Washington, DC (Nov. 17) – America’s conservation organization dedicated to protecting wildlife has honored Grist and its founder Chip Giller with its National Conservation Achievement Award for protecting wildlife and natural resources for our children’s future.
Grist received the award in the communications category from the National Wildlife Federation (NWF) at an annual awards dinner last night in Washington, DC. The award is one of 12 categories established to showcase outstanding contributions of individuals and organizations to conservation and environmental protection.
With a monthly audience of nearly 700,000 and an irreverent style often described as “gloom and doom with a sense of humor,” Grist has surged to the front ranks of environmental media, enjoying particular success among readers in their 20s and 30s.
“From politics to protests, from food and health to national security, from romance to travel to art, Grist shows how the environment ties into every life, every day,” said Larry Schweiger, President and CEO of the National Wildlife Federation. “Grist is a new media pioneer that makes serious environmental issues relevant and gives people a reason to care without making them cry.”
“As the environmental movement ages, it is important to find ways of engaging and connecting with younger audiences,” said Chip Giller. “Grist is playing a vital role in developing the next green generation by making issues of environmental stewardship and sustainability accessible, hip, and relevant to hundreds of thousands of readers worldwide.”
Grist’s work has been widely lauded, including by The New York Times, Vanity Fair, The Washington Post, and The Los Angeles Times. The Boston Globe and The San Francisco Chronicle have published op-eds by Grist writers, and MSNBC, MTV, PBS, Salon, and many others regularly publish Grist content on their websites. Grist won the People’s Voice Award Webby for Best Magazine in both 2006 and 2005, received Utne’s Independent Press Award for Online Political Coverage in 2005 and 2003, and has been nominated for Utne’s Independent Press Award for Environmental Coverage in 2006.
Chip Giller is Grist’s president and founder. He received the Tides Foundation’s 2004 Jane Bagley Lehman Award for Excellence in Public Advocacy. He was also AlterNet’s 2001 New Media Hero and, in 2002, was a finalist for the Environmental Grantmakers Association’s “Environmental Messenger of the Year.” He was previously the editor of Greenwire, the first environmental news daily.
A Massachusetts native, Giller graduated from Brown University with an honors degree in environmental studies. He is a three-time journalism fellow with the Institute for Journalism and Natural Resources and a senior fellow with the Environmental Leadership Program.
NWF’s conservation achievement awards have been presented annually since 1965. Nominations are received from conservationists and the general public nationwide, with winners selected by NWF’s board of directors.
The National Wildlife Federation is America’s conservation organization inspiring people to protect wildlife for our children’s future.
Immediate Release: November 17, 2006
Contact:
Christine Dorsey, NWF – 802-229-0650, ext. 334, dorsey@nwf.org
David Brotherton, Grist – 206-954-8672, david@brothertonstrategies.com
