About the award

The Minister’s Award for Environmental Excellence is a program that:

  • recognizes outstanding work in environmental protection
  • encourages others to make their own efforts to reduce their impact on Ontario’s environment
  • fosters innovation in environmental protection
  • raises awareness of the importance of protecting the environment

How to apply

The application period is closed.

A date has not been confirmed for Information about the next Minister’s Award for Environmental Excellence. Check back regularly to learn about how to apply for the next round of awards. will be posted when the date has been set.

Electronic submissions

Please limit to less than 10 MB in total size.

Application deadline

Applications for the 2016 Minister’s Award for Environmental Excellence have closed.

2016 award

The 2016 Minister’s Award for Environmental Excellence recognized seven individuals and groups that have worked to:

  • Promote waste reduction and resource recovery
  • Reduce greenhouse gas pollution
  • Improve our resilience to climate change

Recipients of the 2016 Minister’s Award for Environmental Excellence

Eligibility

Nominations

You can nominate yourself or another person. If you nominate someone else, you must get their permission before you submit the nomination.

Residency requirements for individuals

Individual nominees must:

  • live in Ontario
  • be a Canadian citizen or permanent resident of Canada

Environmental compliance

You must have a good environmental compliance record to be eligible.

Previous applicants

If you’ve applied before but never won you can re-apply.

If you’ve applied before and won you cannot re-apply.

Eligible activities

To be considered, your action must:

  • have taken place in the last 3 years
  • benefit the environment or human health (e.g., recovery of nutrients, energy, and water from greenhouse operations, water and wastewater treatment systems, and waste systems.)
  • foster knowledge, values or behavior change through innovation, promotion or outreach that leads to environmental benefits

Examples:

  • community outreach
  • education activities
  • early adoption of new technologies
  • leadership  or innovation in achieving compliance

The program is not intended for basic research activities; however, applied research is eligible.

Ineligible applicants

You are ineligible if you are:

  • a member of the provincial or federal government and related agencies
  • employed in the Ontario Public Service
  • an immediate family member of someone employed in the Ontario Public Service
  • representing a sole proprietorship, partnership or corporation that an Ontario Public Service employees  owns or has a controlling financial interest in

Selection process

We will:

  • acknowledge that we have received your application
  • review the application for eligibility and completeness
  • check an application’s environmental compliance record
  • consider any provincial funding that was received relating to the application
  • assess the application using established criteria

Incomplete or ineligible applications will not be considered.

Assessment Criteria

Submissions are assessed based on their:

  • environmental impact and benefits:  how tangible benefits to Ontario’s environment or to the health of Ontarians are demonstrated
  • fostering behavioral change: how behaviour has changed in others as a result of outreach, education, marketing, etc.
  • originality and innovation: how unique or innovative techniques were used, adopted, demonstrated or applied
  • community or stakeholder involvement: The extent to which the activity involved collaboration with key stakeholders or community groups
  • guiding principles: how the activity incorporates stewardship and sustainability
  • transferability and scalability: demonstrated potential for the approach to be used on a wider scale by others
  • social or economic impact or benefit: the benefit to the community and Ontario’s economy
  • overall merit: evaluating an activity for differences in:
    • size
    • region
    • scope
    • government funding