Award nominations must be submitted online.
Deadline for nomination submissions is March 15th. No nominations will be accepted after that deadline. Nominations must not be submitted via the on-line form.
Guidelines for Drafting an Award Nomination:
- “Show me.” Focus on projects which can boast tangible, defensible, real-world results. Include facts and statistics. Precisely how much energy is saved? How much is water use reduced? How many commuter miles are reduced? Facts help make a truly successful project compete more favorable.
- “Back it up.” Include as much back-up information as possible. Photos, design plans (if available), or testimonials from employees who have benefitted from the project or who played a major role in its planning and implementation.
- “Tell a story.” Provide some context for the project. Why was it implemented? What problem did it solve? What were conditions like prior to its implementation, and how did they drive the development of the project? Did the project meet or exceed its goals?
- “Who benefited?” Demonstrate that the project has wide-ranging positive effects throughout a facility, campus or organization, and that those effects will continue for quite some time into the future.
- “Can it be repeated or replicated elsewhere?” Projects which can be repeated or adapted for implementation by other organizations represent the best success stories, because their benefits become compounded over time. Is this project a stand-alone unique solution, or does it represent a “best practice” that can be applied by others to solve similar issues?
Environmental Compliance
As stated on the nomination form, the Energy and Environmental Stewardship awards recognize recipients and projects worthy of replication across the Department. Compliance with applicable laws and regulations is a requirement for receiving an Award. There must be no environmental compliance issues (e.g., Environmental Protection Agency or State fines and penalties levied against a facility or open environmental audit findings) associated with a nomination. Therefore, nominees are required to verify that all recommended award recipients are in compliance with applicable environmental laws and regulations or that all compliance-related problems have been successfully addressed. The Department reserves the right to withhold recognition from any recommended recipient in violation of any environmental Federal, State, or local rules, laws, or regulation of any kind.
Evaluation Criteria
The Office of Sustainable Energy and Environmental Programs (OSEEP) will convene a panel of representatives to recommend nominations for awards using the established evaluation criteria.
Criteria considered by the review panel include:
- Significance or impact of nomination on the Department.
- Conformance with the Award Category description.
- Replicate of achievement.
- Degree of creating and innovation.
- Environmental compliance posture (if award nomination is related to a
facility/campus effort).
OSEEP will forward recommendations to the Department’s Senior Sustainability Officer (SSO). The Department SSO for final selection of award winners.
