SEAL Awards are an environmental

advocacy organization Advocacy is an activity by an individual or group that aims to influence decisions within political, economic, and social institutions. Advocacy includes activities and publications to influence public policy, laws and budgets by using fac ...

that uses annual awards for businesses and journalists to support environmental initiatives and to fund grants in the field of

policy Policy is a deliberate system of guidelines to guide decisions and achieve rational outcomes. A policy is a statement of intent and is implemented as a procedure or protocol. Policies are generally adopted by a governance body within an or ...

research. The name is an

acronym An acronym is a type of abbreviation consisting of a phrase whose only pronounced elements are the initial letters or initial sounds of words inside that phrase. Acronyms are often spelled with the initial Letter (alphabet), letter of each wor ...

for

sustainability Sustainability is a social goal for people to co-exist on Earth over a long period of time. Definitions of this term are disputed and have varied with literature, context, and time. Sustainability usually has three dimensions (or pillars): env ...

, 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 Sustainable products are products either sustainably sourced, manufactured or processed and provide environmental, social, and economic benefits while protecting public health and the environment throughout their whole life cycle, from the extra ...

, 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 Investigative journalism is a form of journalism in which reporters deeply investigate a single topic of interest, such as serious crimes, racial injustice, political corruption, or corporate wrongdoing. An investigative journalist may spend m ...

. Past award winners include writers for traditional news media such as ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' and more recent, web-based platforms like ''Grist'' and

Mongabay Mongabay (mongabay.com) is an American conservation news web portal that reports on environmental science, energy, and green design, and features extensive information on tropical rainforests, including pictures and deforestation statistics f ...

Impact Campaigns

SEAL Awards have advocated for the creation of a credit card whose

interchange fee An interchange fee is a fee paid between banks for the acceptance of card-based transactions. Usually for sales/services transactions it is a fee that a merchant's bank (the "acquiring bank") pays a customer's bank (the " issuing bank"). In a ...

s would pay into climate change programs rather than a traditional credit rewards program, targeted cup waste in the

Starbucks Starbucks Corporation is an American multinational List of coffeehouse chains, chain of coffeehouses and Starbucks Reserve, roastery reserves headquartered in Seattle, Washington. It was founded in 1971 by Jerry Baldwin, Zev Siegl, and Gor ...

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 Postgraduate education, graduate education, or graduate school consists of academic or professional degrees, certificates, diplomas, or other qualifications usually pursued by post-secondary students who have earned an undergraduate (bachelor' ...

and post-doctoral researchers at the beginning of their careers in

environmental policy Environmental policy is the commitment of an organization or government to the laws, regulations, and other policy mechanisms concerning environmental issues. These issues generally include air and water pollution, waste management, ecosystem ...

References

{{reflist 2017 establishments