WMU video wins viewer support competition hosted by Planet Forward

Contact: Cheryl Roland
Photo of planet Earth.

Final Climate Leadership Award winners will be announced this spring.

KALAMAZOO—Second Nature and Planet Forward announced April 21 that Western Michigan University's submission was the top vote-getter of this year's Climate Leadership Awards Video Competition.

Watch the video here.

During the video competition, which took place April 1-15, more than 28,000 votes were cast on videos created by the 2014 Second Nature Climate Leadership Award finalists. As a result, WMU came out on top, receiving 8,912 votes from site visitors and community members.

The WMU submission to this year's competition highlighted the institution's strategies for building a culture of sustainability, both in campus operations and the educational experience of all students. As President John M. Dunn notes in the video, "Our school colors are brown and gold, but we are very proud of the efforts we've made over the past 30 years to be a green and sustainable university campus."

In the Carnegie Doctoral category that WMU won, the University of Massachusetts Amherst came in second with 8,576 votes. Top votes in other Carnegie classifications went to Gateway Technical College in the Associate Colleges category, University of Minnesota, Morris in the Baccalaureate category, Pacific Lutheran University in the Master's category, and University of Massachusetts Medical School in the Special Focus category. The classification system used by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching is a leading framework for identifying institutional diversity in U.S. higher education.

Video will be featured online

Planet Forward will feature the winning video across its media platforms over the next few months. Additionally, all videos produced by this year's finalists will be featured at the 2014 ACUPCC Climate Leadership Summit in Boston Oct. 1-3.

Final overall Climate Leadership Award winners will be chosen by members of the Second Nature Board of Directors who are unaffiliated with ACUPCC signatory schools. Announcement of the 2014 Climate Leadership Award Winners is expected later this spring.

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WMU named finalist for national Climate Leadership Award | April 1, 2014