Ottawa - Tony Clement, Member of Parliament for Parry Sound- Muskoka, is the recipient of the 2008 Partners for a Green Hill Environmental Award. Mr. Clement is the first Member of Parliament to ever win in the individual award category.
Mr. Clement was chosen as this year's recipient because of his green environmental practices both at his Parliament Hill office and his four offices in Parry Sound, Huntsville, Bracebridge and Sundridge.
"A lot of the things my staff and I do are just common sense; we walk whenever possible, recycle and reuse paper, and keep lights and electronics off when they're not needed and aren't in use," said Mr. Clement.
In addition to these practices, Mr. Clement also took out a dishwasher from his Parliamentary office because of the high energy and electricity consumption, he encourages reuse of office supplies, and he is a strong advocate of "Operation Porchlight", a conservation program to distribute energy efficient light bulbs in Parry Sound- Muskoka. For two years running, Mr. Clement has also done personal offsets to become “carbon neutral”.
The Environmental Award Program acknowledges the efforts of individuals and groups who made an extra effort to advance the 4Rs (reduce, reuse, recycle, rethink) and other environmental initiatives. This initiative is a collaboration of partners from the Senate, the House of Commons, the Library of Parliament and Public Works and Government Services Canada - Parliamentary Precinct Directorate. Mr. Clement was also the 2006 recipient of the Sierra Club of Canada's Eco Olympics Award for Environmentalism.
The award will be given on June 6, 2008.
