Pratt's Center for Sustainable Design Studies (CSDS) received Core77 2012 Design Award — Professional Notable in the Educational Initiatives category for its second annual day-long Sustainability Crash Course, which included a series of workshops featuring over 20 experts from Pratt's sustainable design faculty and elsewhere. The award jury commented that “Our changing and fast-paced socio-economic environment demands of designers that they demonstrate unique agility and embrace lifelong learning in order to stay current in a variety of adjacent fields. The jury found that the Sustainability Crash Course is a new educational model that delivers effective ways to increase knowledge acquisition and build skills. The jury especially remarked on the value of a curriculum that targets the integration of academic and studio instruction and promotes a peer-to-pper learning environment that fosters collaboration.”

The event took place in conjunction with the Institute's Green Week in during spring semester 2012. Established in 2007, Pratt CSDS is the centerpiece of Pratt's transformative leadership in sustainable design education. A physical space and hub for resources, CSDS encourages the use of Pratt's campus as a living lab for innovation to provide students with unparalleled experiences in sustainable design and serves faculty in development of educational experiences that help shape emerging curriciula in a time defined by complexity, change, and global challenge.

Pratt alumni members of TYTHEdesign, in collaboration with the non-profit Sustainable South Bronx, were also awarded a Core77 2012 Design Award — Professional Runner Up in the Educational Initiatives category for their work on the FABLAB Education Program, an after-school program to teach job and life skills focusing on sustainability and business basics through the lens of design. TYTHEdesign was founded by Pratt industrial design alumna and social entrepreneur Kris Drury.

Additionally, recent Pratt industrial design graduate Jason Hu received a Core77 2012 Design Award — Student Notable in the Packaging category for his Avex Male Contraceptive design, which was part of his Pratt thesis. The contraceptive imagines the future of oral contraceptives for men and explores its cultural and functional dimensions.