Ellen Pickering Environmental Excellence Award

2025 Ellen Pickering Environmental Excellence Award

Nominations for the 2025 Ellen Pickering Environmental Excellence Award opens on Tuesday, February 18, 2025. Help celebrate April as Earth Month by recognizing the environmental work or educational efforts of a resident, group, club, organization, or corporate neighbor that meets the criteria provided below.

Submissions must be received by Friday, March 21, 2025, using the online nomination form. The award will be presented to this year’s recipient on Sunday, April 27, 2025, at the Del Ray GardenFest.

Submit a Nomination for the Ellen Pickering Award

See below for a list of previous recipients and additional information.

Award Criteria

Native Plant Advocates Scott Knudsen and Jennifer Pease accept the 2024 Ellen Pickering Environmental Excellence Award.

QUALIFICATIONS

Alexandria City residents, groups, clubs, organizations, or corporate neighbors may be nominated. To be eligible, individual nominees must live within the City of Alexandria, and groups, clubs, organizations, and corporate neighbor nominees must operate within the City of Alexandria. The actions of the nominees must have a direct impact on protecting the natural environment and its resources within the City of Alexandria.

SELECTION

The selection committee is comprised of representatives from the Alexandria Environmental Policy Commission, AlexRenew, and the Pickering family.

APPLICABLE TOPICS

Nominations should reflect the nominee’s environmental advocacy and stewardship, which can include, but are not limited to, protection of natural resources, energy conservation, environmental education and outreach, sustainability, water preservation and conservation, waste reduction, reuse, recycling, and clean air initiatives.

Those submitting nominations may also refer to Alexandria’s Eco-City Charter, adopted in 2008, that defines Alexandria’s commitment to ecological, economic, and social sustainability. The Charter’s core values and ten guiding principles formed the basis for the City’s first Environmental Action Plan (EAP) in 2009 and the updated Environmental Action Plan 2040, adopted in 2019. Both documents define the guiding principles of environmental sustainability. Visit Eco-City Alexandria, for more information.

NOMINATION REQUIREMENTS

Submissions must include the following:

The nominee’s name, address, and telephone number, or the key individual to contact if a nominee is a group, club, organization, or corporate neighbor.
The name, address, and telephone number of the person nominating the candidate must be included.
A brief, detailed description (500 words or less) of the nominee’s accomplishments and qualifications for the Ellen Pickering Environmental Excellence Award.
By electing to accept the Ellen Pickering Environmental Award, the recipient grants permission to both AlexRenew and the City of Alexandria to use a photograph of their image for the purposes of promoting the environmental missions of the City of Alexandria and AlexRenew, as well as in promoting the award itself, both online and in print.
The award recipient must be available to receive the award at the Del Ray GardenFest.

About Ellen Pickering

The award is named in honor of Ellen Pickering's lifelong dedication to preservation and conservation in the City of Alexandria. Mrs. Pickering was a longtime City activist who first gained recognition for her lobbying efforts more than 40 years ago that ultimately helped create the Mount Vernon Trail between Alexandria and Washington, DC.

An active preservationist and conservationist, she was deeply committed to preserving and enhancing the City's waterfront. She urged the adoption of the City's Open Space Plan, lobbied to preserve Founder's Park and protect it from high-rise development, and implemented the planting of 1,000 citizen-donated cherry trees during her tenure as chair of the Alexandria Beautification Commission.

Mrs. Pickering was elected to City Council as an independent, serving for one term between 1976 and 1979. She also served on numerous City boards and commissions, including the Alexandria Beautification Commission, AlexRenew (then known as the Alexandria Sanitation Authority), the Ad Hoc Committee on Potomac Yard, the Potomac Greens Task Force, and the Open Space Steering Committee. She also chaired the Northern Virginia Conservation Council for many years. She won two Salute to Women Awards from the City's Commission on Women. She was also an active member of the League of Women Voters and the Alexandria chapter of the American Association of University Women.

City of Alexandria, VA

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