Climate and energy transition

Making your city or town a more sustainable and environmentally-friendly place is good for the planet, your citizens’ quality of life and your city’s attractiveness. On top of that, it could also help you win one of the EU’s prestigious environmental awards – The European Green Leaf Award (EGLA). This competition is aimed at smaller European towns and cities with 20,000 – 100,000 inhabitants who are committed to moving towards better environmental management and outcomes. For the first time ever, this year, the winner will receive a financial incentive of €75,000 in order to help kick-start their environmental programmes in their city.

The European Commission’s initiative is a way to not only celebrate smaller towns and cities that are creating sustainable environments, but also as a way to demonstrate that all cities and towns, no matter what size, can contribute to improving their citizens’ quality of life.

You can enter the competition for the European Green Leaf Award (EGLA) until 18 October 2017.

Even if you don’t win, just applying for these awards can be very beneficial. Many applicant and winning cities have noted that the application process itself can help you evaluate your city’s environmental progress and as a benchmarking tool against their peers.

The municipality of Torres Vedras, in Portugal, won the EGLA in 2015. Their Head of urban space management, Sandra Pedro, made the following statement: “We found this self-assessment on our performance so important that even if we had not won the EGLA 2015 it was a very worthwhile process. This opportunity is very important for smaller Municipalities, like Torres Vedras, to get international recognition for their environmental performance.”

If you are interested in applying, please register your interest here or for any questions, please contact info@europeangreenleaf.eu.