The Natural Step Monona board chose Marsh for his instrumental work in guiding the city and the city’s Sustainability Committee in working toward energy efficiency improvements, fuel savings, and operating cost reductions for city buildings and vehicles.

Marsh stands out for leading the city’s effort to win two important grants. The first award, a $30,000 Energy Independent Communities (EIC) grant from the State Office of Energy Independence, was announced in February. This grant will fund a year-long planning process to collect energy data and identify energy efficiency and renewable energy projects to move toward energy independence. EIC communities create “25×25” plans to meet the goal of generating 25 percent of the state’s electricity and transportation fuels from renewable resources by the year 2025.

The second award, just announced last week, is a $225,000 Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant to be applied to significant HVAC upgrades to the library, city hall, and community center, and new windows at city hall.

Marsh also earned recognition from The Natural Step Monona for working effectively with Focus on Energy to maximize rebates for a variety of improvements to city buildings and for participating in the 2009 quarterly EIC conferences around the state.

Heather Gates, Executive Director of The Natural Step Monona, worked with Marsh on the EIC grant. “Pat understands that conservation of the resources we rely on is the first place to start in facing current economic constraints and those of the future,” said Gates. “Tomorrow’s markets will reward the communities, companies, and individuals that have the foresight to take action now, and I am so pleased that Pat is leading the city in taking steps to ensure our community prospers well into the future.”

This is the first Sustainability Champion Award presented by The Natural Step Monona. The three-year-old organization advocates for, educates about, and promotes sustainability for Monona.

“City staff has to wear many hats in their jobs and Pat is to be commended for taking on an additional leadership role relating to the city’s commitment to a sustainable future,” said Bob Miller, Board Chair. “Now some of Pat’s hard work is literally paying off with the awarding of the first two major grants.”

The Natural Step Monona plans to make this an annual award to salute the achievements of sustainability champions who help move Monona to a greener, more resilient and sustainable future.