FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Crystal Simmons
Bulletin Editor & Program Manager
Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education
awards@aashe.org
Announcing the Winners of the
2025 AASHE Sustainability Awards
(April 17, 2025) – The Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) is excited to announce the 16 winners of the 2025 AASHE Sustainability Awards. The winners represent sustainability leadership from across the globe, including Canada, Mexico, Spain, and the United States.
The AASHE Sustainability Awards celebrate the visionaries and innovators driving sustainability progress within higher education. Through the dedication of volunteer judges, the program highlights outstanding projects and student leadership that are making tangible contributions toward environmental, social, and economic well-being. This year introduces the AASHE Fellows Award, honoring mid-career professionals who are making significant strides in advancing sustainability within higher education. Explore the impressive work of this year’s awardees below:
Lifetime Achievement Award:
- AASHE is proud to recognize Charles Hopkins, who has served as the UNESCO Chair in Reorienting Education towards Sustainability at York University since 1999, for his remarkable contributions to sustainability in education. With a career spanning decades, Hopkins has made lasting impacts through his leadership in experiential learning, authoring influential publications, and coordinating expansive research networks across more than 50 countries. Hopkins has also been a guiding force behind UNESCO’s Education for Sustainable Development initiatives, chairing processes to adopt key global declarations and fostering collaboration with ministries of education worldwide.
Campus Sustainability Achievement Award:
- Tecnológico de Monterrey Campus Monterrey and Campus Chihuahua for Design for Vulnerables, a project aiming to bridge the digital divide in vulnerable communities.
- Binghamton University for Binghamton 2 Degrees: Building Community Resilience Through Collaborative Action, collaborative initiative with the local community that addresses climate change through interdisciplinary engagement, storytelling and scenario-based workshops.
- Tufts University for Resilient Climate Leaders: Redefining Sustainability Programming to Meet the Needs of Students Today, a redesigned eco-reps program that prioritizes inclusivity and well-being.
- IE University for The 10-Year Challenge, a long-term strategy to address sustainability challenges that aligns with the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals.
To share their projects and insights, these awardees will participate in the Campus Achievement Award Webinar Series held every Tuesday in June from 2-3 p.m. ET.
Student Sustainability Leadership Award:
- The Student Leadership Award recognizes Rebecca Grekin at Stanford University for her project, TASTE Food: The Automated Scope 3 Tool for Tracking Emissions from Food. Developed as a free tool, TASTE Food streamlines the categorization of food purchases for emissions tracking, addressing inefficiencies in manual classification. By standardizing food emissions data across institutions and integrating features like plant-based food tagging for AASHE STARS assessments, TASTE Food enables accurate, scalable, and comparative emissions analysis for universities.
- An honorable mention goes to Rachel Willick at Amherst College for Up-cycling: Amherst College’s Tread Shed – Our Campus Spoke Easy, a campus bike co-op designed to collect, repair, and redistribute abandoned bikes through innovative programs. The Tread Shed offers bike maintenance education, a volunteer-to-own system, bike registration, bike storage, and a bike share program, making sustainable transportation accessible and empowering students with practical skills and knowledge.
Fellows Award:
We also congratulate our inaugural AASHE Fellows, 10 mid-career professionals making remarkable contributions to sustainability in higher education:
- Andrea Trimble, Director of Sustainability at University of Virginia
- Ayodeji Oluwalana, Manager of Waste Reduction & Recycling Program at Pennsylvania State University
- Kelly Wellman, Director of Sustainability at Texas A&M University
- Kim Hankins, Manager of the Sustainability Department at McHenry County College
- Lindsay Walker, Director of Sustainability at Humber College
- Meghann Jarchow, Sustainability & Environment Department Chair & Professor at University of South Dakota
- Nina Morris, Director of Sustainability at University of Pennsylvania
- Olivia Aguilar, Director of the Miller Worley Center for the Environment at Mount Holyoke College
- Rob Andrejewski, Director of Sustainability at University of Richmond
- Weston Dripps, Director of Sustainability at Amherst College
“The 2025 AASHE Sustainability Award winners exemplify the innovation, leadership, and dedication needed to drive meaningful change in higher education sustainability,” said Executive Director Meghan Fay Zahniser. “Their achievements, spanning diverse institutions and initiatives, highlight the power of collaboration and creativity. We applaud these outstanding individuals and organizations for their vision and impact, and we celebrate their contributions to building a more just and sustainable future.”
About AASHE
AASHE empowers higher education administrators, faculty, staff, and students to be effective change agents and drivers of sustainability innovation. AASHE enables members to translate information into action by offering essential resources and professional development to a diverse, engaged community of sustainability leaders. We work with and for higher education to ensure that our world’s future leaders are motivated and equipped to solve sustainability challenges. For more information, visit www.aashe.org. Follow AASHE on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and X, formerly Twitter.
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