Jump to main content or area navigation.

Contact EPA Pacific Southwest

Pacific Southwest, Region 9

Serving: Arizona, California, Hawaii, Nevada, Pacific Islands, 147 Tribes

Environmental Awards

Nomination Schedule

January 27
Nomination period opens

February 21
Nomination period closes

Late March
Winners are notified

Mid-April
Environmental Awards Ceremony

On this page:

Contact Information

Environmental Awards (R9EnvironmentalAwards@epa.gov)

Nomination Steps

  1. Ensure the nominee meets the nominee requirements.
  2. Write a nomination summary, follow the Guidelines and keep the selection criteria in mind.
  3. Complete and submit the online nomination form by February 21, 2012.

Nominee Requirements

  • Nominee must be a resident or an organization located in state or tribal lands bounded by California, Nevada, Arizona, Hawaii, and Pacific Islands (CNMI, Guam, American Samoa).
  • Your nomination must be submitted by February 21, 2012.
  • EPA will review all nominations and select the winners based on the information provided.

Nomination Summary, Guidelines

In the first paragraph of your nomination, please summarize the nominee's major highlights. This segment should clearly explain what the nominee accomplished that warrants EPA recognition and should also cite facts and figures that illustrate the effectiveness of the nominee's efforts. The opening paragraph should run no more than six to seven sentences and will serve as a critical portion of the nomination. Please use the rest of the page to further illustrate the nominee's accomplishments.

An EPA panel will review all of the nominations and select the winners, who will be notified in late March. Winners will be announced to the public and presented with their awards at a ceremony to be held in Phoenix in mid-April, winners will also be listed on this site following the April awards ceremony.

New Award Categories and Criteria for 2012

An EPA judging panel will select winners based on one or more of the criteria found under each category.
EPA will award one winner per category listed.

Click a category to show/hide its criteria.

Children's Environmental Health
  • Leadership in protecting children from environmental health risks in schools, homes, and childcare environments
  • Innovative efforts to increase awareness of children's unique vulnerabilities to pollutants and other environmental hazards through research, education, outreach, or capacity-building activities
  • Development of activites or programs that have produced tangible reductions in risk to children from environmental health hazards where they live, learn, and play
Clean Technology
  • Development, commercialization or deployment of new technologies that advance the state of the art to achieve significant environmental benefits
  • Measurable and quantifiable reductions in pollution or other environmental or health impacts
  • Promotion of technologies that are feasible and replicable throughout the nation
  • Encouragement of the use of technologies that have co-benefits, such as reducing greenhouse gases and energy use
Climate Change Champion
  • Development and achievement of innovative, replicable, significant greenhouse gas reductions and/or energy efficiency advancements
  • Implementation of awareness campaigns that highlight the challenges posed by climate change and the need to take action
  • Collaboration with communities and institutions to provide assistance to prepare for and adapt to the impacts of a changing climate
Educational Leadership
  • Exceptional efforts at the high school or college level to advance environmental research, training, and technology
  • Innovative accomplishment in implementing institutional programs to reduce energy use or environmental impacts
  • Expanding the conversation on environmentalism through groundbreaking outreach, partnership or involvement
Efficient Water Infrastructure
  • Implementation of programs or technologies that reduce water use and optimize efficiency, including energy use
  • Promotion of water conservation methods or strategies that are replicable in other locations or contexts
  • Development or adoption of practices that demonstrate significant, measurable benefits to communities and/or ecosystems
  • Infrastructure or project development incorporating cutting-edge approaches to efficient use of water resources
Environmental Justice Champion
  • Leadership in implementing sustainable solutions to environmental justice challenges
  • Advocacy for impacted communities, including long-term benefits through capacity building or on-the-ground improvements in environmental or health conditions
  • Collaboration with diverse interests with regard to either community-specific challenges or systemic policy changes to support environmental justice
  • Implementation or management of a program/activity that can be replicated or widely shared with the greater environmental justice community
Green Government
  • Innovation that accelerates implementation or goes beyond the requirements of the federal Executive Order on Leadership in Environmental, Energy and Economic Performance
  • Collaboration with other governmental, non-governmental or community-based organizations to improve decision-making on environmental and sustainability challenges
  • Implementation of a project or program that provides cost savings for the government, while demonstrating measurable environmental benefits
  • Implementation of a program/activity that can be replicated or widely shared with other governmental organizations
Green Chemistry
  • Significant progress in the design or redesign of products/processes that apply across the life cycle of a product — including design, manufacture, and use — which reduce or eliminate the use/generation of hazardous substances
  • Creation of innovative products or processes that significantly reduce overall hazards to producers or users, including the redesign of existing products with safer alternatives, or the elimination of toxic chemicals from products or processes altogether
  • Creation of policies, tools, or information sources that help producers or consumers make safer choices
Green Business of the Year
  • Commitment to environmental protection through policy and action, including a clear, written public environmental policy or mission
  • Implementation of practices that reduce a) energy use, greenhouse gases and water use; b) use of toxics in processes/products; and c) waste generation
  • Commitment to environmental equity through actions to reduce hazards to workers or communities
  • Collaboration with other companies or communities on how to protect, preserve and sustain the environment
Sustainable Agriculture Champion
  • Vision to address the whole agro-ecological system for the long-term benefit of the enterprise, community, and environment
  • Implementation of practices that are economically viable, socially responsible, and environmentally beneficial
  • Perseverance to overcome obstacles that hinder the adoption of sustainable practices in crop or animal production systems
  • Collaboration with a wide array of stakeholders to adopt sustainable practices
Tribal Environmental Protection
  • Innovative approaches to address environmental and sustainability issue(s) in Indian Country
  • Collaboration with other tribes; local, state, federal governments; or non-profit entities to achieve environmental benefits or effect policy decisions that improve environmental protection in Indian Country
  • Creative leveraging of resources to achieve goals, especially long-standing environmental or public-health concerns
  • Implementation of a program/activity that can be replicated or widely shared with other tribal environmental efforts
Zero Waste Advocate
  • Implementation of cutting-edge zero waste practices that minimize resource consumption, promote reuse and/or recycle and compost materials
  • Management of a whole-system approach to product stewardship, from preferable purchasing to resource efficiencies and reduction of toxics
  • Collaboration to replicate or magnify zero waste projects and create transferable zero waste practices
  • Quantification of greenhouse gases avoided and/or resources conserved through zero waste projects

Top of page

Pacific Southwest NewsroomPacific Southwest Programs Grants & FundingUS-Mexico Border Media CenterCareers About EPA Region 9 (Pacific Southwest)A-Z Index

Jump to main content.