STOCKHOLM, March 28, 2011 − The South Korean district Songpa wins the Globe Sustainable City Award 2011 for excellent sustainable urban development.

The Globe Sustainable City Award is now presented for the third year. The aim of the City Award is to recognize cities and municipalities, which excel in sustainable, urban development, and to set a positive example for others. The general mission of the Globe Sustainability Awards is to highlight and acknowledge particular cases and initiatives within the sustainability arena.

Songpa is an Asian City with a 2000 year-long history, as well as a recent history of Sport Olympics in 1988. It is now becoming a regeneration front-runner as it pioneers with the implementation of many innovations for Sustainability. Songpa employs a suite of significant sustainability metrics, which are branding it as a Sustainable Eco City. Among other indicators, environmental governance by the Green Songpa Committee demonstrates unique leadership.  Along with Eco Technology and Eco Leadership, the impressive Solar Power Plants qualify Songpa for the Globe Award.  Their application states:

“A modern City is not designed simply to facilitate convenience of human life, but to allow people of every group to mingle harmoniously with each other in order to work hard to preserve the environment for the next generations…”.   Aligning with this framing of Songpa’s philosophy of sustainability, the Globe Award jury affirms Songpa’s qualifications to receive the Award.

The competition was strong and the runners-up were such remarkable communities as: Araçuaí in Brazil, Murcia in Spain, São Paulo in Brazil, and Tampere in Finland. “Strong passion for a more sustainable city in combination with a high level of innovation of building effective processes between stakeholders is the backbone of the application from Songpa”, says jury group Chairman Jan Sturesson.

“Songpa has approached sustainability on a grand scale where its success with river restoration has expanded to solar energy production, resulting in completely re-patterning life for its citizens. The strong collaboration between different sectors of society – private, public and NGO – together with a holistic approach in building an environment-friendly solar power plant is a winning concept. Songpa had a really strong application in this contest – not the least of which was because the project involved NGO and private industry in support of a charitable purpose, i.e. cheap electricity for the poor. All of the contenders for the award this year, realized that human and social capital is critical to keep city dwellers in a harmonious relationship with each other”, emphasises Chairman Jan Sturesson.

The prize ceremony will be held virtually at the Globe Forum Sustainability Conference in Stockholm on May 11th. The winner and the jury will co-present the winning project. There will be an online chat after the prize ceremony so anyone who wishes can put forward questions directly to the laureates.

More information about the program is available at: www.globeforum.com/stockholm

The Globe Sustainability Awards have been given out since 2007 in four categories: Sustainable Research, Innovation, Reporting – and since 2009 – Sustainable City.

More information about Globe Award and other winners, is available at the Globe Award Website.

About Songpa:

Songpa has been effectively pursuing Green Policy with the aim of making their comprehensive environmental vision happen. Trying to become a Sustainable Low Carbon & Green Growth Leading City, Songpa has been taking many initiatives, such as: Green Energy, Ecological Urban Environment, recycling of resources, etc.  the level of implemented innovations is remarkable as well as short- and long-terms objectives which have been under way for years. By engaging the residents in implementing the innovative programs and raising public awareness about the environment and fulfilling green governance Songpa has been creating a multi-dimensional sustainable city.

The Jury:
The jury for the Globe Sustainable City Award consists of highly experienced and internationally recognized experts. The overall chairman of all four jury groups is Lars-Olle Larsson, Partner at PwC Sweden.

 

Jan Sturesson – Chairman of the jury, Partner at PwC and Global Leader of Government and Public Service, Sweden member of World Economic Forum Global Agenda Council of Urbanization.

Carlos Arruda – PhD, Chairman of the Unicon, Director of the International Relations and coordinator of the Innovation Center Fundação Dom Cabral (FDC), Brazil

Lawrence Bloom – Deputy Chairman of Noble Cities Plc., Former Chair and Current Member of the World Economic Forum Global Agenda Council on Urban Management, Chairman of the UN Environmental Programme, Green Economy Initiative, sector on Green Cities, Buildings and Transport. and the UK Chair of the Intergovernmental Renewable Energy Organisation

Marilyn Hamilton – PhD, CGA is the founder of Integral City Meshworks Inc. and TDG Global Learning Connections, Canada 

C. S. Kiang – professor, Chairman of Peking University Environment Fund, China

Leif Edvinsson – Adjunct Professor of Intellectual Capital at Lund University, Sweden

Hazem Galal – Globe Award Ambassador, Partner at PwC, Brazil

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Globe Award was founded in 2007 in Sweden by the international business network and marketplace Globe Forum. Globe Award 2011  acknowledges prominent researchers, innovators, cities and companies – from all parts of the world – within four categories Sustainability Research Award, Sustainability Innovation Award, Sustainable City Award and the Sustainability Reporting Award.