UNH Sustainability Awards

2025 UNH Sustainability Awards
Nominations are open!

Nominate here by May 30

What are the UNH Sustainability Awards?

Sustainability at UNH is a university-wide endeavor. Sustainability Awards celebrate and spotlight individuals and teams doing important sustainability work in the areas of: research, curriculum development and teaching, campus initiatives and culture development, and external engagement. The program raises the visibility of these activities and achievements to help build a deep culture of sustainability that permeates all facets of our institution, community and how we work.

The Sustainability Awards embrace the framework of the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals to advance human dignity for all people and ecological integrity in all places, and to emphasize the inextricable links between human dignity, ecological health, participatory democracy, and intergenerational equity.

Important Dates & Reminders

2025 Sustainability Awards

March 24, 2025: Nominations OPEN
May 30, 2025: Nominations CLOSE
October 30, 2025: Awards Ceremony & Celebration

You make this event such a moving and educational experience for all. It’s an honor to be a part of it! Congratulations, and thanks for creating this meaningful UNH tradition!!

Thank you SO much for such a lovely event! You all made us feel so special and rewarded and it was great to see so many friends and colleagues. The alumni panel was SO powerful, and the student recognition helped to remind me why we are all here. Very sincere thanks for this recognition – much appreciated!

UNH Sustainability Awards Details

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UNH, UNH Manchester, and UNH Law School faculty, staff, graduate students, undergraduate students, and alumni are eligible for a Sustainability Award.* This includes faculty and staff with research, clinical, or adjunct appointments. Individuals or organizations/teams may be nominated. Previous sustainability award winners are eligible for nomination for activities that are new since the time of the previous award.

* Work or projects undertaken in paid roles at the Sustainability Institute are not eligible for awards. This includes Sustainability Institute staff, interns, coaches, and peer mentors. Members of the Sustainability Awards selection committees, Sustainability Institute Advisory Board or other UNH advisory boards are also ineligible during the term of their service.

The program seeks to celebrate, spotlight and incentivize research and scholarship, curriculum development and teaching, campus initiatives and culture development, and external engagement activities and achievements that best embody the principles and practices of sustainability.

While a small number of awards are presented each year, this program intentionally celebrates all nominees for their contributions. This reflects our commitment to a sustainable learning community, in which many members of the UNH community are integral to the achievements of the university.

Faculty

Research
Up to four (4) awards total: 2 for established research and 2 for emerging research

Established research: Recognizes research and scholarship that explicitly addresses the concept of sustainability, furthers our understanding of the interdependence of ecological and social/economic systems, or has a primary or explicit focus on a major sustainability challenge. Mature stream of research that has had impact through publication, presentation, and other kinds of impacts

Emerging research: Recognizes early-stage research projects that are in-development. Emerging stream of research, pre-publication, data analysis, grant application/recently awarded a grant

Curriculum
Up to four (4) awards total: 2 for existing curriculum and 2 for new curriculum

Existing Curriculum: Recognizes existing curriculum that contains a primary and explicit focus or an innovative module or unit on sustainability or a sustainability-related challenge or issue. Curriculum must have been approved and taught at least once.

New Curriculum: Recognizes new curriculum that contains a primary and explicit focus or an innovative module or unit on sustainability or a sustainability-related challenge or issue. Curriculum must be in the development stage.

Campus & Community Engagement
Up to four (4) awards total

Recognizes efforts to integrate sustainability into campus culture and community, and/or to extend sustainability knowledge and practice at the community, state, regional, national, and/or international level.

Lifetime Achievement
Up to three (3) awards annually

Recognizes significant multi-year body of work in any one or more of the four categories or across categories.

Sustainability Champions
Unlimited

Recognizes all nominees for their work.

Staff

Campus Culture & Operations
Up to four (4) awards total

Recognizes efforts to integrate sustainability into campus operations, including campus culture and initiatives, buildings, transportation, dining, and more.

Engagement
Up to four (4) awards total

Recognizes efforts to extend sustainability knowledge and practice at the community, state, regional, national, and/or international level.

Lifetime Achievement
Up to three (3) awards annually

Recognizes significant multi-year body of work in any one or more of the four categories or across categories.

Sustainability Champions
Unlimited

Recognizes all nominees for their work.

Students

Research
Awards will be presented at the Sustainability Awards Recognition Celebration on May 9, 2023

PLEASE NOTE: Student research should not be nominated here. All student research awards will be presented within the structure of the Undergraduate Research Conference (select event: Undergraduate Research Sustainability Symposium) and the Graduate Research Conference. Please encourage students to register for these events in order to be considered.

Campus Culture, Operations & Engagement
Up to eight (8) awards total:
Four (4) for undergraduates
Four (4) for graduate students

Recognizes efforts to integrate sustainability into campus culture and operations and/or extend sustainability knowledge and practice at the community, state, regional, national, and/or international level.

Student Organization of the Year
One (1) award annually in this category

Recognizes exemplary efforts by a student organization to advance sustainability principles and practices on and beyond campus.

Sustainability Champions
Unlimited

Recognizes everyone who was nominated and those who presented at the Undergraduate Research Conference Sustainability Symposium or the Graduate Research Conference Sustainability Track.

Alumni

Lifetime Achievement
Up to (3) annually

Recognizes significant multi-year body of work in their professional or civic lives.

Graduates of the Last Decade
Up to three (3) undergraduate and up to three (3) graduate alumni

Recognizes significant multi-year body of work in the professional or civic lives of graduates of the last decade.

The 2025 nomination period is OPEN!

Please be sure to read eligibility, category and criteria information before completing the quick nomination form.

Nominate here

Those selected to receive a Sustainability Award will be notified in September.

Don't forget to register for the Sustainability Award Ceremony!
Thursday, October 30, 2025
3:30 –5:30 p.m.
MUB, Strafford Room
Register now

2023 Sustainability Awards Selection Committees

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Leslie Couse, Committee Co-Chair, Executive Director, Engagement & Faculty Development
Catherine Peebles, Committee Co-Chair, Director of the Hamel Honors and Scholars College
Catherine Ashcraft, Assistant Professor, Natural Resources and the Environment
Stephanie Brockmann, Assistant Professor, Economics
Dan Bromberg, Associate Professor, Political Science
Gibran Mancus, Assistant Professor, Nursing
Nathan Maybach, Undergraduate Student, B Corp Assessment Consultant at the Sustainability Institute
Weiwei Mo, Associate Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering
Shannon Rogers, Associate State Specialist and Adjunct Assistant Professor, Economics
Cameron Wake, Research Professor, Earth Sciences, and Program Chair of Sustainability Dual Major
Nan Yi, Assistant Professor, Chemical Engineering
Elisabeth Farrell, Project Director, Sustainability Institute, ex officio

Dawna Perez, Committee Chair, Executive Director, Institute for Student Success
Chloe Gross, Undergraduate Student, Zero Waste Intern at the Sustainability Institute
Matt L’Heureux, Campus Energy Manager
Rochelle L’Italien, Nutritionist, Dining Administration
Kelly Nye, Director, Insitute on Disability
Olivia Saunders, Associate Field Specialist of Food and Agriculture
Deb Della Selva, Information Technologist III, AT Application Administration and Management
Karen Spiller, Thomas W. Haas Professor in Sustainable Food Systems
Ken Weston, Executive Director, Campus Stewardship
Ciara Wright, Educational Program Coordinator, Art and Art History
Jennifer Andrews, Project Director, Sustainability Institute, ex officio

Kenneth Holmes, Committee Chair, Senior Vice Provost and Dean of Students
Ruth Abelman, Director, Residential Life
Melissa Beecher, Director, Memorial Union & Student Activities
Colleen Kelty, Student Activities Officer
Molly Kent, Undergraduate Student, Sustainability Fellow
Dovev Levine, Assistant Dean, Graduate School
Mikayla Townsend, Project Director, Carsey School of Public Policy
Christa Ricker, Director, New Student Programs
Joanne Maldari, Educational Program Coordinator
Kally Riddinger, Assistant Director, Memorial Union & Student Activities
Faina Bukher, Director, Changemaker Collaborative, Sustainability Institute, ex officio

Kelly Calhoun, Committee Chair, Managing Director of Alumni Engagement
Andre Beaupre, Founder, Soulful Advantage LLC
Ned Dane, Chief Strategy Officer, Aidentified LLC
Sue McDonough, Managing Director, UNH Foundation
Faith Thompson, Assistant Director of Annual Giving (COLSA, SMSOE, UNHSI), UNH Foundation
Joseph Skehan, Undergraduate Student, Peer Mentor , UNH Changemaker Collaborative
Fiona Wilson, Director, Sustainability Institute, ex officio

Congratulations 2023 Sustainability Awardees & Nominees

Learn more about the awardees and nominees in each category below.

Alumni Awards

Faculty Awards

Staff Awards

Student Awards

Congratulations 2022 Sustainability Awardees & Nominees

Learn more about the awardees and nominees in each category below.

Alumni Awards

Faculty Awards

Staff Awards

Student Awards

Civil Discourse Lab
Jennifer Borda, Lydia Reinig
Curriculum Development & Teaching

UNH's Civil Discourse Lab champions diversity, equity, and dignity for all in troubled political times with tools for productive civil engagement. Through its network of connected courses, volunteer facilitation opportunities, and public dialogue events, the CDL has engaged students, faculty, staff and community members, including during the highly successful virtual “Stories and Voices, an Interactive Dialog” on access to higher education.

Cowasuck Band of the Pennacook Abenaki People
Paul W. Pouliot, Sag8mo and Denise K. Pouliot, Sag8mosquaw
External Engagement

The Cowasuck Band of the Pennacook Abenaki People has been integral to raising awareness of Indigenous heritage at UNH and across the State of NH and were instrumental to the establishment of the Native American and Indigenous Studies Minor at UNH, and continue to be actively engaged at UNH and with local communities. They are also an integral part of the Indigenous New Hampshire Collaborative Collective (INHCC), a large part of which consists of UNH faculty, staff, students, and community partners (e.g., NH Sea Grant).

Carsey School Center on Impact Finance
Michael Swack
External Engagement

The Carsey School Center on Impact Finance is a national leader in enhancing the availability, and use of, financial services, including capital investment, in low-income communities in the United States—including projects driving investment in these communities in solar power, public health, community development, small and women- and minority-owned businesses, poverty alleviation, and other important objectives.

Juliana Good
UNH Student
External Engagement

Juliana has spent their undergraduate and graduate years at UNH dedicated to the service of others through a range of involvements on and off-campus - expanding access to and inclusivity of education. As one example, Juliana worked for an organization that addressed the lack of diversity in the nation’s teaching faculties by recruiting outstanding students of color and other scholars committed to diversity, counseling them through the graduate school application process, and advocating for sufficient funding for advanced study.

New Hampshire Listens
External Engagement

In May 2020, New Hampshire Listens reached a milestone: a decade of work helping New Hampshire residents talk to each other about controversial public issues to create communities that work for everyone. Over the years, New Hampshire Listens assisted towns, schools, police departments, and community organizations focused on public life. They have facilitated projects in all sectors, addressing a variety of topics – mental health, water sustainability, government efficiency, lead poisoning, community-police relationships, and more.

Matthew Parker
UNH Student
External Engagement

Matthew, a Masters of Community Development student, was the director of an organization that ensures that grassroots leaders of color can effectively organize to address threats to civil liberties while also working to end discriminatory policies and practices that limit access to political, economic and environmental justice. His capstone project aimed to identify and address the policies and practices that have impacted men of color from being able to attain/maintain housing.

Doug Bencks
UNH Durham Staff
Campus Operations, Initiatives and Culture

Doug Bencks, the University Architect and Director of Campus Planning, has worked for the last nearly 25 years collaboratively and creatively to integrate sustainability into the planning and execution of building design and construction, land use, and campus aesthetics.

Departments of Residential Life and Housing
Campus Operations, Initiatives and Culture

The Departments of Residential Life and Housing professional and student staff (RAs, CAs and Assistant Hall Directors) have collectively demonstrated creativity, compassion, collaboration, flexibility and dedication to the emotional and physical health of on-campus students’ during the COVID pandemic. Balancing building connections and community while taking on the hard task of enforcing masks in public spaces, staff helped students stay motivated to be COVID safe and to take care of the safety of each other even when feeling COVID fatigue.

Hospitality Services
David Hill, Bill McNamara, Rochelle L'Italien
Campus Operations, Initiatives and Culture

Hospitality Services leadership has deepened its already impressive commitment to sustainability, including ongoing work to advance health and wellness, sustainable and local food sourcing, zero waste efforts, and a pilot program for reusable takeout containers in the Dairy Bar, developing a wider availability of vegetarian/vegan options, collaboration on the UNH 21-Day Racial Equity Habit-Building Challenge, reducing food insecurity at UNH with Swipe it Forward, data transparency and reporting, dining hall Green Restaurant Certifications. Also, numerous initiatives to equip and empower students to live more sustainably, including the "Take Less, Waste Less Campaign".

Rick MacDonald
UNH Durham Staff
Campus Operations, Initiatives and Culture

Rick has been an exceptionally strong and effective champion of sustainability through his work in dining, business affairs, and on multiple task forces. Rick collaborated on developing an analysis of UNH’s food procurement patterns and strategies for increasing procurement of local and regional food products and thereby leverage the UNH’s food procurement expenditures to positively impact the state and region’s agriculture, fisheries, and other food enterprises, leading to the establishment of a Local Harvest initiative.

Shoals Marine Laboratory
Campus Operations, Initiatives and Culture

Shoals Marine Laboratory's Sustainability Engineering Internship program provides engineering students a hands-on experience addressing the challenges that are inherently part of Appledore Island's operations - to maintain its own green energy grid, drinking water system, and wastewater management system. Managed by a team of engineers who have worked to reduce the overall carbon footprint of the island community, the training provided by the program is helping to prepare the next generation of engineers for opportunities in the renewable energy sector.

John Aber
UNH Durham Faculty
Research and Scholarship

John Aber has played a key role as both faculty member and administrator in advancing UNH leadership in Sustainability over the past two-plus decades, including supporting the establishment of the UNH Energy Task Force, which developed a comprehensive approach to energy and carbon accounting that led to WildCAP, the UNH Climate Action Plan. John embraced efforts to advance an agroecological approach to building our capacity in sustainable food systems and led a long-term study at the Organic Dairy Research Farm. He was lead editor of a book about the first 10 years of our sustainability effort: The Sustainable Learning Community: One University's Journey to the Future, with more than 60 UNH faculty and staff contributing. As Provost from 2009-2013, John supported the development of a dual major in Sustainability and many other advances, leaving a lasting legacy of impact and benefit to the UNH community.

Larry Hamilton
UNH Durham Faculty
Research and Scholarship

With over four decades of highly impactful scholarship on issues related to sustainability, Larry has considered the reciprocal effects of environmental changes, social and societal shifts, and resource availability. For example, he has investigated how climate change, public policy and regulation, and over-fishing have shaped the vitality of fishing communities; he has examined the changing nature of New Hampshire skiing, and has studied how changes in resources and the environment affect community demographics, including migration patterns, birth rates, and shifts in community gender balance.

Nick Pollock
UNH Durham Student
Research and Scholarship

Nick's Ph.D. research focused on addressing the impacts of climate change in developing new materials for solar driven photocatalytic generation of liquid fuels using carbon dioxide as a feedstock. Nick has shown strong leadership within the research group and among his peers. He leads by example, participating in STEMbassadors the past few years, helping inspire the next generation of young scientists to embrace sustainable science endeavors.

Charles Wilson
UNH Durham Student
Research and Scholarship

Charles’ Ph.D. research focused on addressing the impacts of climate change in coral reef populations and support conservation efforts to rebuild reef populations, combining his chemistry knowledge with his passion for environmentalism and focusing on the development of an out-of-the-box idea to create a new material that can act as a sunscreen for coral reefs. By supporting conservation efforts that rebuild coral reef populations along coastlines, this project will assist in ensuring long-term food stability in sensitive coastal communities. The project will require an interdisciplinary and collaborative effort and has the potential to be transformative for coastal communities in the Caribbean and around the world.

Cassidy Yates
UNH Durham Student
Research and Scholarship/External Engagement

As an undergrad, Cassidy spearheaded efforts to expand composting across campus, took advantage of multiple Changemaker Collaborative programs and as a Sustainability FEllow, supported the town of Lebanon, NH in completing a greenhouse gas inventory. As a grad Environmental Engineering student, Cassidy is working on issues of water quality and toxics that have huge implications for communities. She remains fully committed to sustainability at UNH as an intern and plays an integral role in the greenhouse gas accounting for UNH and other schools with her analyses informing decisions about UNH operations to lessen our impact on the environment.

Ocean Projects
Rob Swift, Larry Harris, Elizabeth Fairchild
Curriculum Development & Teaching

Ocean Projects is a cross-college senior capstone course that has been taught at UNH for nearly 50 years. Since its inception, the goal of the course has been to provide an opportunity for interdisciplinary student teams to address the sustainable utilization of our ocean resources. As one of the most enduring sustainability activities at UNH, it has provided opportunities for more than 500 hundred students to apply and develop their engineering and scientific skills to address problems of important societal relevance.

Andrew Ogden
UNH Durham Faculty
Curriculum Development & Teaching

Andrew spearheaded and developed curriculum for the first hands-on, experiential farming courses in the Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems major. He has brought his extensive knowledge of tropical horticulture to UNH students through the Taste of the Tropics course, as well as taking students to Costa Rica for a J-Term course exploring Sustainable Agriculture in the tropics. Andrew has forged a strong connection with a university in Peru, bringing UNH students to Peru and hosting Peruvian students here to facilitate the exchange of knowledge. Through his Ph.D. work with the late Dr. Brent Loy, Andrew spent several years working on his cucurbit breeding program and is seeking funding and opportunities to maintain and grow the program at UNH.

Dan Winans
UNH Durham Faculty
Curriculum Development & Teaching

Dan has been the Director of the Dual Major in EcoGastronomy since it was founded and introduces students to an interdisciplinary way of seeing the food system. He hosts guest speakers from across campus and beyond to share their work in nutrition, health, culinary arts, agriculture and fisheries, and sustainability. The dual major capstone course involves students directly in research and projects that are tied to real-world issues. His students have started a Durham Farmers Market in the MUB, and have gone on to work in innovative positions in their careers.

Museum of Art at the University of New Hampshire
External Engagement

Juliana Good

NH Listens
UNH Organization
External Engagement

NH Listens

Matthew Parker
UNH Student
External Engagement

Doug Benks
UNH Durham Staff
Campus Initiatives and Culture

Doug Benks

Departments of Residential Life and Housing
UNH Organization
Campus Initiatives and Culture

Departments of Residential Life and Housing

Hospitality Services
UNH Organization
Campus Initiatives and Culture

Hospitality Services

Rick MacDonald
UNH Durham Staff
Campus Initiatives and Culture

Rick MacDonald

Shoals Marine Laboratory
UNH Organization
Research and Scholarship

Shoals Marine Laboratory

John Aber
UNH Durham Faculty
Research and Scholarship

John Aber

Larry Hamilton
UNH Durham Faculty
Research and Scholarship

Larry Hamilton

Nick Pollock
UNH Durham Student
Research and Scholarship

Nick Pollock

Charles Wilson
UNH Durham Student
Research and Scholarship

Charles Wilson

Cassidy Yates
UNH Durham Student
Research and Scholarship/External Engagement

Cassidy Yates

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