Nomination of grassroots environmental heroes highlights annual launch of national awards program
Toronto, October 2, 2007 — The Canadian Environment Awards has launched its seventh year of celebrating grassroots environmental achievement with an annual call for nominations from the Canadian public.
The Canadian Environment Awards: A Celebration of Community Achievement is a national, bilingual program that recognizes individuals and groups of Canadians who have made outstanding contributions to the protection, restoration and preservation of the Canadian environment.
The Community Awards, which honours environmental action at the local level, is the flagship program of the Canadian Environment Awards. Since 2002, more than 500 community-based projects and programs have been nominated for recognition, and 115 have advanced as finalists. The Canadian public is once again being called on to submit nominations for the Community Awards in six environmental categories: Climate Change; Conservation; Environmental Health; Environmental Learning; Restoration & Rehabilitation; and Sustainable Living.
"Canadians have made it known that the environment is their number-one priority,"says managing director Paula Prociuk Blacklock. "By recognizing peer examples of leadership, the Canadian Environment Awards is motivating all Canadians to undertake new and innovative initiatives. Each of our award winners is dedicated to influencing thinking within their community. It is important that Canadians help us recognize their local heroes."
Following the close of nominations on December 7, 2007, a panel of judges representing the geographic diversity of Canada will choose three candidates in each category as finalists in the Community Awards. The biographies of all finalists will be published in Canadian Geographic's June 2008 "Special Report on the Environment" and in géographica.
The Gold and Silver Award winners will be announced at a gala held during Canada's Environment Week on June 2, 2008, in Toronto. Gold Award winners will receive a cash prize of $5,000, and all Silver Award winners will receive $2,500. All of these winners will donate the prize money to the not-for-profit environmental cause of their choice. On that night, the Canadian Environment Awards will also present the Citation of Lifetime Achievement; the Ideas for Life Award; and The Green Team Challenge, which is the youth initiative.
The Canadian Environment Awards was established in 2002 by Canadian Geographic Enterprises with the support of the Government of Canada and private-sector companies. Shell Canada is the founding corporate sponsor of the Canadian Environment Awards.
Visit www.canadiangeographic.ca/cea2008 for a copy of the nomination form and complete nomination guidelines.
For More Information:
Diane Chaperon-Lor
Public Relations Manager
Canadian Environment Awards
Telephone: 416-653-0849
Cellphone: 416-788-8271
E-mail: [email protected]