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08 June 2010 The regional office of Valencia has this week been celebrating the success of the Valencian project Zero Plus in receiving an award as one of the best LIFE Environment projects 2009. It was rewarded as one of the five best projects in the ‘waste management’ category along with another project from Spain and projects from Germany, France and Portugal.
Zero Plus worked to improve the galvanic processes and surface treatment industries by reducing polluting industrial waste. It set up an integrated liquid waste management model for surface treatment industries carrying out highly polluting activities. This project approached zero discharge from the productive chain by reducing the consumption of water through Best Available Techniques (BATs) in galvanic processes.
The project received its award along with the other selected LIFE projects on 2nd June, during Green Week - the biggest European annual event regarding environmental issues. The Director General of the Valencian Regional Office in Brussels, Mr. Juan Manuel Revuelta, picked up the prize on behalf of the beneficiary, the Metal-processing Technology Institute (AIMME).
Speaking during the ceremony in the Charlemagne building of the European Commission - head office to the Directorates General for Trade, External Relations and Enlargement - Mr Revuelta said: “it is a great honour to pick up this prize on behalf of AIMME because this is the second time that the European Commission has awarded the work carried out by this Institute.” UrbanBAT (LIFE03 ENV/E/000160) also won a Best LIFE project award in 2004. It reduced the pollution generated by the Urban Transport Company (EMT) in Valencia by prolonging the life-span of products and reducing the water consumption of vehicle maintenance.
For more information on the project, please visit the project website or read the project summary (LIFE05 ENV/E/000256)
09 June 2010The winners of the ‘Best LIFE Nature & Biodiversity Projects 2009-2010’ and the “Best LIFE Environment Projects 2008-2009” received their awards at two special awards ceremonies, held in Brussels to coincide with Green Week 2010.
The 23 winning LIFE Nature & Biodiversity projects collected their awards at the recent LIFE Nature and Biodiversity conference. Of the winners, Angelo Salsi, Head of Unit, DG Environment, LIFE Nature Unit, said the top five projects were truly “outstanding” this year. He described their presentations – the project leaders outlined the long-term and sustainable impacts of their projects at the conference – as “enlightening”.
In general, most completed LIFE Nature & Biodiversity projects are very good, he said, with only a few failing to meet their objectives. However, five winners stood out (in alphabetical order):
Hervé Martin, the LIFE Environment and Eco-innovation Head of Unit, presented the awards for the winners of the 23 best LIFE Environment projects, held on 2 June. He praised the “high quality” of all the winning projects, congratulating in particular, the five top projects:
More information on all the winners will be published shortly, see the June 2010 edition of LIFEnews. Two new brochures: ‘Best LIFE Environment Projects 2009-2010’ and ‘Best LIFE Nature & Biodiversity projects 2009-2010’ will be published in the autumn.
See also:
And the 'Best Projects' section of the LIFE website (with links to project web summaries websites and layman’s reports).
High-resolution pictures of the events will soon be available on the 'Best Projects' Nature and Biodiversity and Environment and Eco-innovation pages.
28 June 2010The Italian Ministry of Environment is featuring a “Project of the Month” on its website to promote the LIFE+ programme. The initiative, which was launched in Rome in March 2010, aims to boost the dissemination of ongoing LIFE+ projects.
The initiative will help publicise the key messages, methods, techniques and best practices that the projects are developing under the LIFE+ programme and thereby enhance the transferability of knowledge and the potential replication of results. It will also encourage stakeholders to apply the lessons learnt by the projects.
The area of the website dedicated to the “Project of the Month” provides updated information on relevant activities, achievements and results of projects, while an “in primo piano” (in the forefront) area reports on relevant public events organised by the beneficiaries of LIFE+ projects.
Beneficiaries are invited to provide news, explanations of their project’s actions and aims, and illustrative material (e.g. brochures, photos, videos, presentations, logos and links) at the following email address: lifeplus@minambiente.it
For more information on this initiative, please see the Italian Ministry of Environment website.
29 June 2010The conference "LIFE Nature and Biodiversity – preparing the future" took place in Brussels on 31 May and 1 June 2010. It had about 350 participants who discussed in a very open manner the future of LIFE+ - Nature and Biodiversity, both in terms of what can still be done under the current LIFE+ Regulation and of the way in which a future Regulation might be structured.
A summary note including some key ideas that obtained a certain degree of consensus among the participants is now available for download.