Green Star Awards nominations are open

The 27th of June saw the launch of nominations for the 2017 Green Star Awards, a joint initiative of Green Cross, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

The Green Star Awards recognize outstanding individuals or organisations that have made remarkable efforts to prevent, prepare for, and respond to environmental emergencies – as well as to integrate environment with humanitarian action across the world.

Environmental emergencies are disasters (such as industrial accidents, earthquakes, or conflicts) where there is both severe environmental damage as well as harm to human health and/or livelihoods.

The 2015 Green Star Awardees selected by the jury included the three following laureates:

In the ‘Prevention & Preparedness’ category

• Ambatovy (Private company, Madagascar), for effectively preventing environmental emergencies and reducing disaster risk through removal of chemical hazards in Toamasina, Madagascar.

In the ‘Response’ category

• CEDRE – Centre of Documentation, Research and Experimentation on Accidental Water Pollution (Organisation, France), for its deployment of experts and technical advice to field response missions in the Philippines in 2013 and Bangladesh in 2014.

In the ‘Environment and Humanitarian Action’ category

• Women’s Refugee Commission (Organisation, USA), for spearheading and implementing the Safe Access to Fuel and Energy (SAFE) Initiative and producing the first-ever guidance on safe access to energy in humanitarian settings.

For more information, go to greenstarawards.net