Awards for Excellence in Sustainability
New: The Winners of the 11th Annual Awards for Excellence in Sustainability
The Awards for Excellence in Sustainability honors those projects, policies, plans, and people who show exemplary leadership and inspiration in sustainability planning and implementation.
The American Planning Association’s Sustainable Communities Division announced the winners of the 11th Annual Awards for Excellence in Sustainability at the 2024 National Planning Conference in Minneapolis. The winners represent extraordinary achievements in six sustainable planning categories.
The winners are:
State or Regional Award: General Plan Update, Department of Hawaiian Home Lands (State of Hawaiʻi)
Community-wide Award: Community Climate Action Plan Implementation, City of Raleigh Office of Sustainability (Raleigh, North Carolina)
Environment, Climate, & Energy Award: Climate Action Plan, City of Baltimore Department of Planning (Baltimore, Maryland)
Quality of Life Award: Active Aging Pilot, City of Santa Monica (Santa Monica, California)
Policy, Law, or Tool Award: Redevelopment Ready Communities Resiliency Toolkit, SmithGroup & Michigan Economic Development Corporation (Ann Arbor, Michigan)
Student Award: Michigan Renewable Energy Development Initiative (MI REDI), University of Michigan SEAS Capstone Team (Ann Arbor, Michigan)
The jury also selected a nomination to receive a Merit Award in the Community-wide Award category:
Community-wide Merit Award: Climate Action Plan, City of La Crosse (La Crosse, Wisconsin)
More information about each award category above:
State or Regional Award: This award honors efforts to plan for sustainability and/or resilience at a state or regional scale. Regions may be intrastate, including counties, or interstate. Plans in this category may include general long- or short-range plans or may be more focused on a specific topic.
Community-wide Award: This award honors efforts to plan for sustainability and/or resilience at a city, town, or village scale. Plans in this category may include general long- or short-range plans, such as comprehensive plans and master plans, or may be more focused on a specific topic.
Environment, Climate, & Energy Award: This award honors a plan or project, at any scale, that addresses current or future needs related to climate change mitigation or adaptation, energy or water efficiency, renewable or alternative energy, green jobs, air quality, green infrastructure, or other efforts related to environment, climate, and energy planning.
Quality of Life Award: This award honors a plan, project, or initiative, at any scale, that is focused on improving the health and well-being of a community of people.
Policy, Law, or Tool Award: This award honors a policy, law, or tool which encourages or assists in the employment of principles of sustainability in the planning, design, and/or implementation phases of various efforts.
Student Award: The Student Award recognizes an outstanding class project or paper completed by a student or group of students in an accredited university program. The jury may award up to one undergraduate project and one graduate project per year.