As of this week, cities – C40 and otherwise – have submitted dozens of projects for consideration to win top prizes at the fourth annual C40 Awards, taking place this December in Mexico City, alongside the C40 Mayors Summit.
But there’s still time to get involved! Applications are open until June 24 – here are five reasons why you should apply (or nominate a project!) today:
1. Your city is probably already working on some groundbreaking projects and it’s time to get noticed for them! At last count, C40 cities alone were taking more than 10,000 actions to tackle climate change and increase urban resilience. That means a significant number of innovative and sustainable actions are being taken around the world – we want to hear about them!
2. Don’t think your city will take home a top prize? That’s ok – there are a total of three chances for your city to get global recognition. 100 solutions will be featured in a 2016 Cities100 publication, developed in partnership with Sustainia and Realdania; from this group, 30 cities will be selected as C40 Cities Awards finalists, of which 10 will be announced as winners.
3. There is a new Awards category dedicated to Social Equity and Climate Change. Is your city doing great things to alleviate social injustices relating to climate change and its impacts? Projects from this new category will integrate equity considerations into climate action to maximize social, environmental and economic benefits or minimize climate risks for disadvantaged communities.
4. Join the ranks of the most legendary urban sustainability projects. Past winners of the C40 Awards have included projects from Cape Town, Rotterdam, Vancouver, New York City, Wuhan, and Boston. For a full list of 2015’s winning cities and their projects, click here. Winning cities will be announced on a global stage at an official awards ceremony in Mexico City on December 1, where C40 mayors and hundreds of urban and sustainability leaders from all over the world will come together to recognize the good work that is being done. C40 is all about ideas sharing – what better way than to learn from the best and the brightest?
5. Get global coverage of your sustainability achievements on a world stage. Check out some of the fantastic media coverage previous Award winners have received: Huffington Post, CitiesToday, DCist, The Guardian, eco-business.com.
The deadline for the 2016 C40 Cities Awards has been extended to June 24, 2016. To apply or find out more, click here.