One Percent for the Tetons announced Wednesday nine projects that will share more than $145,000 through the program’s second grant awards.

The winners were chosen for their efforts to encourage a sustainable region. They are: Friends of the Teton River, Grand Teton National Park Foundation, two projects of the Jackson Hole Film Festival, Northern Rockies Conservation Cooperative, Pursue Balance, Terra Firma, Teton Conservation District and Teton Valley Community Recycling.

One Percent funds programs related to the area’s natural resources. Seventy businesses in four states contribute 1 percent of gross sales into a pool from which the grants are drawn. It’s modeled after 1 Percent for the Planet, which Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard and Craig Mathews, owner of Blue Ribbon Flies, formed to enlist businesses to donate 1 percent of sales to environment groups worldwide.

Twenty 1 Percent for the Tetons grant applicants requested a total of nearly $300,000 for 2008. Individual grant requests ranged from $2,700 to $40,000, according to Executive Director Jonathan Schechter. The number of applicants was down from the 34 that vied for grants in 2007.

“There were fewer, but we are actually pleased because the quality was very, very high,” Schechter said. “People who applied were sensitive to our criteria and it made the grant selection committee’s job a lot harder.”

More than $100,000 was awarded last year from projects requesting about $446,000.

Last year’s grants funded for projects of the American Alpine Club, Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival, Snake River Fund, Western Wyoming Resource Conservation and Development, Teton County Library, Teton Valley Community Recycling, Teton Valley Trails and Pathways, Van Vleck House and Wyoming Game and Fish Department.

Eighty solar panels at Teton County Library were partially funded through the program. The library asked for $20,000 to supplement a project to install 200 panels that meet nearly 30 percent of the building’s energy needs. With the help from others — including the library foundation, an anonymous foundation, Lower Valley Energy and the Wyoming Business Council — two phases of the plan were completed in May and June.

“The grant helped accelerate the time,” said library facilities manager Dail Barbour.