2016 GreenGov Presidential Awards – Award Categories

With the exception of Climate Champion, all awards can be for individuals, teams, facilities, or agencies.  All nominees must be Federal employees, agencies, or facilities.  The Executive Order (E.O.) refers to E.O. 13693, Planning for Federal Sustainability in the Next Decade.

In the following descriptions, the term "agency" includes Federal agencies, bureaus, services and operating divisions within larger departments, as well as independent agencies.

To be eligible for the 2016 GreenGov Presidential Award, the nomination must include Federal civilian or military employees.  For individual awards, nominees must be Federal civilian or military employees.  A team nomination may include a Federal partner including a Federal contractor, tribal/state/local agency, or non-profit organization but must be comprised primarily of Federal employees. 

1) Climate Champion Award – This award recognizes an individual manager (1st level supervisor or above) who is a champion for change, development, implementation and institutionalization of a sustainability practice to reduce the Federal community's overall greenhouse gas footprint in support of the Administration's climate change goals.

2) Sustainability Heroes Award – This award recognizes exceptional leadership and effort to transform the Federal community's overall energy and environmental performance, in keeping with the goals of the Administration's sustainability priorities and including ideas that might have taken multiple years to come to fruition.

3) Green Innovation Award – This award recognizes exceptional leadership and work to develop and implement an innovation to promote the Administration's sustainability priorities as reflected in Executive Order 13693.

4) Lean, Clean, and Green Award – This award recognizes a demonstration of significant efficiency improvements and cost savings through creative implementation of a sustainability practice or practices.

5) Green Dream Team Award – This award recognizes Federal intra-agency and inter-agency teams who are sustainability champions and agents of change in working across organizational boundaries to achieve the Administration's sustainability goals as reflected in the Executive Order.

6) Good Neighbor Award – This award recognizes exemplary application of the partnership for sustainable communities, livability principles and/or external engagement with local or regional communities to advance and raise awareness of sustainability, engage stakeholders, and promote the Administration's sustainability priorities.  Nominations for this category must include at least one letter of support from a non-Federal local or regional community partner in order to be considered. Letters of support for the Good Neighbor Award should be sent to greengov@fedcenter.gov;  please include your application number in the subject line and address the letter to: Office of Federal Sustainability, GreenGov Presidential Awards Panel.

7) Building the Future Award – This award recognizes exceptional leadership of sustainability efforts to reduce  the environmental footprint of building operations by integrating renewable energy, increasing energy security,  improving energy efficiency, and/or utilizing green infrastructure concepts or natural ecosystem processes to improve potable water, stormwater, and wastewater management, and reducing waste.

8) Greening the Fleet Award - This award recognizes outstanding organizational achievement in improving transportation fleet operations, including expanding inter-modal improvements, while decreasing petroleum fuel consumption and reducing greenhouse gas pollution.

9) Purchasing Power Award - This award recognizes innovation and achievement in meeting acquisition goals under Executive Order 13693, including increasing the purchase of environmentally preferable products and services and procurements to address supply chain emissions.

10) Keeping It Clean Award - This award recognizes development and implementation of an innovative approach to minimize emissions through waste diversion and reduction of toxic and hazardous chemicals and materials acquired in support of the Administration's sustainability goals.

11) Resilience Role Model Award - This award recognizes the successful modernization of programs and policies to anticipate, prepare for, and adapt to climate change impacts on operations and agency mission.

12) The Ripple Effect Award - This award recognizes outstanding leadership in advancing the tracking and/or mitigation of scope 3 (indirect) GHG emissions from Federal agencies/employees.

Submission Instructions

Nominations must be submitted by a Federal employee through the FedCenter website, www.fedcenter.gov between March 18, 2015 and May 20, 2016.  Please contact your Agency's Chief Sustainability Officer if there are additional guidelines for your agency. 

Agency Chief Sustainability Officers or their designee will be provided copies of the nominations submitted by their agency's personnel.  The Chief Sustainability Officer will determine which nominations will be included for award consideration.  Final award winners will be chosen by a Selection Committee named by the Chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality and composed of leaders from the Federal, non-profit, local and state government, and private sectors.

Please remember these important points when submitting your nomination:

1.   Only nominations for which there is a completed Nomination Form will be eligible for consideration. If you have problems entering your data electronically, please contact OFS at greengov@fedcenter.gov.  Please apply for only one award per submission.

2.   Eligibility:  The 2016 GreenGov Presidential Award nomination form must be completed and submitted by a Federal civilian or military employee. 

a.    Individual – a Federal civilian or military employee.

b.    Team – a Federal civilian or military team which may include a Federal partner including contractor, tribal/state/local agency, or non-profit organization that worked with the Federal community on the subject project. 

3.   2016 GreenGov Presidential Award review process:

a.    Call for Nominations March 18, 2016

b.    Nominations submission period March 18, 2016 – May 20, 2016

c.    Agency Chief Sustainability Officers or their designee will review the applications that have been submitted by their agency and will decide which will be forwarded for consideration.

d.    Subject Matter Expert Review

e.    Environmental Regulatory Compliance Status and Enforcement History, Compliance Check

f.     2016 GreenGov Presidential Awards judges composed of leaders from the Federal, nonprofit, local and state government, and private sectors, Chaired by the Chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality.  The judges will review the nominations and recommend the 2016 award recipients to the President.

g.    Notification to 2016 GreenGov Presidential Awards Finalists will be made in early Fall of 2016.

h.    GreenGov Awards Ceremony, The White House Council on Environmental Quality will announce the Federal winners of the 2016 GreenGov Presidential Awards in the Fall of 2016.  Federal agencies are responsible for any travel costs for their award recipients to attend the 2016 GreenGov Presidential Awards Ceremony.

4.    The nomination narrative must meet the requirements listed below and be entered on the nomination form for the 2016 GreenGov Presidential Awards at FedCenter.gov:

*For the Climate Champion Award, please respond to parts A, B, and C, below, as follows: respond to part A with a description of the work for which the individual is being recognized, part B with the results he or she has achieved, and part C with how he or she has mentored others.*

a.    Describe the project, including how the project (for the Climate Champion Award please reference the scope and body of the work) was conceived and implemented, what strategies and technologies were deployed, who was involved and an approximate project timeline. (max 750 words)

b.    Describe results and achievements to-date, focusing not only on outputs but also on intermediate and long-term outcomes, and anticipated future outcomes. (max 500 words)

c.    Explain how the project has been replicated or has a high potential to be replicated within the Federal government and has been shared with colleagues in other organizations/agencies. (max 250 words)

5.    Recognizing that compliance with environmental regulatory requirements is a fundamental responsibility of Federal agencies and Federal employees at all levels, each application will be subject to a review of environmental compliance status. This process will include consideration of information in the Environmental Protection Agency's Enforcement & Compliance History Online (ECHO) (formerly OTIS), which is available online at: http://echo.epa.gov/?redirect=otis, as well as other available compliance and enforcement information.  

a.    If the application involves activities at a Federal facility or installation, the application should confirm that the compliance information for your facility on the ECHO system for the relevant facility or installation has been reviewed and concurs with the information presented. If you believe that the compliance information available on the ECHO System is not correct, please note this in your Nomination Form.

   6.  Please submit your Nomination form no later than May 20, 2016.