2009 GREEN COTTAGER AWARDS

Presented by Cottage Life

Are you replacing parts of your cottage lawn with native vegetation? Building a cottage project from recycled materials? Taking steps to preserve wildlife habitats near your property? Helping the environment in any other way? 

Cottage Life wants to celebrate cottagers, cottage-lake residents, and cottager groups in Canada who are making efforts to conserve their natural environment or reduce their footprint on it. No achievement is too small or too big! If you’re creating positive change for the environment, you could receive a Green Cottager Award. 

This year, we’ve introduced a kids-only category, Kids go Green, for those 15 and younger. So nominate yourself, your family, your neighbours, your friends, or anyone else you think deserves the label “Green Cottager.” Cottage Life will donate a total of $5,000 to the cottage-related environmental causes chosen by the award recipients. Read on for our updated rules and simplified entry process.

Download the nomination form here.

Meet the recipients of the 2007 and 2008 Green Cottager Awards.

Who’s Eligible?

  • Nominees must be cottagers, cottage-lake residents, or a group of cottagers* in Canada.
  • Entrants in previous Green Cottager Awards may re-enter their nominations in the 2009 Green Cottager Awards, with the exception of award recipients, who are not eligible for re-nomination.
  • Nominated achievements must be located at a cottage or cottage-lake residence or in a cottaging community in Canada
  • Nominated achievements may be conservation-related (e.g., shoreline restoration) or building-related (e.g., designing a green cottage). Other activities helping to preserve the natural environment at a cottage, lake residence, or cottaging community are also eligible.
  • Nominees under the age of consent in their province or state must have consent from their parent or legal guardian to enter
  • Employees (and immediate family members of employees and those with whom such employees are domiciled) or agents of Cottage Life or Quarto Communications, their respective advertising and promotion agencies, and the awards judges are not eligible.

 

How to Enter:

All nominations must be received in the Cottage Life offices no later than Wednesday, July 9, 2008.
  • Cottagers, cottage-lake residents, and cottager groups may nominate themselves or be nominated by another party. If you nominate an achievement other than your own, you must get permission of the nominee before submitting your nomination form.
  • Download the nomination form. Complete the form and mail, with supporting summary, as well as any other supporting material (if applicable), to 2009 Green Cottager Awards, Cottage Life, 54 St. Patrick St., Toronto, ON M5T 1V1. Or e-mail to greenawards@cottagelife.com. You may enter as often as you like before the deadline, but each nomination form and nomination must be unique.
  • Include with each nomination form a description (maximum 300 words) of the green-cottaging achievement. See nomination form for full details, and click here for an example description.
  • All submitted supporting materials (photographs, illustrations, technical drawings, etc.) must be original to the nominee, or the nominee must have written permission from the original photographer, artist, or author to submit them.
  • All submissions become the property of Cottage Life/Quarto Communications.

Categories:

1. The Green Cottager Award for Outstanding Environmental Achievement: Individual or Family
2. The Green Cottager Award for Outstanding Environmental Achievement: Cottager Group *
3. The Green Cottager Award for Outstanding Environmental Achievement: Kids Go Green**

* “Cottager group” is an assembly of cottagers, or cottagers and lake residents, bonded by a common purpose, including associations, ratepayers’ groups, or informal organizations, such as neighbours.
** “Kids” must be 15 years of age or younger. Both individuals and groups of children may be nominated.

Judging Process

A panel of judges appointed by Cottage Life will judge the nominations on the basis of their positive environmental impact on a cottage property, cottage-lake residence, or cottaging community in Canada and their inspirational value to other cottagers and lake residents.

Click here to meet the judges from the 2008 Green Cottager Awards.

Awards

There will be three cash donation awards made on the behalf of each Outstanding Environmental Achievement recipient: $2,000 (Cdn.) for the Individual or Family recipient, $2,000 (Cdn.) for the Cottager Group recipient, and $1,000 (Cdn.) for the Kids Go Green recipient. Cottage Life will make the award donations on behalf of the recipients to a cottaging-related environmental cause of their choice. The cottaging-related environmental cause must be based in Canada. The recipients’ choice of cause is subject to Cottage Life’s approval.

Six Awards of Merit will also be presented, two in each category. All nine award recipients will receive commemorative certificates.

Awards will be presented to the recipients at the 2009 Spring Cottage Life Show, in Toronto, Ont. Award recipients who attend the ceremony are responsible for their own transportation to and from the Show.

The award recipients may be featured in a future issue of Cottage Life magazine.

By entering the 2009 Green Cottager Awards, nominees agree to comply with the full awards rules and agree to the publication, reproduction, and/or other use of his/her name, cottage location, voice, statements about the awards, and/or description of his/her green achievement, including written material, and supporting photographs, illustrations, and technical drawings, without further compensation, in any publicity or advertisement carried out by Cottage Life in any manner whatsoever, including print, broadcast, or the Internet.