Student Sustainability Awards

Student Sustainability Awards 

Image of student overlooking Libe Slope

An annual awards ceremony celebrating the accomplishments and important role our students play in creating a more sustainable campus, community, and world.

The Student Sustainability Awards are co-hosted by the Cornell Environmental Collaborative (ECO) and Campus Sustainability Office to celebrate the sustainability achievements, projects, and innovations of Cornell University's students and student organizations. The event is held in May each year. 

The ceremony also recognizes graduating students for contributions throughout their college career by presenting them with green & gold honor cords to wear during graduation. 

 


Nominate & Award Categories 

Submit your nominations by Wednesday, April 17th at 12:00pm EST

Students and student groups, such as clubs or group projects, may be nominated for awards in the categories below.  

  • Rookie of the Year: This award recognizes an active and outstanding first-year student who contributed greatly to their student organization's events, projects, operations, and/or team dynamics.

  • Member of the Year: This award recognizes an active and outstanding member of a student organization who contributed greatly to their organization's events, projects, operations, and/or team dynamics.

  • Graduate Student of the Year: This award recognizes an active and outstanding graduate student who contributed greatly to their organization's events, projects, operations, and/or team dynamics.

  • Advisor of the Year: This award recognizes an active and outstanding advisor of a student organization or project team who contributed greatly to their organization's planning, management, and/or engagement, which may include supporting the organization's events, projects, operations, and/or team morale.

  • Event of the Year: This award recognizes student organizations for conceiving, planning, and implementing an outstanding event for the Cornell community; an event that embodies the sustainability mission of the organization. All types of events are considered, including educational, experiential, recreational, social, and more.

  • Project of the Year: This award recognizes student organizations for planning and implementing an outstanding project, initiative, or campaign for the Cornell community; a project that embodies the sustainability mission of the organization. All types of projects are considered, including short-term, on-going, credit-bearing, partnerships with campus departments, and more.

  • Ripple Effect Award: This award recognizes an influential student, student organization, event, or project whose impact has continued to spread, gain momentum, scale-up, or create new opportunities within the Cornell community.

  • Resilience Award: This award recognizes a student, student organization, event, or project that has persevered through challenges. This award celebrates the hard work, determination, and success of the recipient(s) in adapting and finding resilience in the face of adversity.

  • JUST Award: This award recognizes a student, student organization, event, or project for outstanding work on environmental justice issues, understanding that every environmental issue is also a social issue. This award celebrates actions taken on campus or beyond, including efforts to foster justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion in sustainability work. 

  • Organization of the Year: This award recognizes an outstanding student organization that made significant contributions to sustainability this year, on campus or beyond. This award celebrates a student organization whose members planned and implemented events, projects, or initiatives that advanced sustainability. The Organization of the Year represents the most collaborative, hardworking, and influential sustainability student organizations at Cornell.

  • Student Service Award: This prestigious award honors an outstanding student leader who has distinguished themselves in service to campus sustainability throughout their educational career at Cornell. The recipient of the Student Service Award embodies vision, leadership, hard work, and collaboration. They have made significant contributions to campus sustainability, have made an impact on many individuals and organizations, and represent the most influential minds amongst Cornell's student sustainability leaders. Formerly the *Lifetime Achievement Award

 

2024 Golden Gorge Award Winners

Rookie of the Year: Amy Liu, Cornell University Sustainable Design (CUSD)

Member of the Year:  Ben McNulty, Cornell Environmental Collaborative (ECO), (SNRC)

Graduate Student of the Year: Reed Herter, Environmental Law Society, COP28 Student Delegate

Advisor of the Year: Sirietta Simoncini, Cornell University Sustainable Design (CUSD)

Advisor of the Year: Eyuel Seyoum, Cornell Computer Reuse Association (CCRA)

Event of the Year: Gates Hall Repair Fair, Dylan Van Bramer, Reid Fleishman, and Chris Walkowiak (CCRA)

Project of the Year: EcoThreads, Jingwen Zhu and Lily Winagle (Hybrid Body Lab)

Ripple Effect Award: Learning by Leading Teams (Cornell Botanic Gardens)

Resilience Award: Trisha Bhujle, Climate Café, Climate Anxiety Resources (NatureRx)

JUST Award: Avery Sirwatka, Graduate Students in Public Health (GraPH), Grand Challenges Program

Student Service Award: Andrea Miramontes Serrano, Engineers for a Sustainable World (ESW)

Organization of the Year:  Engineers for a Sustainable World (ESW)
 

2023 Golden Gorge Award Winners

Rookie of the Year: Trisha Bhujle, Residential Sustainability Leaders (RSLs)

Member of the Year:  Reid Fleishman, Engineers for a Sustainable World (ESW), (CUSD), (RSLs)

Graduate Student of the Year: Swathi Suvarna, Campus Sustainability Office (CSO)

Advisor of the Year: Steve Mandl, Engineers for a Sustainable World (ESW)

Event of the Year: Alpha Zeta Ag Day, Eli Newell & Elizabeth Hughes (Alpha Zeta Cornell)

Project of the Year: Solar Panel Reboot, Anant Gupta (CUSD)

Ripple Effect Award: Emma Fauset, Student Sustainability Coordinator (Cornell Dining)

Resilience Award: Jonathan Yeung, Cornell University Sustainable Design (CUSD)

JUST Award: Rhea Goswami, Environmental Justice Coalition (EJC)

Organization of the Year: Residential Sustainability Leaders (RSLs)

*Lifetime Achievement Award: Alexis Anderson, Bee Club, Cornell Sustainability Consultants, Cornell Compost, CUSD

2022 Golden Gorge Award Winners

Rookie of the Year: Tiernan Weeden Climate Justice Cornell

Member of the Year: Rebecca Foody Engineers for a Sustainable World

Advisors of the Year : Steve Mandl & Andrea Miramontes Serrano Campus Energy Conservation team, Engineers for a Sustainable World

Graduate Student of the Year : Josefina Uranga Transition Finance for Regenerative Agriculture Systems

Event of the Year: Alpha Zeta Ag Day Jonah Helmer & Eli Newell, Alpha Zeta Fraternity

Project of the Year: Swapp Marketplace for Cornell Alternative Recycling Cornell

Ripple Effect:  Veterans Program House Cornell Undergraduate Veterans Association (CUVA)

Resilience Award: Madeline Elliott Student Sustainability Coordinator Cornell Dining

JUST Award: Climate Justice Cornell 

Organization of the Year Engineers for a Sustainable World

Lifetime Achievement Award: Emma Goldenthal Cornell Compost

2021 Golden Gorge Award Winners

Rookie of the Year: Nelson Ooi for developing a new project for the CUSD Alternative Recycling Cornell team, and leading the group to create an app for Cornell students to exchange pre-loved items throughout the year. 

  • Honorable Mention Amy Vleminckx for her work in reducing food waste & water waste as one of the Operation Managers for NorthStar Dining.

Member of the Year: Erin Huang for her positive and broad-reaching influence as the Director of Internal Operations for CUSD, where she improved connections between members, developed engaging events for the Cornell community, enabled better access for members to present at conferences, and much more.

  • Honorable Mention Raquel Morehouse for her passionate and dedicated work over the past four years with the Food Recovery Network in collecting surplus perishable foods from Cornell Dining units and redistributing it to local food pantries in need. 

Advisor of the Year : Sam Benson for her commitment to co-advising the Residential Sustainability Leaders (RSLs) and advancing sustainability within on-campus residential communities. 

Event of the Year: Climate Justice Cornell's Rally for the Climate & Community Investment Act for supporting the Climate and Community Investment Act, which embodies climate justice and would set a precedent for a just transition that prioritizes working people & BIPOC communities.

Initiative of the Year: Cornell’s Food Recovery Network for creating effective and streamlined protocols to ensure food redistribution could continue within the local community during the pandemic.

  • Honorable Mention Gregory Brumberg for his work leading sustainable dining initiatives in 104West!, particularly to minimize single use disposable waste this year.

Ripple Effect Award: Alice Soewito for championing Cornell Dining’s Kick-the-Cup challenge in recent years to encourage a culture of using reusable mugs and bottles amongst the Cornell community.

  • Honorable Mention Zasu Scott for her work spearheading the creation of Climate Justice Cornell’s Political Action Committee, which aims to plug in students to Ithaca, state, and federal level climate justice policies, activism, and organizing.

JUST Award: The Egg-Vengers for recognizing a significant source of food waste on campus – eggs - and explored options for redistributing eggs to the local community.

Life Gives You Lemons Award (Formerly known as Biggest Fail):The Steminist Movement for virtual The Sustainability Summit, which showcased numerous facets of sustainability, particularly highlighting women and allies who are spearheading the Steminist movement.

  • Honorable Mention Harshita Mahendra, Sebastian Sanchez, and Clara Fontaine for their work creating an interactive website to build a culture of sustainability amongst all of Cornell’s student clubs, featuring many resources including in-depth guides to hosting small-scale and large-scale events more sustainably.

Lifetime Achievement Award: Megan Feely for working tirelessly to reopen Anabel’s Grocery with new COVID protocols and reopen residential composting this Spring. 

Organization of the Year: Cornell Compost for institutionalizing compost at Cornell, reducing food waste, and empowering students to get involved in sustainability.

  • Honorable Mention Anabel’s Grocery for stepping up to restart the store this spring, which included creating an online ordering system & distributing 100+ orders each week. 

2020 Golden Gorge Award Winners

Rookie of the Year: Cornell Compost for their passion for composting and ability to make it fun and approachable is inspiring and admirable.

Member of the Year: Kathryn Cooke for co-founding of Epsilon Eta, Cornell’s first sustainability fraternity. She has been dedicated to ensuring the success of the organization, serving as President for a year.

Event of the Year: Climate Justice Cornell’s Wedding of Cornell and Fossil Fuels on Fossil Fuel Divestment Day.

Initiative of the Year: Lily Bermel('21,ESS)for Why Cornell Dining Needs Sustainability and Why Sustainability Needs Cornell Dining.

Ripple Effect Award: Erika Kane for utilizing her design skills and principles and employ them with sustainability in mind. For her final project, she created a curriculum for a course at Cornell that would reteach design and architectural studies through a lens of indigenous and ephemeral design.

JUST Award: Anabel’s Grocery. They provide thousands of people in the Cornell community with accessible, nutritious food. The organization hosts community dinners that use otherwise wasted food as the staple ingredients, and these dinners foster community at Cornell as well as provide free meals to students.

Life Gives You Lemons Award (Formerly known as Biggest Fail):Residential Sustainability Leaders. This new student organization works to create a culture of sustainability within Cornell’s residential communities by engaging new and returning students. This organization within a year established themselves as a new club, writing a constitution, electing an e-board, meeting weekly and even hosting a Chasing Coral Viewing Party in collaboration with other student sustainability leaders across the country.

Lifetime Achievement Award: Naomi Haber ('20,). Naomi developed Cornell’s Sustainable Waste Map, co-founded and co-implemented the Compost Managers program across 23 residential communities, diverting over 10,000 lbs of organics in its first year of operation. She has contributed to the eboards of Greeks Go Green for nearly three years, as well as being on ECO and Residential Sustainability Leaders eboards. She has been a member of Cornell Sustainability Consultants and Climate Justice Cornell, and recently won the New York State Student Sustainability Leadership Excellence Award. She is extremely dedicated, driven, and exudes passion in all of her sustainability work on campus.

Organization of the Year: GreenClub. This organization has grown immensely over the past year and has made it easy for anyone to join the sustainability. It encourages students to reduce their carbon footprint first, and then to make a positive impact through carbon offsets in areas where they cannot easily reduce their footprint.

2019 Golden Gorge Award Winners

Rookie of the Year: Nadia Vitek ('22, CS) for her performance as G-Body Organizer of Climate Justice Cornell, and for her leadership during the Climate Divestment Rally.

Member of the Year: Lily Bermel ('21, ESS) for her dedication to the crafting of formal sustainability policy for Cornell Dining.

Event of the Year: Fossil Fuel Divestment Petition, Letter and Rally for its success in raising awareness on the Fossil Fuel Divestment Campaign.

Initiative of the Year: Kate Sims ('21, ESS) for Climate Change Chats for creating a safe space where people can come to dialogue on climate change issues faced by the global community, and for continually engaging and educating students on global climate change problems.

Ripple Effect Award: Brandon Hoak ('21, DEA) for inspiring others to pursue best practices through his constant advocating of sustainable behaviors, and for educating others on sustainability through his work as a compost manager, RA, and Green Ambassador for MVR.

JUST Award: Zoya Moshin ('21, ESS) for her work as a member of the International Student Union and the Womxn of Color Coalition, and her passion for educating others on subjects relevant to her work.

Lifetime Achievement Award: Chris Galantino ('19, Environmental Engineering) for his undying commitment to sustainability, and his contributions to Cornell as the co-founder of Cornell Sustainability Consultants and Ezra's Exchange, and for assisting other organizations (ECO, Greeks Go Green, Agua Clara, others) in their sustainability endeavors during his time at Cornell.

Organization of the Year: Cornell Sustainability Consultants (CSC) for making a positive impact on the greater Ithaca area in only two years since its creation. With a host of varied initiatives from sustainable brewing practices to an analysis of Tompkins County's entire waste management system, CSC has already made its mark, and its influence only continues to grow.

2018 Golden Gorge Award Winners

Rookie of the Year: Ruth Park ('21, AEM) for her contributions to Currents as a new member of CUSD, and for her work during People's Climate Week.

Member of the Year: Trisha Ray ('19, ECE) for her work on the E-Board of ESW planning events, transportation and speakers, as well as for creating ESW's Monthly Movie Nights.

Event of the Year: ECOuture by Martha Williams ('20, Plant Science) for creating a space where people can learn about environmental justice in the context of the clothing industry.

Initiative of the Year: Climate Justice Cornell's Education Team for its successful promulgation of the ideals of climate justice and for motivating the current members of Climate Justice Cornell to continue the momentum they have built as an organization.

Ripple Effect Award: Clifton Stacy III for going above and beyond his required duties as an EcoHouse RA to help reform and reinvigorate their house attitude toward sustainability.

JUST Award: Tarannum Sarwat Sahar ('20, Mechanical Engineering and Economics) for her active role in the organization of People's Climate Week and Cornell Welcomes Refugees

Lifetime Achievement Award: Elizabeth Chi ('18, ESS) for organizing this year's People's Climate Week , leading ESWind, sitting as the president of Cornell Welcomes Refugees, and for promoting sustainability and environmental justice wherever she goes.

Organization of the Year: Greeks Go Green for their constant collaboration and activity with organizations both on and off campus, and their successful execution of multiple initiatives including waste reduction signage in Greek houses and sustainable study breaks.

Biggest Fail: Climate Justice Cornell's First Meeting Attempt with the Cornell CFO.