Jack Rosen Memorial Award for Environmental Innovation

Tackle the world's most pressing issues!

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.

This year's event

With an increasing global effort to mitigate and adapt to the impacts of climate change on our economy, society, and planet, the Waterloo @100 initiative through the Global Futures framework, aims to inspire collaborative and interdisciplinary approaches to problem solving and tackling the world’s most compounding crises across five major areas: Technology, Society, Health, Sustainability, and the Economy.

This year, students are invited to present an innovative idea that addresses climate change. Pitches should connect to one or be at the intersection of multiple of the Global Futures buckets.

To learn more about about the Global Futures framework visit the Waterloo @100 initiative, Global Futures site.

man with a helmet laced with wires staring off to the right

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.