MELA honors Jack Pizzo with Polaris Award
18 Mar, 2010 LM Direct!
The Midwest Ecological Landscape Association (MELA) presented its Polaris Award to Jack Pizzo at its recent annual conference. The award recognizes an individual who has demonstrated outstanding commitment to the practices of sustainability in the environment. Pizzo is president, principal landscape architect, senior ecologist and founding partner of Pizzo & Associates, Ltd., a firm dedicated to protection, restoration, creation and management of natural areas and natural landscapes. For 21 years Pizzo has been involved in teams to restore, design, construct and steward ecological restorations, sustainable developments, parks, preserves and natural landscapes throughout the country.
In presenting the award, MELA Board President Garth Conrad (pictured, Pizzo left and Conrad right) said, "Our Polaris award winner was doing green long before it was fashionable. He founded Pizzo & Associates in the late 1980's, and has steadily built it into a strong industry leader, advancing the use of native plants and ecological practices along the way. He serves as the philosophical and knowledge base of his company.
Pizzo & Associates are environmental stewards focused solely on ecological restoration. They create, restore, and steward natural areas using cutting edge principles and techniques. Working together with public and private landowners, they convert high maintenance, low function, chemically intensive landscapes to low maintenance highly functional natural areas that become home to native birds and butterflies.
The award itself is traditionally made of 100% recycled materials. Each creation is unique, thanks to the creativity of award designer Kathleen Thompson, who uses with found materials to design an award appropriate to the recipient.
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