BEST ENVIRONMENTAL PRACTISE IN BALTIC CITIES AWARD 1999
On the 25th of September in Stockholm, in the Noble Prize Dinner Hall, on the occasion of the V General Conference, one of the UBC member cities will receive the very first Best Environmental Practise in Baltic Cities Award.
 Before that glorious moment, this city will have done something very good and exemplary in its daily work for the good of its citizens, something that all the other cities can learn from.
At the moment, maybe more than ever before, the Baltic cities are facing many new challenges and developments and every year numerous decisions are being made, which strongly affect our common environment and the well-being of the citizens. Many of the practises arising from these decisions give excellent support to reaching sustainable development at the local level. The Award has been initiated by the Commission on Environment for distributing information about these solutions.
The Best Environmental Practise in Baltic Cities Award 1999 will be given as a honorary award (trophy) to one of the UBC member cities. The intention with this award is to encourage member cities to develop their administration and services in innovative ways for the good of the whole municipality and its citizens.
The Commission on Environment is calling for innovative practises which have been developed and/or implemented by city administrations to meet local needs. The intention is not to look for the absolutely best management schemes, but to look for innovative practises which support well local sustainable development and environmental
management. This approach should mean that each UBC member city basically has similar chances for winning the award.
The deadline for applications is 1 September. Further information can be obtained from the Commission on Environment Secretariat and from the UBC web-pages.
(ubcenv@netti.fi, www.ubc.net)
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2000 PAN- EUROPEAN CONFERENCE ON SUSTAINABLE CITIES
The Baltic Local Agenda 21 -Health and Sustainable Cities Conference, the Turku Conference (September 1998), and the three other regional European Sustainable Cities and Towns conferences will be followed by a new Pan-European Conference in February 2000. This Conference will be organised in Hannover, Germany. The UBC Board City Turku has been invited to take part in the Steering Committee and the UBC may become one of the endorsers of this major European Millennium event in the field of sustainable development in cities. Development in the Baltic Sea Region will be one of the topics of the conference.
With a whole range of different events that allow intensive exchange of ideas, learning, networking and creating new partnerships, the Hannover Conference 2000 will build upon and widen the European movement of Sustainable Cities and Towns. Special emphasis will be on gaining new partners from all policy levels, from the social and economic sector as much as from the environment movement and, geographically, especially from CEE countries.
To make the Conference a success, YOUR involvement is needed. The first Announcement, that will be send out in June to around 7000 addresses, will include a call that allows you to offer your active participation in the conference.
If you would like to be included in the mailing list, if you want to actively participate in the Conference or if you have any suggestions or questions, please do not hesitate to contact the organisers. Let's learn together from the lessons of the past and prepare for the next decade!
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NEW MEAS AGAIN!
The UBC Commission on Environment has received a new positive funding decision for MEAs from the Nordic Ministers Council. The decision allocates DKK 215. 000 for continuing the work in Lithuania by starting a couple of new MEAs in a group of smaller cities in co-operation with the ECAT-Lithuania. ECAT-LT is currently carrying out a feasibility study, and the new cities will be decided on the basis of the results of this study.
The MEA model is specifically planned for the cities in the Baltic Sea Region. It comprises a thorough analysis of the environmental effects and performance of the whole municipal administration of the target city, and provides a good tool for further development. However, the intention with this model is not to carry out a formal EMAS, but to help the cities to evaluate and organise their environmental work. The model utilises co-operation between partner cities (UBC members, twin cities, etc. ). Municipal Environmental Auditing requires a solid commitment from the implementing municipality.
In the first phase a local project team and an international auditing team will be created. The local team starts the collection of data after a short training. The collecting phase requires a period of about three months. After that, the auditing team analyses the data and compiles reports on different sectors. The sectoral reports are then combined, and the results are validated and communicated back to the municipality as basis for improvements.
At the moment there are on-going MEAs in Panevėžys and Klaipėda in Lithuania, in Pärnu in Estonia, and in Turku and Pori in Finland. The model is available to all cities, not only to UBC members. All interested are most welcome to contact the UBC Commission on Environment for further information.
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