Nomination Process

Awards

Green Power Leadership Awards

EPA’s Green Power Leadership Awards recognize exceptional achievement among EPA Green Power Partners. EPA recognizes eligible Partner organizations in the following four award categories:

Green Power Partner of the Year: Recognizes Partners who distinguish themselves through their purchase, leadership, overall strategy, and impact on the green power market.
Green Power Community of the Year: Recognizes EPA Green Power Communities that distinguish themselves through their green power usage, leadership, citizen engagement, renewable energy strategy, and impact on the green power market.
On-site Generation: Recognizes Partners who distinguish themselves using on-site renewable energy applications, including, but not limited to, solar photovoltaic (PV) or wind energy projects.
Green Power Purchase: Recognizes Partners who distinguish themselves through purchases of green power from a utility green-pricing program, a competitive green marketer, or a renewable energy certificate (REC) supplier.

Award Nominations

Self-nominations or nominations on behalf of another party are accepted. There is no limit to the number of nominations that can be submitted per party or under any award category.

The 2011 Green Power Leadership Awards nomination period is closed. The 2012 Awards nomination period will open in Spring 2012.

Eligibility Requirements

The nominee must be accepted as an EPA Green Power Partner by the time that the nomination materials are submitted. Review the Partnership Requirements and Agreement (PDF) (19 pp, 520K, About PDF).
The nominee must complete its green power purchase before the nomination period closes. A green power purchase is considered complete when the electrons are flowing under contract. EPA will follow up to confirm each nominee’s green power usage.
The nominator must consider a 12-consecutive-month period when submitting green power purchase size, baseload electricity use, percentages, and other quantifiable information.

Note: Partners are eligible for an award only if the Partner retires or retains ownership of the RECs associated with their purchase or on-site generation system. Partners selling RECs may replace them with a secondary green power purchase.

Note: Previous winners are eligible for awards in future years but will be judged based on their activities since the last award cycle.

Evaluation Criteria

Nominations will be evaluated based on the following criteria:

Green Power Usage Information:

Total annual size of green power purchase (including qualifying on-site generation)
Size and type of renewable energy installation
Scope of green power commitment (facility, organization-wide)
Green power purchase as a percent of annual baseload electricity use, given the Green Power Partnership’s required minimum purchase level
Geographic location of renewable energy generation

Communications efforts to promote green power usage both internally and externally (past, present, and future), as well as plans to promote the EPA Green Power Leadership Award, should the nominee be selected
Organizational strategy for investing in green power (past, present, future)
Leadership in using green power within a region or business sector

Judging Process

An EPA evaluation panel will review and evaluate the nominations. Nominations must be accurate and complete. EPA will notify award winners and nominees over the summer.

Awards Banquet

Each year, award winners are recognized at the Green Power Leadership Awards Banquet held in conjunction with the Renewable Energy Markets (REM) Conference. The 2012 REM will be held in Washington, DC in the fall. Please check this page in the coming months for more details.

Questions?

To learn more about the awards and the conference, visit the 2011 Green Power Leadership Awards Web page and the Renewable Energy Markets Conference website.

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