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An official website of the United States government.


President's Environmental Youth Award

PEYA Winners

Read about the 2017 PEYA winning projects
Your project - or one you are sponsoring - could be an award winner. Apply or encourage a student you know to apply for PEYA and see what a difference they can make for the environment with an award-winning project. Applicants from all 50 states and U.S. territories are eligible to compete for a regional certificate of special recognition and a national Presidential award.

Applications are now being accepted through February 1, 2019.

History and Basic Information about the President's Environmental Youth Award

The President’s Environmental Youth Award (PEYA) recognizes outstanding environmental projects by K-12 youth. The PEYA program promotes awareness of our nation's natural resources and encourages positive community involvement. Since 1971, the President of the United States has joined with EPA to recognize young people for protecting our nation's air, water, land, and ecology. It is one of the most important ways EPA and the Administration demonstrate commitment to environmental stewardship efforts created and conducted by our nation's youth.

Each year the PEYA program honors a wide variety of projects developed by young individuals, school classes (kindergarten through high school), summer camps, public interest groups, and youth organizations to promote environmental awareness. Thousands of young people from all 50 states and the U.S. territories have submitted projects to EPA for consideration. Winning projects in the past have covered a wide range of subject areas, including: Evaluation results consistently demonstrate that participation in the PEYA program is frequently a life-changing experience for many of the young people and their project sponsors.

How the Program Works

Program Updates

In Spring 2015, the PEYA program was updated. The award portion was expanded to include awards for two age groups. All qualified applicants will still receive recognition from EPA leadership.

PEYA has two parts — a regional award for Grades K-5 and a regional award for Grades 6-12.

EPA has ten regional offices across the country. Based on the evaluation criteria, each regional office will be responsible for selecting up to two winners per region– one for Grades K-5 and one for Grades 6-12. Applicants are welcome to include youth across multiple grade levels; however, the application will be categorized based on the applicant with the highest grade level.  For example, if one applicant group consists of two 4th graders, one 3rd grader and one 6th grader, the application will be evaluated in the Grade 6-12 category.

Each award-winning project will receive a Presidential plaque. All qualified applicants will receive recognition from EPA leadership honoring them for their efforts to protect human health and the environment.


How to Apply for the National Award Program

Step 1: Review the Eligibility Criteria

Supporting Materials

Applicants are encouraged to submit photographs, newspaper articles, and other supporting materials if they provide a more comprehensive view of the project.

Step 2: Complete an Application

Step 3: Submit the Application

Judging Criteria

Each application is evaluated by a regional awards panel. The panel members review and evaluate each application based on the criteria. There are separate evaluation criteria for K-5 and 6-12 applications. A maximum of 100 points can be awarded to a given application.

*Definition: “Environmental or Conservation Stewardship” is voluntary commitment, behavior, and action that results in environmental protection or improvement, or conservation of our natural resources. Stewardship refers to an acceptance of personal responsibility for actions to improve environmental quality and to achieve conservation outcomes. Stewardship involves lifestyles and business practices, initiatives and actions that enhance the state of the environment and natural resources. Some examples are: living or conducting business in such a way as to minimize or eliminate pollution at its source; using natural resources efficiently; decreasing the use of hazardous chemicals; recycling wastes effectively; and conserving or restoring soil, forests, prairies, wetlands, rivers, and parks. Stewardship can be practiced by individuals, groups, schools, organizations, companies, communities, and state and local governments.

Recognition of Winners Each year, EPA gives a Presidential plaque to the national award winners, and EPA leadership recognizes all qualified applicants in a letter or certificate.

Read about current and past PEYA winners.


Who can be a sponsor?

The sponsor must be an adult and may be a parent, teacher, youth group adviser, summer camp counselor, community leader, or other interested individual.

Each applicant or group of applicants applying for PEYA must be represented by a sponsor. The sponsor must be an adult at least 21 years of age and may be a parent, teacher, youth group adviser, summer camp counselor, community leader, or other interested individual. The adult sponsor plays an important role in helping a young person or group of young people carry out a project and apply for PEYA. In signing the application, the sponsor confirms that he or she has parent or guardian consent for each applicant to participate in the PEYA program.

Typically, a sponsor offers suggestions and advice throughout the project to:

Questions about the role of a sponsor should be directed to email@example.com.

Resources for Sponsors


Questions about the program should be sent to firstname.lastname@example.org.