The accepting of application forms for the Award “Green Project of Year - 2021” will end on June 30. However, even now we can talk about the diversity of initiatives and projects presented for the award and the significant contribution of various Russian companies and organizations to the implementation of sustainable development goals, responsible use and conservation of forest resources in our country.

“14 of the 17 UN SDGs are directly presented in the FSC standards, and this gave us the opportunity to expand the range of topics and participants in this year's award – besides the forest companies, the organizations from other sectors of the economy that contribute to the conservation, restoration and rational use of forests can participate. The accepting of application forms for the award will last for another two weeks, and we would like to see among the projects presented, even more initiatives representing partner projects with the participation of government authorities, scientific and educational organizations, NGOs and business - these are the projects that demonstrate the most effective efforts of various stakeholders in achieving the UN SDGs,” - says Nikolay Shmatkov, Director of FSC Russia, co-chairman of the award jury.

The inclusion of responsible forest management into the UN Sustainable Development Goals was one of the highlights of award this year. Moreover, this is no coincidence. The Sustainable Development Goals are a universal call for action to protect our planet, improve the quality of life and improve the prospects for people around the world. These 17 Goals were accepted by all UN member states in 2015 as part of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which sets out a 15-year plan to achieve them.

Some progress is currently being observed in many areas. However, according to experts, in general, actions to implement the Goals have not yet reached the required pace and scale. A decade of decisive action to achieve the 2030 Goals is announced in 2020. The audit of the achieved results in sustainable development, the exchange of experience, the learning of lessons and the optimization of the efforts of various stakeholders in the achievement of the UN SDGs is now being observed in Russia, and has affected all levels and lines of society.

A significant contribution to the implementation of the UN SDGs is demonstrated by the projects presented in the social category of the award. These projects solve a wide range of socially significant tasks, including such as improving working conditions and developing measures against COVID-19 among employees of forestry enterprises, developing partnerships with local communities, providing support for socially significant citizens initiatives, as well as financial assistance to socially disadvantaged categories of citizens.

“Competition of social initiatives “4D: Give a Good to Each Other”- a project of the Arkhangelsk PPM contributes to the achievement of SDG 17 and is aimed at creating partnerships at the regional and local levels between business and the local population.

Its goal is social and financial support for citizens initiatives. The competition procedure promotes competition of public initiatives.

The "4D" competition is primarily for people with an active life position who invest their soul and personal time in promoting socially significant ideas.

The participants of this program get the chance to test their project ideas, get recommendations from experts and colleagues. During the implementation of the program, new project teams and proposals appear.

Over the four years of the project's existence, 174 social initiatives have been supported and implemented. More than 17 thousand people took part in the implementation of the projects.

Providers and partners of the "Green Project of the Year - 2021" Award

The provider of the award: FSC Russia (Forest Stewardship Council).

One of the general partners: Titan Group of Companies

Partners: Association "Woodcutter of the XXI century".

Media partners: Lesprom Network, LesPromInform, Forest Industry, LPK Siberia, WWF Russia (in the environmental category), Forest Volunteers platform, Recycle, Business and Society, Natur Product.