The Commission announced the winners of the 1st European Sustainability Award
On Monday (8 April 2019), the European Commission announced the 7 winners of the 1st European Sustainability Award at the European Political and Strategic Centre (EPSC) conference ‘Sustainable Europe 2030: from goals to delivery‘ with the participation of First Vice-President Frans Timmermans and Vice-President Jyrki Katainen.
The Commission handed seven awards for seven creative and inspiring stories of European people, businesses and organisations who work towards contributing to the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development on its three main dimensions: environmental, economic and social. This year’s Award focused in particular on « empowering people and ensuring inclusiveness and equality », the theme adopted for the 2019 UN High Level Political Forum.
The winners are:
- ‘Ghajn – Malta National Water Conservation Awareness Centre’, by the Energy and Water Agency (Malta), in the category Subnational legal public entities reaching a population above 100,000 individuals
- ‘The Development and Sustainability Agenda and the barkraft.ax Initiative’ by the Government of Åland (Finland), in the category Subnational legal public entities reaching a population below 100,000 individuals
- ‘WorkShop Ricostruzione’ by Mario Cucinella Architects (Italy), in the category Small and medium-sized enterprises
- ‘EcoFarm at PAPREC Agro’ by PAPREC Group (France), in the category Large enterprises
- ‘In action for a better world’ by Quality Net Work (Greece), in the category Civil society/Non-profit organisations projects inside the EU
- ‘GoTeach’ by SOS Children’s Villages International (Austria), in the category Civil society/ Non-profit organisations projects outside the EU
- ‘Green steps’ by Teatro Metaphora (Portugal), in the category Youth organisations
For the 2019 awards, the call for submissions opened in June 2018 and closed in September. It was first presented in the Commission’s Communication on « Next steps for a sustainable European future ». The EU executive received 148 applications from 24 Member States. The theme ‘Empowering people and ensuring inclusiveness and equality’ related to a cluster of SDGs: SDG 4 on quality education, SDG 8 on decent work and economic growth, SDG 10 on reduced inequalities, SDG 13 on climate action, SDG 16 on peace, justice and strong institutions and SDG 17 on partnership for the goals.
The conference was livestreamed.
(Picture: © European Union, 2019)
