South Korean City Songpa for Globe Award

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The South Korean district Songpa wins the Globe Sustainable City Award 2011. The city of Songpa is awarded 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 underline 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 area. “Songpa is an Asian City with a 2000 year long history, as well as recent history of Sport Olympics in 1988, now being a regeneration front runner and pioneering with implementation of many proven initiatives for Innovation for Sustainability, verified by significant metrics, leading to the branding of a Sustainable Eco City. The driving thrust with among others the environmental governance by the Green Songpa Committee with many demonstrated results as Eco Technology, Eco leaders, with the impressive Solar Power plants will justifiably qualify Songpa for the Globe Award. Furthermore here is a summarizing Values Quote from its application: 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…”, the jury states in it’s motivation. 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 high level of innovation of building effective processes between stakeholders is the backbone of the application from Songpa", says jury group Chairman Jan Sturesson, Partner at PwC and Global Leader of Government and Public Service, Sweden, member of World Economic Forum global agenda council of Urbanization. "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 real strong application in this contest. Because the project involving NGO and private industry to support a charitable purpose i.e cheap electricity for the poor etc it was the strongest. The human and social capital approach is critical to keep city dwellers in a harmonious relationship with each other” - emphasises 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 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. The Globe Sustainability Awards have been given out since 2007 in four categories: Sustainable Research, Innovation, Reporting - and since 2009 - Sustainable City. For more information, please contact: Lars-Olle Larsson, Overall Chairman of the Globe Award jury, PwC Sweden, +46-709 29 39 83, lars-olle.larsson@se.pwc.com Alexandra Jansson, Executive Director Globe Award, Globe Forum, Stockholm, Sweden, +46-733 17 53 57, alexandra.jansson@globeforum.com. About Songpa: Songpa has been effectively pursuing the Green Policy with the aim of making their comprehensive environmental vision happen. Trying to become Sustainable Low Carbon & Green Growth Leading City, Songpa has been taking many initiatives, such as: Green Energy, Ecological Urban Environment, recycling of resources, etc. Level of implemented innovations is remarkable as well as short- and long-terms objectives which have been fulfilled by the authorities 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.