Most people know her as the Zero Waste lady. But this year, she’s also the Citizen of the Year, two times over.

Diane Landry, a resident of Bainbridge Island since 2008, has received both the Bainbridge Island Chamber of Commerce Citizen of the Year honors as well as the Outstanding Citizen Award for 2015 from the Kitsap Community Foundation.

And for that, she gets to be the grand marshal of Bainbridge Island’s 2015 Grand Old Fourth Parade.

But unlike other grand marshals, Landry won’t be riding in a convertible at the front of the parade. Instead, she’ll be sitting in a rickshaw-looking bicycle that will be pedaled by Jeff Groman, another friend of the earth.

“I told them I just wanted to walk,” Landry said. “But they wanted something special. So we came to this compromise.”

As with every aspect of her life, Landry doesn’t want to make any more pollution or waste than absolutely necessary. It’s her mission in life.

“I just wouldn’t feel right riding in a car in the parade,” she said. “It’s not in line with our message.”

Since coming to the island, Landry has been active with Sustainable Bainbridge, an organization that supports cooperation and collaboration among a broad-based network of local organizations, businesses, government and individuals to protect and strengthen our community’s economic, social and environmental sustainability for current and future generations.

The group she is in charge of, Zero Waste, is an off-shoot of Sustainable Bainbridge and meets monthly to address how Bainbridge Island can reduce the amount of waste that ends up in its landfill.

Landry can quote statistics off the top of her head.

“Did you know it takes 70 cans of (raw) material to create what’s in the average one can of trash? And an aluminum pop can … if you recycle it, it saves about 95 percent the original energy that it took to make it.”

The idea behind Zero Waste, she said, is to reduce, reuse and recycle, in order to save energy and lessen the amount of trash that ends up in landfills.

It’s volunteers with Zero Waste that man the “resource recovery” (waste) stations during the Bainbridge Island July 4th celebration. They stand by the stations and help educate people on what materials can be recycled, and what food waste can be composted.

And most years Landry would be overseeing that — which she will this year — after her grand marshal duties are over.

“I guess I need to get somebody to be there while I’m not there, helping the volunteers get set up,” she said.

Landry is proud that Zero Waste has gotten the vendors at the July 4th event to use only recyclable plates, bowls and cups.

“Because they have done this, and because people at the event are recycling, we’ve been able to go from a 40-yard waste receptacle to a 30-yard dumpster,” she said.

Landry didn’t set out to be a leader in waste reduction. In fact, she grew up in Madison, Wisconsin, and graduated from the University of Wisconsin planning to be a teacher. She currently is a substitute teacher with the Bainbridge Island School District.

After college, she married her husband, Steve, who now is the director of multi-lateral partnership with the Gates Foundation working on global health issues. They lived for years near Washington, D.C. and raised two sons who are now 25 and 29 years old.

When Landry’s sons were in elementary school, she volunteered with the school’s PTA, and helped create a program called Earth Watch, which that school district still uses today. For that, she received the PTA Volunteer of the Year award.

“I’m lucky in that, because my husband’s income meets the needs our family has, I’ve always had the time to volunteer,” she said. “It’s always been important to me to give back.”

Committed to her cause, she rides her bicycle most everywhere. She also does a lot of reading and walking, at the same time.

“I’m the person walking around town with a book in her hand, reading,” she said.

She was honored to be selected as the Bainbridge Island Citizen of the Year and the Kitsap Community Foundation Outstanding Citizen for 2015. She received a framed certificate from the Bainbridge chamber and got to create her own award from the foundation, working with Silverdale glass artist Lisa Stirrett.

Landry is aware that recycling takes effort and knowledge.

“It’s very easy to get confused,” she said. “There are different rules in Seattle from here on Bainbridge Island about what can be recycled.”

Recently, she’s been working with the city of Bainbridge  to create its Green Team to reduce waste in city offices.

As for parades, Landry’s walked in a number of them, mostly on Memorial Days in Falls Church, Virginia, when her kids were young. She’s not the kind of person who likes to be the center of attention, so she’s finding her role as grand marshal difficult.

But she’s getting ready anyway.

“My husband’s sister and her husband were here recently,” she said. “They were showing me how to do the ‘parade wave.’ They said they were coming back for the parade and so I told them if they were, I would be putting them to work at a waste station.”