Due date: March 16, 2026

Submission Fee: $50

We are excited to be running the Boston  Section sustainability, community, and collaboration awards for the second year in a row.

Sustainability Award:

The project should consider environmental and social factors, promoting sustainable practices and ethical design choices. It should showcase how the team minimized material waste and utilized sustainable materials.

• Inclusive Design: Demonstrate how the team considered the needs of diverse users, such as accessibility, affordability, and culture.
• Sustainable Design: Highlight the use of eco-friendly materials or energy-efficient design.
• Social Impact: Share how the team collaborated with community members to create a design solution that addresses their specific needs, health, and well-being.
• Environmental impact: This includes factors such as energy efficiency, water conservation, material selection, waste reduction, and pollution prevention or other methods of resiliency.
• Economic impact: This includes factors such as cost-effectiveness, job creation, and long-term viability.
• Innovation: This includes factors such as originality, creativity, and the use of new technologies or approaches.

Community Award:

The project effectively addresses a specific community need or challenge. It is well-integrated into the surrounding environment and respects the community’s history and culture.

• Community Engagement: The project involved significant community participation and input and involved effective collaboration between different stakeholders.
• Social Equity: The project promotes social equity and inclusivity.
• Economic Impact: The project contributes positively to the local economy.
• Measurable Impact: The project has a quantifiable and positive impact on the community.
• Long-Term Sustainability: The project is designed to have a lasting impact on the community.
• Scalability: The project’s design and implementation can be adapted to other communities.

Collaboration Award:

The project should showcase effective collaboration between different teams and project stakeholders, demonstrating how diverse perspectives and skills contributed to the final successful design. The submission should effectively communicate the design process, challenges, and outcomes of a collaborative effort.

• Innovative Approach: The project team should demonstrate a unique approach to design, pushing boundaries and introducing novel concepts and new ideas, tools or techniques in collaboration.
• Educational Value: The project has potential to educate and inspire future designers’ collaboration.
• Process: The project uses collaborative methodologies to streamline the design process, including conflict resolution, facilitation of communication, and iterative design feedback.
• Shared Vision: Collaborators have a shared vision and project objectives that motivates the team and fosters a positive and productive team environment.
• Reduced Development Costs: Collaborative decision-making results in production cost-saving measures or efficient resource allocation.

Submission Criteria

Each team should submit one digital board in PDF format demonstrating compliance with the above criteria. The board can include any combination of text, images, and data the team feels demonstrates compliance with the award criteria. The board should comply with the below criteria:

• 24” x 36” PDF
• Landscape Orientation
• No crop & bleed marks.
• Limit of 10MB file size
• Proof of payment must be attached to submission email, as well as the name of the team and award being applied for.
• Title of PDF should not include any identifying information about the design team or the name of project.
• Anyone involved in the project, with the exception of manufacturers, IES Staff and IES Board of Directors may enter a project for an Illumination Award.
• The design team should be based in the area of the IES Boston and Rhode Island Sections, projects may be located anywhere.
• Permanent and temporary installations can be submitted for awards consideration.
• The installation must have been completed during the 24 months preceding January 2026
• The project submitter must inform the owner, and all others involved or associated in the project design, of participation in the program and that the entry may be published by the IES Boston Section.
• Projects may submit for multiple award categories; a separate entry fee must be paid for each category.
• The names of the designers, the name of the design firm, equipment manufacturers or specific brands are not allowed anywhere on the board. Any reference or endorsement of a commercial product is not allowed. Submittals with this information will be disqualified. However, proper names of places (i.e., Waldorf Astoria, Verizon, Target) in the narrative is admissible.
• Complete submission must be received by 5pm on the due date, submission after this point will not be judged.
• Board will be printed as sent, ensure they are scaled properly and at an appropriate resolution.

In the email submission, please list all team members, their firm and role. This information should not be included on the board. This is the group that will receive recognition should the project win an award. Please note a photographer’s credit if required.

At least one listed project team member must be a member of the IES Boston or Rhode Island Section. Please note which team member this is in the submission email.

Registration Link Coming Soon.