• The Aspen Institute Energy and Environment Awards

  • Created by the Aspen Institute Global Leadership Network, the Aspen Institute Energy and Environment Awards recognize and reward excellence for those making a real and concrete contribution to innovation, implementation, and communication of energy and environmental solutions.

    Six awards, presented at this annual event, are designed to draw attention to the organizations and people who are making the biggest strides, acting as leaders, catalysts, and educators, particularly at the critical nexus between energy and environmental problems and solutions from around the world. The object is to celebrate success and provoke intellectually stimulating and productive thinking and conversations about ways to emulate and expand upon the success stories honored.

    These awards, created by a group of Aspen Institute Henry Crown Fellows and chosen by an independent panel of judges, cover a variety of top-of-mind issues in the energy and environment field. Some may be controversial, some less so, and we encourage and welcome the debate and discussion that the awards may engender. Only with real vetting and dialogue can we come to real solutions.

    This desire to provoke conversations and test ideas is exactly the reason we gather at the annual Aspen Environment Forum, where the awards are presented. There, thinkers and leaders from all sides of the environmental spectrum explore complex issues and grapple with the challenges and uncertainties that lie ahead.

    This free and open exchange of ideas doesn’t end when the Forum concludes. In everything we do at the Aspen Institute, we seek to promote intellectual discourse, nonpartisan inquiry, and dialogue.

  • Corporate Energy Generation Award

    For disruptive solutions in the generation and distribution of renewable energy.  View detailed criteria.

  • Corporate Energy Efficiency Award

    For energy efficiency-oriented projects, which may encompass new technologies, or consumer products and services that have lower energy and environmental impact.  View detailed criteria.

  • Government Award

    For innovative government initiatives that result in increasing renewable energy generation, increasing efficiency, or developing significant new policies that benefit energy and environmental objectives.  View detailed criteria.

  • Individual Thought Leadership Award

    For leadership contributions in energy and environmental problem solving, with special emphasis on disruptive and scalable solutions.  View detailed criteria.

  • NGO Award

    For contributions in increasing renewable energy generation, increasing efficiency, achieving radical price reductions, or developing new green markets in developing countries.  View detailed criteria.

  • Visual Art & Design Award

    For visual art and design projects that highlight and reframe innovative and disruptive energy and environment solutions.  View detailed criteria.

  • The Aspen Institute Energy and Environment Awards Dinner

    The winners will honored at a special awards dinner on Friday, March 27, during the Aspen Environment Forum presented by the Aspen Institute and National Geographic Magazine.

    Learn more about the Aspen Environment Forum.

  • The Aspen Institute Energy and Environment Awards Board

    Bill Dirks, Managing Partner, Tecton Energy, LLC
    Janet Echelman, Artist, President, Janet Echelman, Inc.
    Neil Jacobstein, Chairman & CEO, Teknowledge Corporation
    Lucy P. Marcus, CEO, Marcus Venture Consulting
    Vishal Vasishth, Founder & CEO, Clean Partners

    View complete Board biographies.

  • The Aspen Institute Energy and Environment Awards 2009 Judges

    Sally Benson, Executive Director, Global Climate and Energy Project, Stanford University
    Lester Brown, Founder and President, Earth Policy Institute
    James Calaway, Council of Honorary Trustees, The Aspen Institute
    Bill Dirks, Managing Partner, Tecton Energy, LLC
    Janet Echelman, Artist, President, Janet Echelman, Inc.
    Neil Jacobstein, Chairman & CEO, Teknowledge Corporation
    Lucy P. Marcus, CEO, Marcus Venture Consulting
    Cara McCarty, Chief Curator, Cooper Hewitt National Museum of Arts and Design
    Eric Pooley, Kalb Fellow, Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy, Harvard Kennedy School of Government
    Robert Socolow, Professor, Co-Director, The Carbon Mitigation Project, Princeton University
    Vishal Vasishth, Founder & CEO, Clean Partner

  • The 2009 Aspen Institute Energy and Environment Awards are Sponsored by: