Sven-Olof Lindblad, founder of Lindblad Expeditions has received a Climate Champion Award from Clean Air-Cool Planet for his leadership in corporate climate action.

Clean Air-Cool Planet is a science-based, non-partisan, non-profit organization dedicated solely to finding and promoting solutions to global warming. Lindblad was honored for his lifelong commitment to global conservation issues.

“It is a pleasure to be able to award Sven Lindblad, who has dedicated his life to conservation of natural resource and biodiversity, with this year’s Climate Champion Award for individual leadership in climate action” said Clean Air-Cool Planet CEO Adam Markham. “Under his leadership, Lindblad Expeditions has become a world leader in bringing people to the world’s wildest and most beautiful, and in engaging them in efforts to preserve our natural resources, the world’s wild and beautiful places, and the livelihoods and cultures of indigenous peoples.”

The award has been presented to Lindblad for his ongoing pioneering work in sustainable travel, including an Arctic expedition in the summer of 2008 in which more than 100 diverse opinion leaders convened aboard the National Geographic Endeavour in Svalbard, Norway to work together to find new solutions to climate change. His tireless efforts to engage governments, NGOs, businesses and expedition travelers throughout his career, have brought major conservation benefits to habitats as diverse as those of the Galapagos Islands, Baja California, Antarctica and the Arctic.

This year’s winners also include:
•  Chewonki Foundation of Wiscasset, ME, for the quality and level of innovation of its outreach and education efforts;
•  Furman University in Greensville, SC, for its innovative climate action planning model, the breadth of its campus sustainability initiatives, and the visionary leadership in the higher education community of its President, Dr. David Shi;
•  Hannaford Supermarkets for opening the world’s first LEED Platinum certified supermarket in Augusta, Maine and leadership in corporate climate action;
•  Representative Edward J. Markey for leadership in the fight for a more progressive energy strategy in the House of Representatives;
•  SunEdison for its unique business model supporting the development of large scale renewable energy projects;
•  Dr. Susan F. Tierney, founding board member at CA-CP, former environmental affairs commissioner for Massachusetts and assistant secretary for policy in the US Department of Energy, for her work in the energy and climate field;
•  And the Town of Temple, NH for its common sense, citizen-supported efficiency projects, conservation and continuing education.

“Having built a global business with conservation and environmental stewardship as core business tenets, it is such an honor to be recognized by Clean Air-Cool Planet. Together with the other awardees – past and present – I hope we can add significant value to promote necessary change,” said Sven Lindblad, founder of Lindblad Expeditions.

Past winners of the award for their leadership in climate action include governors John Baldacci of Maine and George Pataki of New York; Bank of America, Oakhurst Dairy, Staples and Timberland; Hull, MA, and Maplewood, NJ; Middlebury College, UNH, and Tufts University.