Green Our Planet, which cultivates the nation’s largest school garden and hydroponics program, is planting permanent roots in East Las Vegas.
The Las Vegas-based nonprofit, which had been operating from a community co-working space until the COVID-19 pandemic left it virtually “homeless,” says CEO and co-founder Ciara Byrne, is now establishing its first permanent headquarters.
The strategic selection of East Las Vegas for its new home stems from a collaborative partnership with Clark County Commissioner Marilyn Kirkpatrick and aligns with ongoing revitalization efforts in the area.
“We decided that we wanted to go to the area of Las Vegas where we could create the biggest impact,” Byrne said. “So we selected East Las Vegas.”
The area near Green Our Planet’s new headquarters, located on North Las Vegas Boulevard near Nellis Air Force base, has become a “serious food desert” since the departure of a nearby Walmart nearly 10 years ago, Byrne said.
With the help of Kirkpatrick and funding from a Clark County grant, Green Our Planet acquired a former dental office in the neighborhood.
“And we decided, ‘Perfect. This is where we need to be,’" she said.
Once renovated, the 1.5-acre complex will include a hydroponics laboratory, a kitchen and employee offices, as well as a community garden.
The lab, kitchen and garden will be spaces where Green Our Planet can teach the community nutrition and how to grow food.
The Green Our Planet headquarters is projected to break ground later this year, Bryne said, with an anticipated opening date by spring 2026.
“We are so excited about being able to build a green space in an area that doesn’t have many green spaces,” Byrne said. “And a beautiful space — where people come and sit and enjoy the butterflies and the bees and hang out.”
Green Our Planet is an educational nonprofit that provides programming inside of schools for school and indoor gardens, said Corinne Spitzer, director of social impact at the organization.
And though Green Our Planet has already expanded to 46 states, she said, its goal with its new headquarters is to reach even more people and continue to instill in them the importance of STEM education, eating healthy and providing opportunities for students to build and maintain gardens and become entrepreneurial.
“It gives us a different capability to reach more people,” Spitzer said. “So I think the headquarters, with our mission, will just exceed the amount of people that we can reach locally, too, in Las Vegas. … So we’ll be able to touch more of the individuals in Southern Nevada that are in food deserts that don’t have the opportunity to have fresh food around them.”
The hope is that people can come and learn how to grow food in Green Our Planet’s outdoor garden and hydroponics laboratory, Byrne said, then take it home with them. The organization also has small hydroponic systems that people can take home and use themselves.
In a community like East Las Vegas, with high unemployment, a low average income for families and little access to fresh food, she believes what Green Our Planet brings to the table will be very helpful, Byrne added.
The nonprofit has also already started conversations to collaborate with community partners, she said.
“Our idea is, ‘OK, yes, we build our headquarters, and that’s wonderful, and we’re super excited about it. And we can certainly help the community in some way,’ ” Byrne said. “But then our presence there — we can bring more community partners in, and we can create an even bigger impact. That’s what we believe.”
Green Our Planet started as a way to help every school in Clark County School District have an outdoor garden and hydroponics laboratory, Byrne said. Now, the nonprofit is not only in 200 schools in Clark County but in more than 400 schools, libraries and community organizations across the state.
A lot of people who are not involved in the school system may therefore not know a lot about what Green Our Planet has to offer, Spitzer said. The new headquarters will “totally transform that,” she said.
“The average family that lives two blocks away will be educated now on what we can bring to their lives, what healthy eating is, what education can be with conservation and these gardens,” she said. “It’s a community building. … We are looking for this to enhance anybody’s lives as much as possible, whether it’s through a hydroponic laboratory, or it’s teaching cooking classes there or just knowing how to conserve different items outside in the garden.”