The Chicago Academy of Sciences and its Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum have announced the winners of the 2005 Environmental Leadership Awards: Mayor Richard M. Daley, LaSalle Bank, and the Institute for Environmental Science and Policy at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). The annual awards single out an individual, a corporation, and an educational institution that contribute to the health and well being of Chicago and the global environment.
"Everyone says Chicago is better than ever. That's because these leaders are committed to improving our regional environment," says Laurene von Klan, President and CEO of the Notebaert, 2430 N. Cannon Dr. Von Klan served as Master of Ceremonies at a Nov. 8 awards luncheon held at the Ritz Carlton Hotel and co-chaired by Tyrone C. Fahner and Museum board members Pat Daly and Steve Ferrara.
Mayor Richard M. Daley's innovative programs range from planting a rooftop garden on City Hall in 2000 that improves air quality, energy conservation and storm water runoff to incorporating fuel and energy efficient vehicles into city fleets. Regionally, Daley convened the Great Lakes Cities Initiative to join other mayors in cooperative water conservation efforts. For homeowners, developers, building owners, property managers, insurance providers, and financiers, Daley has implemented city policies and incentives to encourage green building practices, such as green roofs, energy efficient designs and waste minimization. These and other initiatives have been brought together by the Mayor's Office in a document entitled "Environmental Action Agenda: Building the Sustainable City 2005."
In addition, the 24.5-acre Millennium Park, envisioned and brought to reality by Daley, created new park land and transformed an unsightly urban landscape. Mayor Daley's Landscape Awards annually recognize the thousands of Chicago residents who help make the city green through their environmental beautification efforts.
LaSalle Bank's commitment to sustainable development is unique and multifaceted, with an emphasis on both social and environmental issues. From its support of the Tax Assistance Program which provides free tax preparation for low-and moderate-income families to initiatives designed to reduce environmental impact, LaSalle Bank has proven itself as financial institution committed to sustainable development.
LaSalle Bank is a member of the US Green Building Council and has sponsored various sustainability conferences and exhibits in the past couple of years. Internally, employees work to reduce the Bank's environmental footprint by recycling paper, plastic, and aluminum. Its Idea Center generates simple but effective ways to foster positive change, such as its 2004 "Most Environmentally Conscious Cost-Saving Idea" which was to stop using envelopes when returning receipts via drive-up windows at bank branches. At no loss to the customer, this idea reduced paper use at the branches, and yielded significant cost-savings.
The Bank also supports community well-being through a summer internship program to develop and place minority youth in the workforce, through financial literacy programs, and through community lending. In 2004, LaSalle Bank worked with various partners, including the City of Chicago, to finance BJ's Market. This collaborative effort helped bring the Auburn-Gresham neighborhood its first sit-down restaurant and an enhanced sense of community.
The Bank's Community and Sustainable Development Department operates acclaimed corporate volunteer programs backed by financial contributions and supports a wide range of nonprofit activities that promote the economic, social, and environmental development of Chicago.
LaSalle Bank's parent company ABN AMRO issues a sustainability report each year in conjunction with its financial report. ABN AMRO has been recognized by the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI) as the #1 European Bank and the #2 Global Bank (behind Westpac). LaSalle's financial literacy programs were recognized as a key program that helped the bank achieve its DJSI rating.
World-respected for its interdisciplinary approach to environmental research, scholarship and community engagement, the Institute for Environmental Science and Policy at UIC aims to advance inquiry and scholarship to understand how human systems and institutions impact ecosystems and human health. The Institute was created in 2001 to promote interdisciplinary research and scholarship at UIC on regional and global environmental problems. Institute researchers strive to provide real-time, cutting-edge research to help address environmental challenges and inform policy making. Its areas of academic inquiry include life cycle assessment and management, air quality, climate change impacts, green production, industrial ecology, optimal industrial pollution control, and environmental economics and associated environmental policy implications of societal decisions.
The Institute is also known for its pioneering approach to environmental education, stressing the need to interact closely with relevant stakeholders. Two examples are the Environmental Manufacturing Management doctoral program, focused on innovative solutions to industrial environmental problems, and the Institute's partnership with the Chicago Academy of Sciences and its Nature Museum to train Chicago Public School teachers who can inspire youth to learn and care about natural science and the environment.
Past Environmental Leadership Award recipients included Dr. Jane Goodall, Dame of the British Empire and U.N. Messenger of Peace. The 2005 awards themselves are hand-crafted certificates on locally made paper that contains plant fibers collected from the Nature Museum's restored native prairie. Funds raised through the Environmental Leadership Awards will help develop and test a new, hydrogen-powered lawn mower.
The Chicago Academy of Sciences was founded in 1857 as Chicago's first museum, dedicated to the preservation and display of native specimens. Today the Academy's collection, due to its age and type, places it among the most important in the world. In 1999, the Academy opened the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum in Lincoln Park. It has welcomed more than 1,000,000 visitors and is a unique venue for the public, especially urban dwellers, to find new ways to reconnect with the natural world. |
