Jack Rosen Memorial Award for Environmental Innovation

Tackle the world's most pressing issues!

Submit an idea that could solve, mitigate, or avoid an environmental problem. Whether you're just beginning or have it figured out, we want to hear from you.

Pooster style landscape image with varying shades of greenery showing different icons, including a green city, a globe, a recycling bin, solar panels, a dam, and a wind turbine.

Each year the Jack Rosen Memorial Award Pitch Competition invites Faculty of Environment students to submit an idea (device, process, or method) that could solve, mitigate, or avoid an environmental problem. 

Entrants are asked to identify an environmental problem and succinctly explain their proposed solution. Finalists will create a PowerPoint presentation and present their pitch to a panel of esteemed judges for a chance to win a Grand Prize of $3,000 or an Honorable Mention of $1,000. Refer to the presentation_template.pptx for creating your PowerPoint presentation. 

Students may enter individually or in teams of up to five. All groups must include at least one full-time undergraduate or graduate student enrolled in the Faculty of Environment. One entry is permitted per student or team.

Important dates

  1. 2025
    1. Feb
      1. Application deadline

        February 24, 2025

    2. Mar
      1. Pitch competition

        March 20, 2025

Learn more about Jack Rosen

Jack Rosen, born in Russia and raised in Canada, was an accomplished businessman. He joined his late father, Israel Rosen in the family business, Rosen and Sons, and built it to become one of Ontario's premier recycling companies. One of Jack’s many accomplishments was his involvement in the creation and implementation of the "blue box" curbside recycling program, which is used today for curbside recycling in millions of homes around the world. For this achievement and many others, he received the first Lifetime Achievement Award from the Recycling Council of Ontario.

Jack Rosen’s wife Honey and his children Judy, Shelly, and Allan created the Jack Rosen Memorial Award to not only commemorate their late father but to encourage the entrepreneurial spirit in Waterloo students, in hopes of finding innovative solutions to address environmental issues.