Call for Nominations for 2021 River Blue Awards

Friends of the Chicago River is accepting nominations for the 2021 Chicago River Blue Awards recognizing river-sensitive projects for exceptional contributions to continuing the improvement of the waterway. 

Since the first awards in 2010, Friends has recognized a total of 68 projects that represent both large-scale initiatives and individual actions of property owners and elected officials to improve and protect the Chicago River system.

“Our annual Chicago River Blue Awards is Friends’ way of celebrating and thanking those who drive change in our watershed through forward thinking projects,” said Adam Flickinger, director of planning at Friends of the Chicago River. “Despite a tough year, there is still exciting work being done to create a river system that is clean, accessible, and supportive of healthy human and wildlife communities. The award winners over the past 10 years are outstanding examples of this.” 

Friends is looking for innovative, river-system benefiting, sustainable, and nature-based projects located throughout the Chicago River watershed that exemplify our vision for the river system. An overview of the principles that are used for the Chicago River Blue awards selection can be found here. There is a preference for projects and policy and planning initiatives that show tangible implementation results. For development, landscape, recreational access, habitat restoration, engineering, or green infrastructure projects, we prefer their construction to be fully completed.

Please send nominations to Adam Flickinger at aflickinger@chicagoriver.org by Friday, March 26, 2021. There is no official nomination form, however please include the name of the project, its location, the lead organization responsible (including contact information), and a link to a website or project page where additional information can be found.