PRINCETON — Nominations are now open for the third annual Sustainable Princeton Leadership Awards, to be given in May this year. Nominations must be received by Monday, April 14, the organization has announced.
Sustainable Princeton, an initiative of the Princeton Environmental Commission (PEC), has helped fund and arrange an energy audit for Princeton’s schools and municipal governments, held a green home and garden tour in November, and recently purchased home-energy monitors for residents to borrow from the Princeton Public Library.
The group is also organizing a green and local purchasing program for Princeton’s schools and municipal governments in conjunction with Princeton University, and it has initiated the development a of Sustainable Community Plan for Princeton.
"Sustainable Princeton was founded because the PEC wishes to recognize that, in addition to the natural environment, social cohesion and economic prosperity are equally important to a community’s sustained health,” said Wendy Kaczerski, PEC and Sustainable Princeton Committee Chairwoman. “Sustainability means balancing human and environmental needs. Our previous Leadership Award winners achieved this balance.”
Individual award winners in 2006 and 2007 included two public-spirited gardeners. Dorothy Mullen started an organic vegetable garden at Riverside Elementary School. And Peter Soderman made waste space a social asset with his Princeton Community Garden, Writers’ Block, and Quark Park. Last year, two energy-saving families were chosen to represent the many Princeton residents who have switched from fossil fuel to renewable energy for powering their homes. And high school senior Kai Marshall-Otto won an award for starting Princeton’s first Environmental Film Festival at the public library in 2007.
Nonprofit organizations received awards in both 2006 and 2007. The D&R Greenway Land Trust helps acquire, preserve, and maintain open space. Princeton Future advocates developing Princeton to further social and economic sustainability. And the Stony Brook Millstone Watershed Association monitors our streams and other environmentally sensitive sites and helps educate area residents about environmental issues.
Princeton businesses that won 2006 and 2007 Leadership Awards included the Whole Earth Center, a locally-owned, nonprofit cooperative that pioneered the buy-local movement. The Terra Momo Restaurant Group’s Mediterra and Teresa’s Cafe are also committed to purchasing from local vendors and farmers. And Fran McManus and Wendy Rickard, of Eating Fresh Publications, spurred Princeton restaurants and residents to purchase local farm products through their “Eating Fresh Living Local Initiative.” By building markets for local agriculture, these businesses help keep our food supply fresher, our local farmers more secure, our air cleaner, and our local economy healthier.
Nominees for the 2008 awards should also promote sustainability by both their actions and their example. “That’s the Leadership component of our awards,” says Anne Waldron Neumann, a PEC and Sustainable Princeton member. “We use our Leadership Awards to publicize and reward sustainability in hopes of increasing it, as we did with the Green Home and Garden Tour we held last November.”
“Last year, our Leadership Awards emphasized energy saving,” adds Lexi Gelperin, another PEC and Sustainable Princeton member. “This year, we’d like to focus on ‘stuff’ and on how to reduce the amount of it in our lives—how to use it up, make it last, pass it on, or do without, as people used to say.”
Anyone who knows of people, institutions, or businesses who preserve and improve Princeton’s natural or social environment, is invited to nominate them for a 2008 Sustainable Princeton Leadership Award by emailing [email protected], by calling 921-1359, or by writing the Princeton Environmental Commission, 400 Witherspoon Street, Princeton. Nomination forms can be found on both the Borough and Township websites. Nominations must be received by Monday, April 14.
