Honors a multidisciplinary, multi-sector team that has demonstrated achievement in addressing a critical sustainability challenge that effectively bridges the gap between knowledge and action. The award recognizes and celebrates teams that have transcended disciplinary and sectoral boundaries, served the public good by addressing a clear and compelling societal need, and fostered justice in the realm of sustainability through the successful pursuit of a specific project or initiative. ​MERIT CRITERIA All awardees must clearly exemplify the NSS vision and mission and embody its values (website: https://www.thenss.org/mission). In addition, the following criteria will be used to evaluate nominations: 1. Project Based Achievement: The team's nomination should be centered around a specific project or initiative that addresses a clear sustainability challenge and a demonstrated community or organizational need. The project should have measurable outcomes and demonstrate significant impact in advancing sustainability knowledge and its application. 2. Bridging Knowledge to Action through Co-Production: The team must include members from both academia and the community, which may include public, private, or nonprofit sector partners, showcasing a successful collaboration that is evidenced by having worked together to integrate academic research with community knowledge to advance a practical sustainability solution. ​

Recognizes outstanding innovations in undergraduate, graduate, or professional programs in sustainability that prepare and empower learners to lead transformative change. This award showcases exemplary models that transcend disciplines and provide inclusive, systems-oriented learning opportunities that effectively prepare learners to be agents of change. MERIT CRITERIA All awardees must clearly exemplify the NSS vision and mission and embody its values (website: https://www.thenss.org/mission). In addition, the following criteria will be used to evaluate nominations: 1. Transformative Learning Impact: Demonstrated success in preparing and empowering learners to lead sustainability transformations, including evidence of critical thinking, systems thinking, and real-world application. 2. Interdisciplinary and Systems Integration: Effective integration of multiple disciplines and systems perspectives to provide holistic and inclusive sustainability education experiences. 3. Innovation and Replicability: Originality and creativity of the educational model or approach, with clear potential for adaptation or replication in other settings or contexts. 4. Sustainability Key Competencies: Grounded in the sustainability learning objectives laid out by Redmen and Weik (2021), including systems-thinking and anticipatory, normative, strategic, and interpersonal, intrapersonal, implementation, and integration competence. This award is open to any multidisciplinary team from an institution of higher education and must include both faculty and administrators who have been instrumental in implementing the program. Reference: Redman, A., & Wiek, A. (2021, November). Competencies for advancing transformations towards sustainability. In Frontiers in Education (Vol. 6, p. 785163). Frontiers Media SA.

Honors a junior researcher whose innovative scholarship addresses pressing sustainability challenges. Recognizes an individual who is not only advancing rigorous, impactful scholarship on a sustainability topic, but also is collaborating with non-academic partners to co-develop or translate their work into real-world actions that promote just, sustainable outcomes. MERIT CRITERIA All awardees must clearly exemplify the NSS vision and mission and embody its values (website: https://www.thenss.org/mission). In addition, the following criteria will be used to evaluate nominations: 1. Scholarly Innovation and Rigor: The nominee demonstrates original, high-quality research that advances understanding of a critical sustainability challenge and has been published in high-impact scholarly journals. 2. Real-World Relevance and Impact: The research has the potential to contribute to practical solutions or policy insights. 3. Collaborative Knowledge Co-Production: The scholar has engaged meaningfully with scholars from other disciplines as well as non-academic partners to co-develop or translate research into action. This award is open to individual sustainability scholars who have been working as a sustainability researcher for 10 years or less. While the award is for an individual, the nomination must provide evidence of how the individual has worked within interdisciplinary team settings and interacted in meaningful ways with non-academic partners to guide their research or translation of research.

Recognizes a sustainability professional in the public, private, or non-profit sector who is building bridges across differences to co-create practical, inclusive solutions. This award honors individuals who skillfully integrate knowledge from multiple perspectives and have advanced just, effective, and actionable approaches to a sustainability challenge through diverse partnerships. MERIT CRITERIA All awardees must clearly exemplify the NSS vision and mission and embody its values (website: https://www.thenss.org/mission). In addition, the following criteria will be used to evaluate nominations: 1. Collaborative Practice and Partnership-Building: Demonstrated success in working across sectors and with diverse partners to build trust, bridge differences, and co-create sustainability solutions. 2. Integration of Knowledge Systems: Clear evidence of valuing and incorporating both academic and community-based knowledge to enrich project design, implementation, and outcomes. 3. Demonstrable Impact: The nominee has been an integral part of a team that has implemented practical, creative approaches that address sustainability challenges with measurable or promising real-world impact. 4. Sustainability Champion: The nominee has played a critical role in advancing a sustainability effort and served as a catalyst or leader without whom the initiative would not have succeeded. This award is open to individual sustainability practitioners who have been working as a sustainability professional for 10 years or less. While the award is for an individual, the nomination must provide evidence of how the individual has worked within interdisciplinary team settings and interacted in meaningful ways with diverse partners across multiple sectors to affect meaningful change at a local, regional, national, or global level.