See Winners Of The 2024 Go For The Green Awards

LOWER MERION-NARBERTH, PA — The Lower Merion and Narberth Environmental Advisory Councils and Shade Tree Commissions recently announced winners of this year's "Go for the Green" Awards.

Below are this year's winner:

Joseph M. Manko Lifetime Achievement Award — Jesse Lytle
For piloting the movement to arrest climate change and foster sustainability in his several capacities, including as the founding president of the Borough of Narberth’s Environmental Advisory Council, as a member of the board of the Lower Merion Conservancy, and as Vice President, Chief of Staff, and Chief Sustainability Officer of Haverford College, where he has been instrumental in the college’s many notable accomplishments in the realm of sustainability including a dramatic reduction in campus greenhouse gas emissions, arboretum revitalization, and the installation of publicly accessible EV charging stations.

Maki San Miguel Paulson Sustainability — Sudie Herdman
For combining horticultural expertise with unceasing dedication over many years to creating and maintaining beautiful gardens, ranging from Longwood Gardens and the Barnes Arboretum to the Cynwyd Trail, the Cynwyd Station, and at the Bala Cynwyd Library and the Lower Merion Academy Building.

Resident Award — Hilarie Johnston
For the many hours she has spent, as a trained Pennsylvania Horticulture Society (PHS) Tree Tender, working in collaboration with Township staff to improve the trees in Township parks - Rolling Hill Park, in particular - by clearing invasive vines and planting trees with her own hands and organizing volunteer groups to help her.

Commercial Enterprise Award — Mother Compost
For steadily raising the community’s consciousness about the value of composting and for continually expanding its collection services that now extend to over 1,400 residents along the Main Line as well as over twenty colleges, small businesses, and churches, eight of which are located in Lower Merion or Narberth.

Institution Award — Gladwyne Free Library
For its diverse and numerous environmental programs and for restoring, enhancing, and maintaining the adjacent Keech Memorial Garden that enriches the experience of the more than 50,000 visits that the Library welcomes annually.

Organization Award — Shortridge Park Volunteers (Celia Mammary, James Mammary, Rob Kuper, Stacy Hirsch, and Dan Mercer)
For developing and executing over a period of years a plan to beautify Shortridge Park, which has entailed the removal of massive amounts of invasive, non-native plants, saving trees from strangulation by English Ivy, and planting approximately 160 native trees and shrubs, and continuing to monitor and maintain the park.

Friend of Penn’s Woods Award — Derrick Wu
For extraordinary tree stewardship, as a member of Ardmore Tree Stewards, bringing to bear his expertise as a Pennsylvania Horticultural Society Tree Tender and Penn State Master Watershed Steward and contributing to the planting and stewardship of more than 150 trees in Lower Merion neighborhoods and parks.

Government Service Award — Rob McGreevey
For his leadership role as a member of the Narberth Borough Council in, among other things, the establishment of the Narberth EAC, the enactment of one of Pennsylvania’s first ordinances to regulate single-use plastic bags, the adoption of ambitious commitments to transition Borough facilities and vehicles to one hundred percent renewable energy, the replacement of streetlights with LED fixtures, the installation of publicly accessible electric vehicle charging stations, and the pursuit of Community Choice Aggregation that, once implemented, will afford all energy users within the borough access to non-fossil fuel generated electricity.

More information on the 2024 Go-for-the-Green Awards is available online here.