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Environmental Excellence Awards

The Environmental Excellence Award is the Department of Ecology's highest award for recognizing environmental excellence in the state of Washington.

The department issues the award to individuals, businesses, and organizations that have shown leadership, innovation, or extraordinary service in protecting, improving, or cleaning up the environment.

2013 Awards
When	Who	Region	Why
May	Citizen volunteers A group of citizens and several area businesses led by Mike Robinson, Al Potter and Russ Burtner	Eastern	For cleaning up more than 20 tons of garbage at some 40 illegal dumpsites in the hills fringing Kennewick along Highway 397. The volunteers were led by mountain bikers who decided to do something about the garbage people were illegally dumping in the hills where they had been bicycling for many years.

2012 Awards
When	Who	Region	Why
November	Washington Association of Wheat Growers (WAWG)	Eastern	For supporting and participating over the years in the efforts of the Agricultural Burning and Research Task Force, which has improved the lives of Eastern Washington citizens by eliminating smoky days while maintaining fire as an important tool for farming
November	Ritzville Warehouse Company	Eastern	For going through big growth and changes over the years while maintaining a perfect record of compliance with air quality laws. The company also uses several innovative methods to control fugitive dust emissions from its large, outdoor storage piles.
August	Sound Transit - providing public transportation for King, Pierce and Snohomish counties	Northwest	Through a land purchase and technical assistance, Sound Transit helped a multi-agency estuary restoration project outside of Marysville overcome major hurdles and proceed toward construction.
June	Ken Rausch - Westport Marina manager.	Southwest	Honored for his extra diligence in working with boat owners and operators, Ecology’s Spill Response Team, contractors, and others to contain and clean up fuel spills when they have occurred during the last two decades. Also for going above and beyond normal duties to keep boats afloat — reducing potential for sinking of boats and the resulting damage to the environment.
March	Barracuda Coffee - Richland coffee shop	Eastern	Honored for employing sustainable business practices, recycling waste products and embracing environmental stewardship.
January	Julian Powers - Spokane resident	Eastern	Honored for two decades of educating the public about climate change. He promoting the use of bicycles for transportation, as well as water conservation and sound energy policy.

2011 Awards
When	Who	Region	Why
January	Wes Yasny - Woodinville resident	Northwest	Yasny spearheaded a complex project to restore a section of Little Bear Creek in northwestern Woodinville. The project developed into an educational and community service venture for students of the non-profit Attic Learning Community.

Criteria:

The ideal candidate is an individual, business or organization that has done something out of the ordinary, above and beyond normal expectations, on behalf of Washington’s environment. This is intended to encourage a broad range of potential nominees and award recipients.

Award schedule:

Environmental Excellence Awards are issued throughout the year as deserving candidates are identified, and as public events are scheduled where awards can be issued.

Selection Process:

Department of Ecology employees submit nominations to the appropriate agency regional director, based on the candidate's address. Nominations for statewide work can be submitted to any regional director, for coordination among all regional directors.

Each regional director will involve his/her regional management team in reviewing that region's nominations to ensure that nominees are in compliance with all of Ecology’s environmental programs. Recommendations are then made by the management team for the regional director's decision. To help maintain high standards in issuing these awards, regional directors will coordinate with one another on a regular basis to ensure consistency.

Announcements:

Typically, Environmental Excellence Awards will be presented at public events that provide an opportunity for others to learn about the accomplishment and contribute to the accolades – usually to be coordinated by a public information officer from the Communication & Education Office. The awards also will be announced in the recipient's local community via a news release from the Department of Ecology.