Chip Giller, a 1993 graduate of Brown University who now lives in Seattle, is one of this year’s recipients of a $100,000 Heinz Award for his work creating a Web magazine that delivers environmental news with humor.

Giller launched Grist.org in 1999 with the idea of avoiding the impression that all environmentalists did was spread gloom. He thought he could promote positive, green journalism with a humorous tone.

Since then, his nonprofit endeavor has grown to 25 employees with funding from the Ford Foundation, the David and Lucille Packard Foundation, Rockefeller Brothers Fund and the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation.

In granting its award, the Heinz Family Foundation noted: “Acutely aware of the declining readership of traditional news vehicles and their failure to connect with young audiences, Mr. Giller has proved adept at adapting quickly to new trends in readership and technology, disseminating Grist’s journalism via RSS, Facebook, Twitter and other new-media channels. Grist adds thousands of new readers each month and can be credited with attracting a new generation of environmentalists by reaching readers in their 20s and 30s. Newsweek called it The Daily Show of the environment.”

In its story on the award, Grist wrote: “Congratulations, boss! Now get back to work; we’ve got a world to save!”

Giller wrote in Grist that it was an honor to receive an award that has previously gone to so many of his heroes and heroines.

“When I started Grist in 1999, environmentalism was a different beast: old, tired, uncool, way too earnest,” he wrote. “I wanted to inject some levity into a movement known for taking itself too seriously, and to reach new audiences, people who would never call themselves environmentalists. Grist started as an e-mail sent to just a few hundred people, and we’ve had success beyond what I could have imagined. We’ve done it with humor, we’ve done it with substantive coverage, and most of all, we’ve done it by proving that those two things aren’t mutually exclusive.”

He added: “Here at Grist we like to have fun, but we also take our work seriously. I’d like to thank the Heinz Family for honoring our commitment, and I look forward to continuing the journey.”

The Heinz foundation bestows awards in memory of the late Sen. John Heinz to recognize outstanding achievement in arts and humanities, the environment, the human condition, public policy, technology, the economy and employment.

plord@projo.com