Sustainability Leader
Showcase your leadership addressing sustainability challenges in your community and earn recognition as a Sustainability Leader, the culminating tier of the Sustainability Pathways program.
Sustainability Leader designation is awarded to undergraduate students from any discipline who have completed (or on their way to completing) Sustainability Citizen and Scholar tiers and can demonstrate how they have shown leadership in action at or beyond U of T.
Completion of the Leader tier includes formal recognition and eligibility for student awards each valued at $2000.
WHAT’S ON THIS PAGE
Leader Tier Benefits
- Showcase how you have tackled a sustainability challenge and make a difference in a specific community (on or off campus)
- Reflect on the leadership competencies you’ve developed by building upon the skills and knowledge gained in the previous tiers of the program
- Gain insights and lessons on leadership to apply to your future career
- Qualify for student prizes each valued at $2000 as part of the Sustainability Pathways Awards
Eligibility
- Open to undergraduate students from any discipline or campus who will have completed both the Citizen and Scholar tiers of the program as of the application deadline of June 30, 2026
- Students can pursue the Leader tier concurrently with the Citizen and Scholar tiers
What Makes A Sustainability Leader
- You can demonstrate taking the lead on on a real-world sustainability challenge within a specific community (minimum of 40 hours of experience, paid or unpaid)
- You must articulate how you have met at least one of several leadership competencies outlined by the Committee on the Environment, Climate Change, and Sustainability
- Your leadership work connects or relates to one or more of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
Examples of Sustainability Leadership in Action
- Serve in an executive-level position in an established sustainability-related student organization
- Lead the organization of a sustainability-related event that has positively impacted a community and be accountable for its success
- Complete a paid or unpaid internship with a sustainability leadership component
How to Apply
Application Requirements:
- General information (i.e. student number, year of study, faculty, school/department, specialist/major/minor)
- A copy of your academic transcript and resume
- Identification of Sustainability Leadership competencies in each experience
- Identification of applicable SDGs demonstrated in each experience
Submission of a separate document that includes:
- A description of 1-3 leadership experiences with specific examples (500 words maximum). Note: Applicants may describe up to three distinct experiences within a single leadership role.
- Contact information for one reference associated with each leadership experience. Note: Applicants may list a single reference if all leadership experiences took place within the same role.
- Responses to four reflection questions (250 words maximum per question):
- As part of your experiences described in this application, what insights have you gained into the benefits and challenges of Sustainability Leadership?
- How have you integrated your learning and experiences from the Citizen and Scholar tiers into your leadership?
- What are the potential or anticipated impacts of your leadership in the community you worked with and on the broader sustainability challenge you addressed?
- How might you apply what you learned from your community collaborators and insights into Sustainability Leadership to the next phase of your life?
Submission deadline: June 30, 2026, 23:59 EDT.
Disclaimer on Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) Usage
Disclaimer on Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) Usage
The purpose of the Leader tier is to promote meaningful engagement with a community and recognize leadership in action. For this reason, students are expected to demonstrate the capacity for reflection and articulation of their unique experiences. Students are expected to describe their sustainability leadership experiences and answer reflection questions independently, drawing on insights and specific examples from their unique experiences.
It is permissible for students to use generative AI tools, including ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot and other AI writing assistants, to refine the language or grammar of their application. This use must be documented in a separate AI acknowledgement within your submitted document, indicating which tool(s) were used, how they were used and how the results from AI were incorporated into the application.
For example: “AI tools were used in a limited capacity in the preparation of this work. Specifically:
- No AI was used for the conceptual development of application content, brainstorming, or creating initial drafts.
- Microsoft Copilot [or ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, etc.] was used for grammatical editing and suggesting alternative phrasing.“
CECCS encourages students using AI to support their application to consider our responsibilities to each other as members of a community of learning and with regard to the hidden environmental and ethical impacts of all digital tools, particularly those that rely on very large servers like AI. We expect that the application you submit is thoughtful, critical and your own.
Application Review Process & Criteria
The adjudication committee, composed of select members of the CECCS Teaching & Learning and Student Leadership Subcommittees and Lawson Climate Institute, will review your application and conduct further validation as needed at the end of the academic year.
In their review, adjudicators will consider how well the student articulates and reflects on the following: the leadership contributions to a sustainability challenge in the student’s community, how they have applied learning from their Sustainability Citizen and Scholar experiences and what personal or community impacts their leadership may have had.
The decision for Leader recognition will be ‘Accept/Not Accept.’ If not accepted, students are encouraged to apply their experiences towards the Citizen tier.
Please note that at the time of summer adjudication applicants must have completed the Citizen and Scholar tiers.
Awards & Recognition
The Lawson Climate Institute’s Sustainability Pathways Awards
Beginning in 2026, the top 20 Sustainability Leaders who excel in the application criteria will each receive a $2,000 prize through the new Sustainability Pathways Awards, presented by the Lawson Climate Institute.