The Summit of Sustainability Awards (SOSA) Mission
To recognize Summit County businesses/organizations and non-profits for the sustainability initiatives which improve their triple bottom line: People, Planet and Prosperity.
Background on SOSA’s Creation
The Summit of Sustainability Awards is a natural outgrowth of the City of Akron’s Greenprint which since March of 2008 has worked to quantify the impacts government, commercial/industrial and residential activities on our environment. The Greenprint’s March 2012 results showed that governmental operations where on track to meet their 2013 and 2018 greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions goals, and though the commercial/industrial sector also met the 2013 goal, extra effort would be needed to meet the 2018 goal.
The Green Ribbon Panel’s (charged with driving Greenprint change) Education and Outreach Subcommittee knew that there were many sustainability success stories within the organizational community throughout Summit County and felt those successes could serve as a guide for other organizations seeking to achieve triple bottom line improvements: People, Planet and Prosperity.
A group of area companies and non-profits who had shown a dedication to sustainability practices along with the City and County was convened to create a regional recognition process that could grow over time. The group felt strongly that the initial application process should be simple and broad to allow many organizations to participate. They also wanted to create a central website that could become an ongoing resource for new tools and techniques that were shown to be successful in day-to-day practice.
Learn more with by watching this video by Paula Davis, President & CEO, Keep Akron Beautiful/Director, Greenprint for Akron.
The Summit of Sustainability Awards 2013
Thanks to the Founding Sponsors and the generosity of other area sponsors, the Summit of Sustainability Award continues. In 2012, the SOSA award process, design and the infrastructure was built to be the basis for annual recognition that evolves as sustainability efforts become more sophisticated.
Commit to Your Sustainability Efforts – Application Process Open May through September
The Summit of Sustainability Award Panel highly encourages all Summit County organizations to apply for SOSA. Organizations world-wide continue to show that earnest commitments to sustainability can have real, positive bottom-line results. And don’t think that all sustainability efforts involve big expenditures, many organizations are achieving meaningful results without spending any extra monies. See our How To Be Sustainable page for additional resources to help you get started today to reduce your energy usage, waste generation and to get more people involved.
