Helsinki Climate Awards recognize actions to slow down climate change

HSY Helsinki Region Environmental Services Authority, in charge of water and waste management in the region, recognizes actions for the climate. HSY calls for proposals on candidates for Helsinki Climate Awards.

The Helsinki region’s cities share a strategy to help slow down climate change. HSY’s Helsinki Climate Awards are meant to recognize players who actively advance the achievement of the region’s targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, either through their own action or by encouraging others to act.

Two awards will be conferred in January 2011, Helsinki Region Climate Award and Climate Junior Award.

The Helsinki Region Climate Award recognizes an individual or organization from the Helsinki region for efforts to reduce carbon footprints and to effect an impact in society. The Climate Junior Award recognizes an individual or a group of individuals under 18 years of age and living in the Helsinki region, awarding novel or progressive ideas and raising awareness.

Proposals on candidates for the awards can be submitted online  (in Finnish only) through November 30, 2010.

HSY organized an invited design competition on the award objects, open for entries from May through September 2011 and targeted at designers and design students. The task was to design an object both reflecting the operations of HSY and illustrating the philosophy of the awards.

The prize was divided between two candidates. The winner of the Helsinki Region Climate Award contest is industrial design student Pasi Kärkkäinen. His design resembles a droplet and symbolizes the impact of actions for the climate. The winners of the Climate Junior Award are designers Marinella Ruusunen and graphics artist Marjukka Savolainen for their “Plant It”, which symbolizes the planting of trees.