Polls Open for Annual Sustainability Awards

Tompkins Weekly Staff

 

Since 2006, Sustainable Tompkins has been celebrating the individuals and groups in Tompkins County that are improving our present and safeguarding our future, enriching our lives and making us better human beings. The organization’s People’s Choice Signs of Sustainability Awards are selected through an online poll of community members who nominate those they believe made a contribution in the past year. Polls are open again and it is time to head to the online voting booth to show support for the people, the businesses, and the organizations that stepped up in the past year to make this a more sustainable and just community.

Voting online is simple at sustainabletompkins.org/vote/. There, voters will find the link to the online survey. Interested parties can vote up to five times for a mix of their favorite sustainability heroines and heroes. Polls will close on April 12.

Nominations can be made in four categories (Individual, Youth, Organization, Business) and voters are asked to note which sectors were impacted, and to provide contact information for their nominee.

Last year’s top vote-getters were Hotel Groton in the business category for its green restoration of the hotel and its organic café, and Mothers Out Front of the Finger Lakes for its work on clean energy in the organization category. Brian Eden took first place for individual action with his leadership of the county Environmental Management Council and the HeatSmart campaign of Solar Tompkins. New Roots High School students participating in the Cayuga Wetlands Restoration Intensive with members of the Cayuga Nation won first place in the Youth category.

Awardees for 2018 who took first through third place in the four categories will be announced at 4:30 p.m. during the annual Earth Day Ithaca Celebration on Sunday, April 22 at The Space at Greenstar. The theme this year is Arts & Sustainability and a mix of hands-on activities and exhibitors and live music will be featured from 12 to 3, with artist performances from 3 to 4:30 p.m. Find details at sustainabletompkins.org. This is a family-friendly event and children are welcome.

Sustainable Tompkins believes there is no one entity or event that set Ithaca on its course, but that it is the collective result of hundreds of initiatives by thousands of residents being woven together into a community fabric – a fabric that is constantly challenged to be more inclusive, more just, and more ecologically responsible.
So, who inspired you over the past year with their efforts to create a more sustainable Tompkins County? Honor their work by voting for them in the annual community sustainability awards at sustainabletompkins.org/vote/.