Village of Algonquin Gold Leaf Award
The Village of Algonquin's ECO (Engage, Conserve, Optimize) Committee would like to recognize residents, organizations, and businesses within the Village of Algonquin for their efforts to protect or preserve our natural environment. The Gold Leaf Award is an outreach effort to engage and encourage residents to be active in the Village's environmental efforts. It is an opportunity to recognize those individuals, families, organizations, classrooms, schools, and businesses that demonstrate an on-going commitment to our local and global resources--water, land, and air--through involvement and participation in various environmental initiatives. Individuals or groups may apply to receive the Gold Leaf Award through Algonquin's ECO Committee.
The award winners will be selected by the ECO Committee. The criteria for judging may include originality, difficulty, organization, length of time devoted to the project, influencing/education of others, use of outside resources, degree of success in reaching goals, and the impact to the environment.
Winners will receive a certificate of recognition at a Village Board meeting and their project will be posted on the Village website (www.algonquin.org/eco). The intent of posting projects on the website is to share ideas with the community, potentially to have others join your efforts or to start similar projects on their own.
Click here for complete Application Guidelines and the Application Form
Projects earning the Gold Leaf certificate will be listed here for everyone to view and use the ideas. Check back often to see what great ideas you can also do.
The ECO Committee will be presenting the second round of Gold Leaf Awards on May, 15, 2012 at 7:30pm at the Village Board meeting. The award winners are Huntley Fire Protection District, Station Number 3; Eastview Elementary School Earth Club; and the Kanner Family. Information about these projects will be posted after the award presentation.
The ECO Committee presented the first Gold Leaf Award on December 20, 2011 to "Going for Green." Allison Dianis, Rosa Wu, and Erin Dianis are three local teenagers who decided to take action. There website (www.goingforgreen.webs.com) allows visitors to make pledges to change their lifestyle and benefit the environment.
"Our goal was to spread awareness of small changes that can make a huge difference on the planet. We established a website that provided information and links to petitions where individuals could pledge to make a small change. We also collected cans from a local restaurant, which in turn we brought in for recycling. Based on the number of cans recycled and signatures on our petitions, we calculated the total water and carbon dioxide that we would save if the project was projected to a full year."
Results of the project:
-
Collected over 30 pounds of aluminum cans
-
14 pledges to change a light bulb to a CFL
-
9 pledges to use reusable bags
-
5 pledges to use reusable waterbottle
-
10 pledges to reduce shower time by 1 minute or more
-
6 pledges to turn off water while brushing teeth
-
2 pledges to plant a tree or more
-
3 pledges to lower thermostat by 2 degrees in winter
-
Saved 71,840 punds of carbon dioxide per year!
-
Saved 88,695 gallons of water per year!
-
Saved 128 kWh per year and 714 kWh from recycling cans!
-
Outreach efforts impacted family, friends and others.
Click here to read their whole report.
Please visit their website to make a small change in your life that will have a huge impact on the environment!
