The Environmental Initiative Awards annually honor innovative projects that have achieved extraordinary environmental results by harnessing the power of partnership. From large statewide efforts to small-scale locally based projects, many of Minnesota’s most innovative environmental efforts have succeeded as a result of collaboration.

Environmental Initiative established the Environmental Initiative Awards in 1994 to honor these partnerships, inspire other organizations to create similar projects, and encourage collaborative approaches to environmental problem solving.

Nominations for the 2013 Environmental Initiative Awards will begin Tuesday, February 5 and run through Friday, March 1.  A link to the nominations form will be posted here at that time.

Self-nominations are welcome. Nominations for collaborative, partnership-based projects will be accepted in these five categories:

• Business and Environment
• Energy and Climate Protection
• Environmental Education
• Natural Resource Protection and Restoration
• Sustainable Communities

Click here for category descriptions

Click here for guidelines and eligibility

For examples of nominations submitted last year, please visit our 2012 Finalist and Winners page.

how are the winners chosen?

Awards nominations are accepted for three weeks beginning in early February, and finalists are chosen by a team of judges, all experts in their environmental fields, hailing from a diversity of backgrounds and sectors. Finalist projects are announced publicly in early April.  At the annual Environmental Initiative Awards Dinner each May:

• Fifteen finalist projects, three in each of the five award categories, are honored.
• One winner in each category is announced.
• One of the fifteen finalist projects receives the Partnership of the Year Award. In the true spirit of partnership, audience members are asked to place their vote to select the winner of this award.
• Members of Minnesota’s environmental community join the fun, celebration, and inspiration as we recognize our state’s environmental success stories.

Nominations for the 2013 Environmental Initiative Awards will open on Tuesday, February 5th. Contact Andrea Robbins at 612-334-3388 ext. 109 with questions or to learn more.