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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.

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.
2010 Awards
When	Who	Region	Why
December	Lee Napier - Grays Harbor County representative for the Chehalis Basin Partnership	Southwest	For over 10 years, Lee Napier has been the go-to person when it comes to watershed management for the Chehalis basin. She has the ability to see from a high level, connecting individual projects to achieve the long-term, overarching goals of the watershed.
2008 Awards
When	Who	Region	Why
May	Kathy Jacobson - educator with the Educational Service District 113	Southwest	She brings together students, teachers, community members and businesses to enhance environmental learning and a build a deeper appreciation for lifelong environmental values.

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.