Have you made a contribution to improving the environment? If so, you could enter the Green Apple Environment Awards and win a long weekend for two in Gibralta and the honour of collecting your Award at a ceremony in the Houses of Parliament.

Now in their ninth year, the Green Apple Environment Awards are open to anyone who has helped the environment. Past winners have ranged from the Eden Project in Cornwall to a pensioner making bird boxes - although he did raise £100,000 from them which he donated to environmental causes.

Stonemasonry is fairly green in itself - the extraction of stone and the production of building components from it is fairly energy efficient - but just carrying on work as normal will not win a Green Apple. On the other hand, a water cleaning and recycling plant might.

These Awards have attracted more entries each year - last year there were 300, including some of the major construction companies, although the judges do take into account the resources likely to be available to entrants in reaching their decisons.

The Awards are organised by The Green Organisation, an independent, non-political, non-activist, non-profit-making environmental group.

National organiser Roger Wolens says: "Our objective is not only to recognise and publicise various environmental endeavours, but also to help others follow those examples."

To find out what examples you can follow, visit the website (link below) where the experiences of previous winners are posted.

There is no entry charge and winners receive gold, silver or bronze medals for their efforts - and about a third of last year\'s entrants received such recognition - and an overall winner gets the long weekend in Gibralta.

Closing date for this year\'s awards is the end of the month. Entry forms are available on the website or by calling the number below.