The winners of the XNUMXth edition of the Clean Environment Awards Gala were awarded in a festive setting

Bucharest, December 18

The award ceremony took place on Friday, December 15 Awards for a Clean Environment from the Gala's fifteenth anniversary edition. The winners were appointed in the presence of representatives of public authorities, companies and NGOs involved in the field of environmental protection.

The anniversary edition of the Awards Gala for a Clean Environment marks the achievement of 780 projects entered in the competition by public institutions, education, companies and NGOs in the 15 years of deployment.

In this year's edition, the jury made up of representatives of Ministry of Environment, Waters and Forests, Info Cons, Embassy of Sustainability in Romania, Coalition for the Circular Economy and Hotnews they judged the 80 projects registered and nominated winners in the following categories:

ENVIRONMENTAL PROJECTS

WATCH MOINESTI MUNICIPALITY with the project Together for ENVIRONMENT – MOINESTI 2023-2025

UAT Moinești has two projects in the execution stage: "Modernization of the integrated urban mobility corridor in the central area of ​​the municipality" and "Extending the network of bicycle paths and redevelopment of the sidewalks on Mihai Eminescu, George Coșbuc and Căpitan Zăgănescu str.", which assume redevelopment of green spaces, blocks of flats, landscaping with paving, public lighting system, video surveillance, arrangement of bicycle stations, minibuses, modernization of pedestrian spaces, construction of rainwater channels, installation of video monitoring system on the streets.

Through the actions developed locally by the local public authority, about 2.200 km were no longer traveled by car, about 400 kg of CO2 were saved, over 14.000 tons of WEEE, 11.000 kg of paper were collected, 10.000 trees were planted and about 900 adopted, more than 10.000 square meters of degraded land were planted, about 25 ha of plantation land was maintained and ensured, a new urban forest was established.

National Organization Scouts of Romania with the project Future through action

The "Future through Action" project aims to stimulate active participation in the decision-making process at the local and regional level in Romania regarding the 2030 Agenda by increasing the degree of active responsibility of young people, youth leaders and teachers in Romania regarding sustainability and climate change. This goal will be achieved by forming an active network of 44 trainers (teachers and youth leaders) in non-formal education focused on the development of global citizenship skills that will develop specific skills among 1200 young people cu ages between 15 and 30 from 16 localities in Romania. These young people, together with trainers, will be equipped to develop citizen participation activities and contribute to the project's advocacy actions aimed at influencing the way the 2030 agenda implementation strategy is implemented by the authorities in the 16 target localities.

 

Cluj Regional Food Bank Association with the project Banca Pentru Alimente Cluj

The project involves picking up short-expiration goods from partner economic agents, sorting and distributing them immediately to the network of beneficiary NGOs. Through this project, good consumer food is saved from waste, thus having a positive impact on the environment by valorizing some food and by reducing greenhouse gases because they no longer end up in the trash. On the other hand, it contributes to feeding people in need, having a positive impact in reducing poverty, Romania currently having the highest share of people exposed to the risk of poverty and social exclusion (34.4%). Between January and August 2023, 563 tons of food were collected, which translates into 1.126.146 portions of food.

 

The SPECIAL PRIZE dedicated to EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS was awarded Western University

Event "Green Moon at UVT" was a large event dedicated to the awareness and promotion of sustainable development and environmental protection, held between May 6 and June 5. This initiative, reaching its second edition in 2023, included over 23 events focused on educating and mobilizing participants towards more responsible and sustainable behavior. Starting with preparatory actions, such as the UNITA Green Mobilities Ideathon & Hackathon, which encouraged innovation in sustainable mobility and the promotion of cycling as a means of daily transport, and guided tours in UVT Urban Garden, who informed primary school students about the importance of urban gardens in the vicinity of their homes or schools, the event was full of creative and educational initiatives.

SPECIAL AWARD dedicated to JOURNALISTS it was offered to 2 journalists:

Ramona Șintea, Senior Correspondent at PRO TV News

Ramona has 22 years of journalistic experience, has been doing investigative journalism for 6 years, now being part of the team Inspector PRO, the youngest investigative journalist team from Știrile PRO TV.

Alina-Elena Vasiliu, journalist Ziarul Financiar

Alina coordinates the column at Ziarul financier green economy, a series of shows, articles and video conferences on topics related to the environment and sustainability. Through interviews, reports, analyzes and discussions with people from all fields, the Green Economy project aims to translate new concepts related to circularity and ESG to the understanding of the followers and to identify the border between what is "green" and what is "greenwashing".

 

BEST OF SPECIAL AWARD – Recycling map, a Viitor Plus project

The recycling map is a complex information and awareness platform. Thus, in addition to the actual map, the website also includes educational articles on waste recycling and separate collection rules. From the relaunch until now, the site www.hartareciclarii.ro had over 850.000 unique users.

 

During the Gala, ECOTIC also awarded the successful partnerships of 2023 by awarding diplomas to:

• Altex Romania for the greatest contribution to the collection of electrical waste in Romania in 2023;
• Carrefour Romania, RETIM Timisoara, Salubris Iași, United Waste Solutions for the contribution to the collection of electrical waste in Romania in 2023;
• Mega Image for the contribution to the separate collection of used batteries;
• Greenweee International for contributing to the collection and recycling of electrical waste in 2023;
• InfoCons for involvement in the promotion of electrical waste collection points through the Info Cons application;
• Workshops Without Borders for the contribution made to the circular economy in Romania in 2023.

The XNUMXth edition of Clean Environment Awards Gala was supported by: Ministry of Environment, Waters and Forests; Info Cons; Embassy of Sustainability in Romania; Coalition for Circular Economy; Union of Professional Journalists from Romania; APDETIC; ECSR.ro; Radio Romania Cultural; RFI Romania; EventsMax and Hotnews.