The Istanbul Environment Friendly City Award: The winner is............

The Mediterranean coastal city of Ashdod (Israel) has won the Istanbul Environment Friendly City Award. Indeed the Ashdod's application has demonstrated a set of integrated sustainability measures that proved very decisive in the selection process. These measures included energy efficiency, public transport, optimized water management, including the reduction of leakage, and effective waste management combined with the minimization of landfilled waste. The winning city also demostrated its involment in public awareness-raising programmes to encourage citizen action in support of sustainability. Other bold measures include flood risk reduction and coastal protection: only four kilometers of the city’s shoreline is urbanized with a fully implemented setback zone of 100 meters. The coastal area is also continuously monitored for traces of pollution. The city of Ashdod will receive the Award at a ceremony scheduled on 4 December 2019 during the 21st Meeting of the Contracting Parties to the Barcelona Convention (COP21).

The cities of Crikvenica (Croatia) and Hatay (Turkey) took respectively the second and third spot on the podium.

More information: http://bit.ly/winner-IEFCA-2019