SEAL Awards

SEAL Awards are an environmental advocacy organization that uses annual awards for businesses and journalists to support environmental initiatives and to fund grants in the field of policy research. The name is an acronym for sustainability, environmental achievement, and leadership. The Awards were created in 2017 by businessman Matt Harney.

Award categories

Business Sustainability Awards

These awards honor corporate sustainability initiatives, sustainable products, and environmentally responsible innovation. Application fees for this award fund social impact campaigns and research grants.

Environmental Journalism Awards

Twelve journalists each year receive recognition for environmental reporting, particularly investigative journalism. Past award winners include writers for traditional news media such as The Guardian and more recent, web-based platforms like Grist and Mongabay.

Impact Campaigns

SEAL Awards have advocated for the creation of a credit card whose interchange fees would pay into climate change programs rather than a traditional credit rewards program, targeted cup waste in the Starbucks café chain and Yelp reviews of restaurants using plastic straws, and endorsed Jay Inslee for the 2020 United States presidential campaign. The environmental rewards credit card was presented as an open-source concept in a detailed business case launch memo.

Environmental Research Grants

The research award is a monetary grant for graduate students and post-doctoral researchers at the beginning of their careers in environmental policy.

References