SEJ Awards for Reporting on the Environment

SEJ’s 22nd annual Awards for Reporting on the Environment honors the best environmental journalism in 10 categories, bringing recognition to the stories that are among the most important on the planet. Prizes of $500 for first-place winners and $250 for second-place winners in all categories.

The Nina Mason Pulliam Award for the “best of the best” environmental reporting will award $10,000 to one entry selected from the first-place winners of SEJ’s Awards for Reporting on the Environment. The prize also includes travel, registration, and hotel expenses (up to $2,500) for the winner, or representatives of the winning team, to attend SEJ’s annual conference.

Who can enter?

• The applicant does not have to be an SEJ member or on an environment beat to enter.
• Reporters who cover health, politics, science, energy, local government or any other beat are encouraged to enter their work on environmental subjects.
• Students enrolled in a university, college or high school — and graduates submitting work they did while enrolled as students — are eligible for the student category. Mid-career journalists who return to school, post-graduate students and students sharing a byline with non-students are not eligible to enter the student category.
• SEJ welcomes entries from outside the U.S., but non-English entries must be accompanied by a complete English translation.
• Judges for this contest may enter except in a category they are judging.
• Group entries are accepted. Everyone with a byline MUST be included in the group. Photographers, graphic artists, contributing reporters without a byline, etc., can also be included. Only individuals or teams of individuals can enter; publications, stations, websites, programs or networks may not enter.
• Members of SEJ’s Board of Directors, Awards Committee, SEJ staff and awards personnel may not enter. Exceptions will be made for group entries where a board member of SEJ was involved only because of their position in the newsroom, but did not play a significant role and is not listed as part of the team.

The categories for the contest are as follows:

• Investigative Categories: An investigative report or series on a single environmental topic, originally published or aired between February 1, 2022, and March 31, 2023. Investigative reporting uses journalistic skills to disclose facts about businesses, government agencies or individuals that, absent the reporting, would not likely be disclosed.
• Beat Reporting Categories: Three to five broadcast or published news reports and/or commentary on a broad range of environmental topics or a broad range of various issues within a single environmental topic published or aired between February 1, 2022, and March 31, 2023. Entry must be the work of three bylines maximum, plus a photographer, graphics artist or other individual vital to the development of the stories.
• Feature Categories: Entry must be a single environmental interest story not directly tied to a recent news event, with an emphasis on storytelling. Entries must be published between February 1, 2022, and March 31, 2023. Multi-part stories are prohibited.
• Explanatory Reporting Categories: A story, series or occasional series that illuminates a significant, complex environmental subject, demonstrating mastery of the subject, storytelling, and clear presentation, published or aired by a single news organization. Entries must be published between February 1, 2022, and March 31, 2023.
• Student Reporting Category: A story or series on an environmental topic by a student or group of students enrolled in a university, college or high school at the time the content was produced. Entry stories must have been published, aired or otherwise produced in a media outlet accessible to the general public between February 1, 2022, and March 31, 2023.
• Book Category: A nonfiction book that covers an environmental topic and has an original copyright in 2022. Books published in English for the first time during the contest year that were previously published in another language are eligible.

To learn more and apply, please click here.