Green Project Awards presented today in Porto will come back in 2018

GCI, in partnership with the Portuguese Environment Agency and Quercus, has established a Prize for the recognition of good practices in projects that amplify the sustainability agenda to business, organisations and civil society.

Thus, the Green Project Awards promote sustainable development initiatives, which challenge business to embed sustainability at its heart helping create sustainable movements of citizens and companies.

The awards ceremony for the ninth edition of the Green Project Awards was held today in Porto, at the Serralves Foundation, in a joint organization by the Green Project Awards (GPA), Porto City Hall and Lipor. The prizes announced today herald the national entities that have most significantly contributed to the country's sustainable development.

The organization announced that the 10th edition of the event will also be held in Porto, and the existing categories will be reorganised and a new category is to be added, the Personality Prize.

For Rui Moreira, Mayor of Porto, the fact that this event takes place in the city, for the first time in 10 years, is due to the fact that "Porto is establishing itself as fully-fledged national reference, a decisive and inspiring city in the context of sustainability".

And the mayor pointed out several examples, starting with the "ambitious way in which the City Hall is converting its fleet and fostering electric mobility", or how "innovation is used to improve its citizens' lives," or even the way the city is "reusing and bringing to the surface supply water lines, adopting a new concept and integrated management of the urban water cycle, "but also "shifting the paradigm in the area of waste", "conserving its historic gardens "or" building a Green structure for future generations".

The Mayor of Porto highlighted the latest commitment of the municipality to "plant 10 thousand native trees during the next 10 years, distributed along the city's main roads". 

"We are also involving citizens and organizations, by offering another 10,000 trees, for planting in private spaces," said Rui Moreira. "Porto is taking on its role and its share of responsibility in guaranteeing a sustainable future for generations to come", underlined the Mayor.

More than a hundred projects have been awarded in Portugal in more than a thousand applications received, for the past nine editions.

In the 2016 edition, the GPA awarded the following categories: agriculture, sea and tourism, Information technology; Product or service; Mobilization Initiative - SIC News; Investigation and development; Efficient resource management; Young initiative; Sustainable consumption; Prize Original written work Green Project Awards - Sociedade Ponto Verde.