A congratulations post - to Lennie Roberts, Hewlett and Packard families, and even the Homebuilders Association

I'll just gather a few congratulations together:

First to CGF's own Lennie Roberts for winning the Conservationist of the Year Award from the John Muir Association. CGF's write-up is here:

Congratulations to long-time Committee for Green Foothills San Mateo Advocate Lennie Roberts, who will be honored on January 20 by the John Muir Association as its 30^th Annual Conservationist of the Year. The John Muir Conservation Awards are given annually to recognize those whose work continues John Muir's legacy of environmental preservation. Corrina Marshall, Acting Executive Director of CGF, writes that Lennie's efforts as CGF’s San Mateo County Advocate have "led to the development of sound, proactive land use policies, won countless battles to preserve precious coastal resources, led several historic countywide environmental initiatives despite fierce opposition, and taught countless citizens how to be effective advocates for their local environments."

Lennie will be honored along with Bank of America, the GreenInfo Network, and the Environmental Studies Academy for their significant contributions to environmental preservation efforts. The John Muir Conservation Awards will be presented at a dinner to be held on Sunday, January 20, 2008 at the Campbell Theatre in Martinez, CA. To learn more about the John Muir Association and the John Muir Conservation Awards, visit them online at www.johnmuirassociation.org. To learn more about Lennie's work with the CGF visit www.greenfoothills.org/projects.

Next, congratulations to the Hewlett and Packard families for donating the development rights to a massive tract of ranchland they own between Grant County Park and Henry Coe State Park in east Santa Clara County, a huge step toward protecting the Mount Hamilton Range ecosystem.

And finally, congratulations are due to an organization that we've often tussled with. The Home Builders Association of Northern California has too often supported sprawl development in the past, but this time they've announced their support for green building standards for residential buildings to reduce energy usage. While requiring green building standards is commonplace for commercial buildings, making them mandatory for residential building is still a new idea, and our local home builders are the first in the nation to support it. Congratulations! (Now, fighting sprawl is an even better way to reduce energy usage...)

-Brian