Ukraine: EUSEW2020 Awards of “Energy Management Star 2020” Competition

The CoM East team in Ukraine identified one of the priorities of this year’s European Sustainable Energy Week celebration was to mark the efforts and achievements of the city’s “energy crews”. Because they are the right persons who, through daily organizational and practical work, help their communities to achieve the goals of the CO₂ emission reduction set by the Covenant, save energy resources and raise living standards. Thus the idea of the competition “Energy Management Star” was born.

Mayors and/or heads of amalgamated communities (ACs) together with energy managers or city energy management teams were invited to compete for this honorary title. The competition consisted of three stages.

At the first one the participants prepared a short essay (A4 page) on the topic “How measures at the local level can address global climate change challenges” with mandatory references to the municipal SE(C)AP and with the thematic photo “Energy Days Unite the Community”. This phase lasted from June 10 to 17. 

The second stage was held on June 26, 2020. At the beginning Ms. Iryna Stavchuk , the representative of the Covenant National Coordinator – the Deputy Minister of Environment and Natural Resources of Ukraine, welcomed the participants of the contest. In the second stage of the contest took part six of the nearly two dozen competing teams, the contest was held in the form of online debate on “How to cook a Sustainable Energy and Climate Action Plan that promotes clean energy for green renewal and growth”. Chortkiv, Kamyanske and Zhytomyr cities, as well as Dunayevetska, Trostyanetska and Baranivska ACs – the mayor/head of AH and energy manager – had the opportunity to present in a joint 10-minute presentation their insights and positions on the topic of discussion. 

Immediately after determining the winners of the presentation – the teams of Zhytomyr, Chortkiv and Baranivska AС – the final competition took place, in which the answers to the blitz questions of the jury were given by the mayors themselves (they had no more than 1 minute to think). All finalists were very strong, so for the jury, which included representatives of the EU Delegation to Ukraine, GIZ, experts from the EU projects “Covenant of Mayors East” and “Covenant of Mayors – Demonstration Projects”, as well as representatives of national coordinators of the Covenant in Ukraine, it was not easy to appoint the best of the finalists. 

After a long discussion, the team of Zhytomyr was determined as the winner and gained a valuable prize – a bicycle. Teams-finalists from Ternopil and Chortkiv, as well as from Dunayevetska and Trostyanetska ACs got vouchers for planting trees, and Baranivka’s team was awarded with a device for conducting express-energy audits.