Colby Selected as Finalist in Tournament for Environmental Academics
Elimination Competition Judged by Distinguished Panel of Environmental Professionals; National Champion to be announced on April 2
City, State—March 13, 2012—The Environmental Studies program at Colby today announced that it has been selected as a “Sustainable 16” school in the first-ever national tournament for environmental and sustainability academic excellence sponsored by Enviance, Inc. a global provider of Environmental ERP (EERP) solutions that measure, manage, report and reduce environmental and regulatory risks and EnvironmentalLeader, the leading daily trade publication keeping corporate executives fully informed about energy, environmental and sustainability news. The winning schools were selected by a group of distinguished environmental science professionals who will determine 2012’s National Environmental Studies Champion on April 2.
The tournament, running at the same time as the NCAA college basketball tournament of the same name, will award $5,000 to the environmental and sustainability department of one National Champion, and send the department chair or member of the faculty on an all-expenses-paid trip to San Diego to attend the Enviance User Conference, April 16-20. While there, the winner will lead a panel titled, “What Tomorrow’s Environmental Leaders Need to Know.”
“To our knowledge, this is the first objective and non-arbitrary ranking of its kind that evaluates higher-education institutions based on quantitative and qualitative metrics versus the findings of a single researcher,” said Lawrence Goldenhersh, CEO and president of Enviance. “The quantity and quality of schools participating exceeded our expectations, making it a very difficult decision for the judges in narrowing the field to sixteen finalists. The Sustainable 16 should be proud of what they have accomplished in building elite environmental academic programs that are the envy of their peers.”
In addition to the aforementioned prizes for the winning university and its environmental department, one student from each of the Final Four universities who submits a survey or video in support of their school’s submission will be selected by the judges to be profiled in Environmental Leader.
In order to advance to the “Environmental Eight,” “Final Four” and beyond, Sustainable 16 faculty and students are being asked to support their entries with short essay submissions, social media or video submissions on why they should be named National Champion. The submissions will be evaluated between today and March 19, 2012.
The expert panel evaluating the schools is made up of environmental professionals from a number of well-respected organizations including The Brattle Group, CH2M HILL, Enviance, Trinity Consultants and Valero.
For more information on the March Madness Tournament for environmental studies, please email [email protected], or visit http://www.enviance.com/march-madness or http://www.environmentalleader.com. You can also receive real-time updates on Twitter by following @enviance or @ELDaily.
Schwartz MSL for Enviance
Dan O’Mahony, 415-512-0770