GREEN STAR AWARDS 2017

Deadline for submissions: 30 April 2017

The Green Star Awards recognize outstanding individuals or organisations that have made remarkable efforts to prevent, prepare for, and respond to environmental emergencies – as well as to integrate environment with humanitarian action across the world.

Environmental emergencies are disasters (such as industrial accidents, earthquakes, or conflicts) where there is both severe environmental damage as well as harm to human health and/or livelihoods.

The biennial Green Star Awards, first presented in 2009, are a collaborative initiative between the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), Green Cross International (GCI), and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

Governments, organizations, companies and individuals may nominate themselves. Only complete nominations should be considered.

Award Categories

• Prevention and Preparedness: The efforts to increase awareness of communities, disaster responders, governments and industries on the impacts of environmental emergencies, to prevent environmental emergencies, and to improve preparedness for future disasters by building capacity at various levels.

• Response: The efforts to ensure that effective and timely responses are provided in case of environmental emergency.

• Environment and Humanitarian Actions: The efforts to consider environmental issues as part of a holistic response effort, by ensuring that environmental considerations are duly integrated in the humanitarian programme cycle – including strategy development, contingency planning, resource mobilization, performance monitoring and evaluation.

Criteria

Prevention and Preparedness

• Played a critical role in preventing or preparing for future environmental emergencies through effective advocacy efforts;
• Demonstrated strong support to developing national and regional capacities to prevent and prepare for environmental emergencies;
• Manifested outstanding achievement in capacity-building missions for prevention and preparedness;
• Demonstrated effective development of education and training courses on environmental emergencies.

Response

• Demonstrated exemplary leadership and/or substantial support in response to one or more environmental emergencies;
• Demonstrated outstanding results in coordinating response to one or more environmental emergencies;
• Proven record in building regional, national or community response capacities.

Environment and Humanitarian Actions

• Proven record in integrating environmental issues into decision-making and into the relevant stages/cycles of humanitarian response;
• Demonstrated marked improvement in consideration of environmental issues in humanitarian action based on lessons learned and best practices;
• Demonstrated effective leadership in awareness-raising on environmental issues in humanitarian action;
• Demonstrated creative solutions or innovations in the area of environment in humanitarian actions.

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