2020 Green Tie Award Honorees

The Senate Conservation Leadership Award Sandy Senn (R – District 41, Charleston)

After graduating from the University of South Carolina School of Law, Senator Sandy Senn clerked with United States District Judge Henry M. Herlong and South Carolina Circuit Judge David F. McInnis. Currently, Sen. Senn practices primarily in the area of civil rights defense for first responders and serves as General Counsel for the South Carolina Sheriff’s Association.

Sen. Senn was first elected to Senate District 41 in 2016, representing portions of Charleston and Dorchester Counties. Since then, she has become a passionate and effective advocate for conservation, home rule, and market competition in the clean energy sector. She has accumulated an 80% lifetime score with CVSC, including a whopping 123% score on our 2020 Scorecard.

Sen. Senn’s fierce fighting spirit for what she believes in, paired with her willingness to take on traditional power structures, elevated her to the top of the list for the CVSC’s 2021 Senate Award for Conservation Leadership. In 2019, she was the only Senator to oppose a problematic seawall bill on the floor of the Senate, fighting to prevent the rollback of 30 years of environmental precedent banning ineffective and dangerous seawalls along our coast. Sen. Senn also stood strong against a leadership-sponsored budget amendment and stand-alone bills that would have stripped local communities of their ability to limit plastic pollution. She also has been a strong supporter of clean energy through the Energy Freedom Act and supported reauthorization and funding of the Conservation Bank.

In 2021, Sen. Senn was the lead champion pushing back against a chairman-sponsored bill that would have exempted a new industry from solid waste rules in South Carolina. The pyrolysis industry — one that melts and gassifies plastics back into their constituent chemicals to make jet fuel and other petroleum-based products — sought sweeping exemptions from long-standing rules in South Carolina. Sen. Senn stood firm against the exemptions for this industry in subcommittee, committee, and on the floor of the Senate. Throughout the bill’s journey, she worked to both stop it outright and amend it in order to limit the environmental impacts and protect communities and taxpayers. In addition, Sen. Senn sponsored legislation to regulate plastic pellet pollution in the Charleston Harbor, demonstrating, yet again, that she will not sacrifice South Carolinians and our natural resources to unregulated industries, and she will not go down without a fight. Sen. Senn lives in Charleston with her husband, Rande, and her three children, Brook, Alexa, and Jacob.

The House Conservation Leadership Award

Marvin Pendarvis (D – District 113, Charleston)

Representative Marvin Pendarvis grew up in the Charleston Farms neighborhood of North Charleston. He is a product of the public schools in North Charleston and Garrett Academy of Technology. A two-time graduate of the University of South Carolina, Rep. Pendarvis received a BA in Political Science in 2011 and a J.D. in 2014. Immediately upon graduation, he moved back to his hometown to begin practicing law. In 2017, Rep. Pendarvis launched his primary campaign for District 113’s empty House seat in the primary election. CVSC endorsed his run because of his career spent fighting for the rights of his neighbors and serving as an advocate for his community: helping to clean up North Charleston’s Filbin Creek, supporting coastal wetland preservation, and pushing for smarter, clean energy policies. Since securing the seat, Rep. Pendarvis has built a strong reputation as a dependable leader who fights for what is right, accumulating a 78% lifetime score with CVSC. As lead sponsor on the Complete Streets bill in 2021, Rep. Pendarvis was persistent in building legislative and agency support for policy that would require SCDOT to consider accommodations for bicycling, walking, and transit in the design, construction, maintenance, and operations of the state transportation network. His efforts helped accelerate adoption of a statewide Complete Streets Policy at SCDOT, which included many elements outlined in his bill. After joining the House Agriculture and Natural Resources committee in 2021, Rep. Pendarvis fought against S.525 (Pyrolysis) in committee and sponsored a floor amendment that would have required the industry to complete a comprehensive pollution assessment and health impact analysis in the community where a facility is proposed, to provide this information to the community, and to ensure the community has a voice in the subsequent permitting process. His fight against this dangerous industry and for the amendment showed that South Carolina leaders can, and will, build bipartisan support for community-centered efforts that address environmental justice throughout the Palmetto State. Rep. Pendarvis is married to his college sweetheart, HaQuasha. They are the proud parents of Marvin, Jr., aka “Deuce.”

The House Conservation Leadership Award

Shannon Erickson (R – District 124, Beaufort)

Representative Shannon Erickson grew up in Florence and graduated from USC-Beaufort with a BA in Early Childhood Education. Following college, she stayed in Beaufort to build a career in childhood education.

First elected to the South Carolina House of Representatives in October 2007, Rep. Erickson is an educator and business owner. Similar to many of CVSC’s past Green Tie Champions, she believes that environmental protection and good business decisions are not mutually exclusive and that, in fact, they are inextricably intertwined. A core element of her governing philosophy is building consensus and coalitions through grassroots citizen involvement to result in a broadly-supported and effective policy outcome. These values have made her a consistent conservation champion in Columbia, one who is both able to rally her fellow legislators to stand up for South Carolina’s air, land, and water and who consistently earns the support of pro-conservation constituents in Beaufort. Since taking office, Rep. Erickson has worked to find bipartisan solutions to conservation issues facing our state. She has supported land protection efforts, fighting for the South Carolina Conservation Bank and against plastic pollution impacting the oyster and fishing industries in her community. She sponsored state legislation opposing offshore drilling and signed on to anti-drilling letters to both the Obama and Trump Administrations, making it clear to her colleagues in the General Assembly and to these administrations that offshore drilling has no place in South Carolina. Rep. Erickson’s conservation leadership extends beyond the Lowcountry, however. She is an active champion of solar energy, signing on to the Energy Freedom Act in 2019. She has actively supported solutions to improve the clean energy marketplace and invest in innovation — such as electric vehicle growth — in the state. Erickson is a trusted confidant of CVSC, having earned an 86% lifetime score with CVSC. Day in and day out in the State House, CVSC knows they can count on her to work tirelessly to ensure South Carolina’s environment has a voice in the General Assembly. She and her husband, Kendall, live in Beaufort and are members of St. Peter’s Catholic Church.

The Harriet Keyserling Conservation Advocacy Award Kelly Thorvalson

Kelly Thorvalson is a native of Georgetown who graduated from College of Charleston with a degree in Marine Biology and began working with the South Carolina Aquarium in 1999, a year before the Aquarium opened its doors. In her role as Aquarist, Kelly helped to build the South Carolina Aquarium’s initial collection. In addition, she managed the Sea Turtle Care Center for 12 years, both developing the program and overseeing a major program expansion that opened in 2017. During her time at the Aquarium, she established relationships with volunteer turtle teams throughout South Carolina and emerged as a leading advocate for sea turtles regarding plastic pollution on beaches. In her current role as Conservation Programs Manager, Kelly works beyond the Aquarium’s walls to advance conservation initiatives relating to sea turtles, plastic pollution, and sea level rise — sharing the Aquarium’s conservation message with groups ranging from schoolchildren to state lawmakers. Kelly developed the “Litter-free Digital Journal” app, a powerful tool that empowers citizens to track and document litter. She has conducted workshops and training modules from the Upstate to the Lowcountry to educate the public about the negative impacts that plastic pollution has on both the environment and wildlife. As part of these outreach efforts, Kelly teaches local community advocates how to document and track local litter issues and turn their efforts into meaningful community change. Kelly’s education and advocacy efforts were instrumental to the passage of nearly every single-use plastic bag ban adopted in the Charleston area and nearby coastal communities in 2018 and 2019 . She also helped inform key statewide policy discussions in 2019 when the General Assembly debated stripping local communities of their ability to reduce and manage plastic pollution with effective local policies like single-use plastic bag bans. Today, Kelly is a member of the NOAA Marine Debris committee where she works on tools to document marine animal interactions with plastic pollution of the Southeast coast. Kelly continues to work tirelessly to raise awareness of the negative environmental impacts of plastics and encourage sustainable solutions through advocacy and committee work.

Kelly resides in Charleston and has two children, a 17-year-old daughter and a 24-yearold stepson. In her spare time, she volunteers with The Stone Soup Collective, a nonprofit whose goal is to nourish those in need with soup made from locally sourced produce. She also enjoys cooking, gardening, and live music.