On 17 November, within the framework of the Day of the Year of Ecology, the official award ceremony for the National Award ‘ERAECO 2017’ was held at the President Hotel in Moscow. The ceremony saw SUEK win in the ‘Contribution to Ecological Culture’ category. The award was given in recognition of SUEK’s series of large-scale projects in environmental education, in particular for 2017’s staging of the ‘Pristine Russia’ photo festivals in the regions where it has a presence.
The Minister of Natural Resources and Ecology of the Russian Federation, Sergei Donskoy, was also declared a winner in this category.
Additionally, SUEK-Khakasia won the ‘ECO-Management’ award for its ‘Innovative land reclamation methods in enterprises’.
Other winners included Russian Railways, MMK, VTB Bank, national parks, and various state and public organisations.
Since 2013, the National Environmental Award ‘ERAECO’ is given annually for environmental projects implemented in the Russian Federation. The award is organised by the social movement ‘ERAECO’, with support from the Administration of the President of the Russian Federation, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Ecology of the Russian Federation, the Federal Service for Supervision in the Field of Nature Management (Rosprirodnadzor), the Civil Chamber of the Russian Federation, the UNIDO Centre for International Industrial Cooperation in the Russian Federation, and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).
The 2017 Award is given within the framework of the federal programme ‘ECO Projects of Russia’, which seeks to familiarise the public with international, federal, and regional solutions in the fields of environmental protection and waste management in Russia. The contest received more than 167 applications from 57 cities and included entries from major companies, scientific and educational institutions, the media, banks, and environmental organisations.
In 2017, SUEK organised the large-scale photo exhibition ‘Pristine Russia’ in the regions where it has a presence, including the regions of Kemerovo, Murmansk, Transbaikal, Krasnoyarsk, Primorye, Khabarovsk, Buryatia, and Khakasia. In 20 cities and towns across these regions, the exhibition brought together some 100 to 150 of the best works representing the beauty and uniqueness of our country’s diverse nature to have been presented since the exhibition began four years ago. The company provided free admission to the exhibition to encourage as many people as possible to discover the works of leading Russian photographers.