass to mow and is designed to prevent chemicals from washing off of it.

Martinson resisted the temptation to tile 32 acres of wetland in southern Minnesota that her family owns.

According to her husband, Martinson also does things to sustain her own life, including morning stretching exercises, two-mile walks with the dog and workouts at St. Croix Valley YMCA.

“We have been wonderfully gifted and I feel a responsibility to be a good steward of those gifts,” Martinson said when asked about her motivation. “There are not a whole lot of places in the world where you can be so close to nature and have so much space.”

The Martinsons lived in Denmark for two and a half years, and Scotland for one year, while Paul was pastoring churches there.

They made Hudson their retirement home in 1993. For Ann, whose father was a Methodist minister, this is the longest she has lived in one place.

Martinson credits the Ranger Rick magazines that her children used to bring home from school with first sparking her environmental awareness.

Sustain Hudson is a 501(c)(3) organization formed in February 2010 to encourage sustainable practices in the community. The organization presents a Green Leaf Award every three months to individuals, businesses, organizations or local officials who implement sustainable practices.

“Sustain Hudson is giving the Green Leaf Awards in an attempt to reward people, as well as raise awareness for others to become more sustainable in their daily lives,” Erickson said.

Tags: home and garden, lifestyle, environment