VT Governor's Environmental Awards DEC WM

The Vermont Governor's Awards were established in 1993 to recognize the actions taken by Vermonters to conserve and protect natural resources, prevent pollution, and promote environmental sustainability. To date, more than 175 award-winning efforts of Vermont individuals, organizations, institutions, public agencies, and businesses have been recognized. These projects contribute significantly to protecting the environment, conserving energy and reducing the production of greenhouse gases. Together they have created a green and sustainable business culture, and advanced environmental education on all fronts.

Applications for the Governor’s Awards for Environmental Excellence are encouraged from:

Eligibility Criteria

Eligible projects must:

Be located in Vermont.
Have been initiated within the past three years and have been fully operational for one year. NOTE: Long term projects (i.e., those initiated prior to 2009) may be considered if a new measureable environmental benefit has been achieved in the past three years and/or the project has served as a model for other successful projects.
Be submitted by an applicant in good standing with environmental laws and regulations with no formal enforcement actions within the past three years. Compliance history will be considered, however, the compliance record of a parent company will not prevent an applicant from a local/regional facility from being considered.

Application Review Criteria

Applications will be subject to a thorough screening process that will involve an eligibility review, a program/technical review, and a compliance review. Applications will then be evaluated by a panel of judges selected by the Secretary of the Agency of Natural Resources. The panel will submit a list of recommended projects to the Secretary for a final determination. Due to the wide variety of projects that may be considered, certain review criteria may be more significant than others for a particular project.

Review criteria are:

Measurable Environmental Benefits,
Demonstration of Innovation, Sustainability, and/or Partnerships,
Transferability,
Cost and Economic Benefits, and
Advancement of Environmental Education.

Application Process

All submittals must follow the instructions on the application form. Only applications submiteed in the required format will be considered. Application Instructions and Forms are available by clicking on the desired format: MS-Word Gov. Aw. Appl., RTF Gov. Aw. Appl. or PDF Gov. Aw. Appl.. The submittal must be done electronically in a format compatible with one of these listed.

For more information, contact:

Gary Gulka

gary.gulka@state.vt.us

Telephone: 802-241-3626 or 802-497-8729