The director general of Quality and Environmental Assessment and Natural Environment, Guillermina Yanguas, today presented the awards of the IV Edition of the Awards of the Spanish Week of Sustainable Mobility (SEMS-2014), Framed in the initiatives programmed for the European Sustainable Mobility Week, organised by the European Commission, and coordinated by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and the Environment.
His objective is recognize the Best initiatives that promote sustainable mobility carried out by City Councils (Award for the Best Permanent Measures) and by Companies, Organizations and Entities (Award for Best Practices).
During an event held at the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and the Environment, the Director General of Traffic, María Seguí, and the Director General of Land Transport, Joaquín del Moral, participated in the presentation of these awards.
The 2014 edition has had as a novelty the inclusion of a new category that rewards the media through works that contribute to the dissemination of sustainable mobility and that have been published after September 22, 2012.
Likewise, another novelty of this year’s edition is the division of the Award for the Best Permanent Measures, aimed at City Councils, into three subcategories depending on the number of inhabitants of the municipalities. Thus, towns with more than 50,000 inhabitants, those with between 3,000 and 50,000 inhabitants and those with less than 3,000 inhabitants, have been able to compete for the award in their specific subcategory.
Another new element of the SEMS-2014 is the award to both City Councils and Companies, Organizations and Entities, which consists of an Accrediting Diploma and the right to use indefinitely the seal indicating the award (gold, silver or bronze) in its category.
WINNERS 2014
The winners were, in the category of City Councils with more than 50,000 inhabitants, with the gold award from the City Council of Salamanca for the “Rescue Me” Project and its continuous effort in improving traffic in the city through an intense international collaboration of excellence, which has also been awarded as one of the best projects of 2013 in Green Week.
La Plata has been awarded to the City Council of Cordoba for its long history and meritorious execution in the promotion of healthy transport habits, with special emphasis on young people and children. And, finally, the Bronze Award has gone to the City Council of Huesca for its intense modification of the urban area and public transport to improve the sustainability of mobility in its city. For its part, for the category of City Councils with less than 50,000 inhabitants, the Elgoibar City Council has received gold for its sustainable mobility strategy and its innovative combined system of bicycle and electric car loans.
The silver award has gone to the City Council of Miajadas (Cáceres) for its solid promotion of the use of bicycles, especially among the young population, and for its commitment to a pedestrian-friendly urban center. Exaequo Bronze Medal for the City Councils of Villamayor (Salamanca) and Peal del Becerro (Jaén).
In the category of Organizations, Institutions and Companies, the Gold Medal has been awarded to the company Corporación Alimentaria Peñasanta (CAPSA FOOD) for its firm commitment to sustainable and profitable mobility, and for the effort made to bring this strategy to all elements of its activity: suppliers, customers and workers. La Plata has gone to SEUR, given its long history and its new cost-effective sustainable mobility measures, as well as for its involvement in international projects of great impact.
While the Bronze has gone to the ‘Associació de Naturalistes de Girona’; for the Girona Cycle Sexy Campaign given the great originality of the initiative to improve the image of the bicycle, for its skill in the development of promotional tools through social networks and for the creation of a large social and citizen mobilization in pursuit of sustainable mobility in its environment.
Finally, and as a novelty, this year a new category has been delivered for Media professionals, for the best published work disseminated in the media to spread the values of mobility sustainable in the years 2012 and/or 2013, to the team of the program ‘Hoy por hoy Zaragoza’, from Radio Zaragoza, Cadena SER; for its section ‘Bike course’ which constitutes an effective and enjoyable approach to the social function of radio, as a means of improving the information of citizens and citizen coexistence in favor of sustainable mobility favoring shared use between pedestrians, cyclists and cars.
