MARIN COUNTY, Calif., Nov. 25, 2014 /PRNewswire/ — Marin County environmental and sustainability leaders will be recognized at the Environmental Leader of Marin Awards ceremony held Thursday December 4th, 2014 at the Mill Valley Community Center. The VIP Reception begins at 6:30 p.m. followed by the Awards Ceremony at 7:30 p.m. Several local eco-heroes will be presented with awards, including:
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Gold Medal Award: Megan Isadore, River Otter Ecology Project
Isadore works as a watershed naturalist, wildlife rehabilitator and educator at the River Otter Ecology Project. River otter habitat extends from headwaters to oceans, using every part of the watershed as their home. River otters were thought to be close to extinction in the Bay Area and little was known about them.
Now, thanks to the help of the River Otter Ecology Project, a non-profit organization co-founded by Isadore, more people are aware of the otters, and able to help with the restoration and conservation of their watershed environment. The Project has recorded over nine hundred sightings as of July 2014. (www.riverotterecology.org).
"We are faced with environmental problems that will take all our ingenuity, intelligence and wisdom to influence," Isadore says. "When a sentinel species like river otter returns and thrives, we know that conservation can work."
Sustainable Business Award: SolEd Benefit Corp
Sol-Ed (www.sol-ed.com) is a solar energy company founded as a public benefit corporation. SolEd seeks to provide the lowest lifetime cost of energy to schools, universities, municipalities and large non-profits, so that they can invest more of their funding in education and beneficial programs. SolEd is presently serving ten agencies in Marin, Sonoma and Napa to provide solar energy systems at twenty-one sites; from Mill Valley and San Rafael to Cloverdale and St. Helena in the Northbay SEED PV program.
SolEd not only helps to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but also helps to educate students about the importance of sustainable energy solutions.
Silver Medal Educator Award: Jennie Lynne Pardi
Pardi is currently the Education Manager at NatureBridge Golden Gate. She has worked in the field of environmental conservation for the past 20 years as an environmental educator, a field biologist, and program manager.
Through her work at Conservation Corps North Bay, and as a volunteer in the community, Pardi has helped schools, businesses, non-profits and government agencies with their green programs.
About the Awards
The Awards support EarthScope Media and the Academy for Sustainability & Communications ("ASC"). Featured in National Geographic Kids magazine, EarthScope Media believes that the public needs reliable information about environmental issues from independent media. This is especially true today when only six corporations own 90% of the U.S. media.
EarthScope produces environmental news through radio, print and online stories that reach hundreds of thousands of people in the Bay Area and beyond. Founded on the principle that education can change lives – and change the world – EarthScope's ASC provides in-depth vocational training and education to youth.
According to Catriona Glazebrook, Director of EarthScope Media (www.earthscopemedia.com): "Given job trends, it's important for young people to gain real job skills that ACS offers, such as communications and technology skills, as well as education about science, sustainability and the environment."
The Awards were founded by Ms. Glazebrook, who has led environmental causes since 1970, including overseeing a coastal program that resulted (in part) to the comeback of an endangered species. She also oversaw international grant-making to environmental organizations and scientists in the US, China, Russia, Japan, and is an expert in environmental trends. The first award winner was former Marin County Supervisor Charles McGlashan who helped to launch the Marin Energy Authority.
Other past awardees include Marty Griffin, whose work establishing wildlife sanctuaries was featured in the film Rebels with Cause, and Congressman Jared Huffman, one of the legislature's leading advocates for sustainable water policy.
"By honoring local leaders who are achieving results on behalf of the environment, we bring greater awareness of and support to their efforts. We also must gather together those committed to protection and conservation of all life on Earth in this critical time of unprecedented global challenges," says Glazebrook.
For more information about the awards, please visit www.environmentalleaderofmarin.com
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