The annual CU-Boulder Campus Sustainability Awards program is accepting nominations.  Outstanding efforts make CU’s successful and challenging approaches to attaining sustainability possible, and awardees exemplify CU’s continuing efforts to become a sustainable institution.  The University of Colorado wishes to recognize outstanding individuals and departments who demonstrate a sincere commitment to transforming the CU-Boulder campus into a living laboratory for sustainability through innovation that directly reduces the university's ecological footprint, enhances social cohesion and equity in the campus community and, or integrates sustainability into the culture of Boulder and our local communities.

Since 1997, the awards have served to make sustainability part of CU-Boulder’s ongoing education, research, planning, operational and outreach programs, and to share information about initiatives and activities related to environmental stewardship and sustainability.

Each nomination will be evaluated based on how well the nominee’s actions reflect these sustainability criteria:
• Going above and beyond routine or assigned responsibilities
• Innovation
• Overall impact
• Ability to serve as a catalyst or model
• Engages multiple campus stakeholders (students, faculty, staff, community, etc)
• Incorporates multiple aspects of sustainability

Ideally, the nominee’s’ work touches on each of the 3 “E’s” of sustainability – Environmental health, Social Equity and Economic prosperity.

Nominees must be faculty or staff members, students, alumni or a department at the University of Colorado at Boulder campus.  Candidates can be nominated for different categories, either as individuals, departments or partnerships. The categories are:
• Individual, Departmental and/or Civic Achievement
• Student Leadership
• Partnerships for Sustainability
• Inter-disciplinary Leadership
• Green Faculty
• Outstanding Alumni

The awards program is selective.  Not every nomination is selected for an award. The number of awards in each category is not restricted nor is each award category filled each year. For some nominees that the committee finds deserving but not necessarily at a full award level, "Special Recognition" certificates are awarded.

The nomination deadline for 2024 is March 15th. The Awards ceremony will take place in conjunction with the 31st annual Campus Sustainability Summit scheduled for April 24-25, 2024.  

This program is sponsored by the Office of the Provost, Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs, Vice Chancellor for Infrastructure and Sustainability, and CUSG Environmental Center.