The Scottish Sustainable Development Forum has put together the first Scottish Green List after inviting nominations from the public. Over the course of this week, The Scotsman has revealed the 50 winners.

Last night the green crusaders on the first Scottish Green List gathered at The Scotsman's head office in Edinburgh for an awards ceremony.

In her speech, environment minister Roseanna Cunningham praised the pair behind the Fife Diet.

"Karen and Mike's idea is a simple concept but one which has clearly caught the public's imagination and is making a real difference in terms of reducing our carbon footprint and supporting local businesses," she said.

"The beauty of their initiative is that it taps into the growing awareness of consumers in the provenance of what they buy – they want to know where their food comes from and support local producers at the same time.

"And by working more closely with local farmers, we can shorten the supply chain, reduce food miles and re-localise production."

Professor James Curran, chairman of the Scottish Sustainable Development Forum, praised all the winners, saying: "It is individuals like these that need to be thanked, celebrated, encouraged and supported all across Scotland."

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10 Bill Acton, Gordon Cowtan, David Howell, Martin Turner

Known as the Fintry Four, these men have arguably created the greenest village in Scotland.

Their dream of clean green energy and a zero waste community was not given much hope by many, but now considerable sums of money are made from the community wind turbines. The money is used for insulation and other energy efficiency measures for local people. Such schemes all over Scotland could save 2.4 million tonnes of per year.

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9 Jan Bebbington

Jan has been at the forefront of research and advocacy on accountancy and sustainable development. Her work using accountancy tools to track environmental problems is respected across the world, and her research and organisation have ensured that St Andrews University is now a leading centre on sustainability.

As vice-chairwoman of the Sustainable Development Commission in Scotland, Jan has led work to advise and scrutinise the work of the Scottish Government.

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8 Jeremy Sainsbury

Ten years ago the Dumfriesshire-based renewable energy consultancy Natural Power had a total of six staff. Now it has more than 100 working across six countries. Director Jeremy Sainsbury has been part of the management team that has driven it to success. Natural Power is one of Scotland's leading independent renewable energy developers and has an enviable track record in receiving planning consents. The company is responsible for a long list of wind farms across Scotland, and has plans for many more elsewhere in the world.

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7 David Cameron

David Cameron was not going to sit back and watch his local community's population dwindle and businesses die.

Largely as a result of his efforts, the islanders on North Harris now own the land they live on. It truly was a historic day when the North Harris community purchased 55,000 acres of the local estate. They have also received considerable financial support to develop their own wind farm, with all profit going back into the local community. David's passion has inspired renewable energy projects and land ownership far beyond North Harris.

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6 Eva Schonveld

The global Transition Town movement aims to reduce the threat of peak oil and climate change on communities – and to transform Scotland one community at a time.

This is done by positive changes to local transport, food and waste. Eva Schonveld, co-ordinator of Transition Scotland, is the only person in the world to have secured core funding for full-time staff, as opposed to volunteers, for this kind of community initiative.

Dozens of communities across Scotland have either signed up to the initiative, or taken an active interest.

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5 Rachel Nunn

Rachel Nunn is described as a force of nature by many who meet her. Her enthusiasm and determination have seen her lead the creation of Carbon Neutral Stirling, a pioneering organisation looking to engage people across Stirling in tackling climate change. The project began as a voluntary campaign in Rachel's front room, but now has government backing and a small team working across Stirling to deliver her vision. She said that when she read about the possible impacts of climate change, she could not sit back and do nothing.

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4 Abbie Marland

It is not often that an individual environmentalist wins the argument against global oil corporations. However, it could be argued Abbie Marland did just that.

She tirelessly campaigned against a plan for ship-to-ship transfer of vast quantities of crude oil in the Firth of Forth. Largely as a result of her efforts, the proposals were rejected by Forth Ports in February last year. They would have seen almost eight million tonnes of crude oil pumped between tankers each year, raising fears of an environmentally catastrophic spill.

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3 Ian Marchant

When Ian Marchant took over Scottish & Southern Energy in 2002 at the age of 41, he was hailed as the FTSE 100's youngest chief executive. He has proved to be very different from the old generation of energy company bosses, becoming a keen supporter of renewable energy long before it became fashionable. SSE went on to receive consent to build Europe's largest wind farm – the Clyde wind farm in South Lanarkshire. As well as nailing SSE's colours to the low-carbon mast, Ian has also been vocal in support for government action on climate change.

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2 Howard Wood

It took more than a decade of tireless effort but success was sweet as Scotland's first no-fishing zone was given the go ahead last year.

Leading the efforts of the environmental campaigners who forced it to happen was Howard Wood. He got together with other Arran residents to set up Community of Arran Seabed Trust (Coast). When the government approved Scotland's first no-take zone in Lamlash Bay, Howard's incredible efforts paid off and he showed that the fishing industry can work hand-in-hand with environmental interests.

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1 Karen & Mike Small

Like all the best ideas, it was very simple; it started small, but quickly spread and the consequences have been enormous.

Karen and Mike Small have inspired hundreds of people across Fife and thousands more across the country to eat locally-produced food.

It all started as an experiment challenging a handful of people to eat only food grown in Fife for a year – the Fife Diet was born. As word spread, more and more people started taking part.

Not only does it reduce the carbon footprint of those taking part, it encourages healthy eating, use of seasonal produce, and it supports local business. Without the tremendous enthusiasm of Mike and Karen, this hugely influential initiative would never have become the success it is.

THE GREEN LIST