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By ANN RICHARDS

Two Mott Foundation grantees received the American Bar Association's 2008 Award for Distinguished Achievement in Environmental Law and Policy. Those honored represent the two major focuses of Mott's environmental grantmaking: Conservation of Freshwater Ecosystems and International Finance for Sustainability. Daniel Barstow Magraw, Jr., president of the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL) in Washington, D.C., which has received Mott funding since 1990, was honored in the individual category for his significant influence on setting the international agenda for developing environmental law and its effective implementation. In the organizational category, the Chicago-based Alliance for the Great Lakes was honored for serving the public interests by championing the protection of the lakes over four decades. See the Alliance's story below. 

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For the past 38 years, the Alliance for the Great Lakes has worked to conserve and restore the world's largest freshwater resource. On August 10, the American Bar Association (ABA) honored that resolve by presenting the organization with its 2008 Award for Distinguished Achievement in Environmental Law and Policy.

Singled out from a field of distinguished applicants including law schools and firms, the Alliance received the award at the ABA's annual meeting in New York City -- a fitting recognition for its "long history of accomplishment on behalf of the Great Lakes," according to bar association officials.

"It’s a small group that does a mammoth job," said E. Lynn Grayson, a partner at Jenner & Block LLP, in the firm's Environmental, Energy and Natural Resources Law and Defense & Aerospace Practices in Chicago. Grayson "had the privilege" of signing the nomination form for the ABA award, but putting together the nomination package was a huge collaborative effort involving a number of great partners, she said.

"You tend to hear a lot about the big environmental organizations and their work -- and that's a good thing," she continued. "But a lot of substantive environmental work is being done on a regional level by nonprofits that don't always get the recognition they deserve. The Alliance is a shining example of that kind of organization -- a small group doing good work with very few resources."

"They don't work from behind a desk," said Tony Earl of the Alliance's efforts to build collaboration around Great Lakes protection issues. A former governor of Wisconsin who now is a trustee of the Joyce Foundation in Chicago, Earl became familiar with the Alliance as a result of his participation in the Council of Great Lakes Governors.

"Obviously the protection of the Great Lakes was of major concern to the governors and the Alliance helped carry that concern to its next logical step -- bringing the not-for-profit community together with environmentalists, funders, elected officials and policymakers. Collaboration was essential. Nowhere was that more significant than passage of the Great Lakes Compact," he said, referring to the successful, decade-long process to craft and approve an eight-state agreement governing large-scale water diversion outside the Great Lakes basin and mandate conservation efforts within the basin. As of early August 2008, the Compact is pending in the U.S. House of Representatives.

" ... a lot of substantive environmental work is being done on a regional level by nonprofits that don't always get the recognition they deserve. The Alliance is a shining example of that kind of organization -- a small group doing good work with very few resources."The oldest of the citizen-based Great Lakes organizations in North America, the Alliance was formed in 1970 as the Lake Michigan Federation. Since that time, it has successfully helped protect sand dunes, wetlands and other critical habitats, removed thousands of pounds of debris each year from beaches around the lakes through annual "Beach Sweeps," and improved water quality and slowed the aging process in the lakes by pushing for improved sewage treatment and bans on phosphates in detergents. Headquartered in Chicago, the Alliance has been a Mott Foundation grantee since 1981, receiving more than $1.5 million for a number of initiatives, primarily in the form of general support. The Alliance’s program work parallels many of Mott’s grantmaking interests, including work related to the Great Lakes Compact and implementation of the Clean Water Act.

The award was established in 2000 by the bar association's Standing Committee on Environmental Law, with co-sponsorship by the ABA Section of Environment, Energy, and Resources. Given to one individual and organizational recipient each year, it was created to recognize significant leadership in improving the substance, process or understanding of environmental protection.

"A big part of their leadership is the networks they've created. They maintain day-in and day-out contact through personal visits, newsletters and now, through all the new web technologies. They've been able to keep track what's happening in each of the states.

"They are tireless," said Earl.

"There are lots of organizations who understand the importance of collaboration -- but not many who can make it work like the Alliance."