EcoLeader Certification - NWF EcoLeaders

How it Works

All projects much be hosted in the EcoLeader community to be eligible for certification.

Earning EcoLeader recognition involves completing a set of core requirements and earning a minimum of 25 leadership skill points.

Identify an endorser, this can be a professor, staff member, or mentor who has helped guide and support you throughout the course of your project or campaign.

Once you have completed the core requirements and earned at least 25 elective leadership points, submit your form and the NWF EcoLeaders team will be notified and will confirm your application!

Why NWF EcoLeader Certification?

Certification focuses on the applicant’s awareness and achievement of project-based leadership skills.

These are the competencies identified as critical indicators of success on all levels by the NWF Campus Ecology staff and volunteer leaders over more than 25 years.

Dozens of important programs and associations all across the US and beyond certify for technical knowledge, the EcoLeader Certification is unique in focusing on the leadership competencies that underlie effective application of more technical knowledge, including planning, team-building, assessing progress, and sharing lessons learned.

The EcoLeader Certification recognizes not just the theoretical understanding of these leadership competencies, but also encourages the deeper grounding gained through hands-on, experiential learning.

Employers across all industries indicate these project-based leadership skills are as important, and often even more important, than technical competencies in specific disciplines. NWF gives preferential review to job applicants who have earned the EcoLeader credential and it is gaining esteem among employers in green industries across all sectors.

“There will be an increasing number of jobs available in the sustainability space because more and more companies will be looking for *a few* people to lead their global activities in this space, but the real actions are going to happen at the operational level, at the functional level, and those jobs – in marketing, in accounting, in engineering, in product development, manufacturing, They’re going to need those sustainability skills to be successful in those functions.”

David Talauskas
Director of Sustainability at General Motors

“In the EcoLeaders certification, there is a means to quantify leadership skills and actions that students have already taken. I think that could be a real asset on a resume and something that can definitely make a student stand apart."

Hannah Debelius
Sustainability Manager, American University