- The EuroIndia Environmentally Sustainable City Award (ESCA) is an international award instituted by the EuroIndia Centre and supported by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) with its focus on progressively promoting higher standards of sustainable development in cities located in Europe and India.
- The ESCA is intended to be awarded to one European and one Indian City along with their "Partner" every year.
- The "Partner" can be a company, public authority, academic or research institution, NGO or environmental Expert. The "Partner" of the City must be named at the time that the City fills the application form(s) for being considered for the ESCA. A City applying for the ESCA can only name one "Partner." The Partner is expected to participate in the process of presentation of the City s entry.
- The City winning the ESCA (one European and one Indian City) will be awarded a beautiful trophy along with an elegantly framed citation and a similar trophy and citation will be presented to the "Partner" named by the City.
- The ESCA will be adjudged by an independent international Jury of five eminent environmentalists.
- Only cities with a population of 100,000 or above can apply for the ESCA.
- The entry application for each City aiming to win the ESCA consists of two forms:
- Form A relates to General Information
- Form B relates to Technical Information
Both forms, duly filled, by a City aiming to win the ESCA must be submitted on or before the stipulated date for submission of forms in duplicate along with required supporting documents.
- Entries by European cities are to be couriered to: 7 rue de la Grosse Horloge, 17000 La Rochelle, France
- Entries by Indian cities are to be couriered to : D-41, Paschimi Marg, Vasant Vihar, New Delhi – 110057, India
- European cities will compete amongst themselves for the ESCA just as Indian Cities will compete amongst themselves for the said Award. This entails awarding a maximum of four ESCAs.
- 2 for the award-winning European City and its "Partner" organization/environmental expert.
- 2 for the award-winning Indian City and its "Partner" organization / environmental expert.
- The ESCA is intended to be given to one City of Europe and its duly named Partner and one City of India and its duly named Partner on an annual basis. However, in case the International Jury feels that no entry is of the requisite quality, the Award for either of the two territorial jurisdictions can be withheld for any given year.
- All five members of the International Jury will be involved in adjudicating entries for both European and Indian Cities. In case, the International Jury feels that field visits of select Cities is essential for reaching a just adjudication, the Indian Jurors will visit select Indian Cities and the European jurors will visit select European cities. Cities applying for the ESCA may be required to send PowerPoint presentations by email and give clarifications through video conferencing.
- All the General and Technical Information provided by a City applying for the ESCA will be kept confidential. However, some commendable features relating to the “Sustainable Development” of the Award-winning Cities will be included in the framed citation to be presented to them along with a trophy with the concurrence of the said Cities.
- The international jury consisting of five members will strive for unanimity amongst themselves in the process of adjudication but in case of a potential tie between two competing Cities, the adjudication will be finalized by majority vote.
- The ESCA will be presented every year at the EuroIndia Summit organized by the EuroIndia Centre and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in a select European or Indian city. The ESCA will be presented to the winning cities by an eminent person from the fields of environment, governance, academia, science or social at a glittering ceremony during the EuroIndia Summit with appropriate media coverage.
- Entries of both European and Indian Cities for the ESCA will be adjudged on the basis of the Environmentally Sustainable City Index (ESCI) developed by Dr. Harjit Singh Anand. The ESCI has been developed keeping in view the critical significance of the five Elements of Existence from which life on this Planet is deemed to have been created: Air, Water, Energy, Sky and Earth. The ESCI is a holistic configuration and seeks to give equal importance to each of the five Elements in the context of “Sustainable Development.”
- The ESCI consists of five evaluative groups and two parameters under each group. The five groups and ten parameters are given below:
- Air related
- Ambient air quality in the City
- Intra-city transport modes and dedicated jogging/cycling tracks vis-à-vis roads/streets length in the context of impact on ambient air quality
- Water related
- Water supply, rain water harvesting & dual piping system for water recycling in buildings
- Sewerage, industrial effluents & storm water drainage
- Energy (or "Fire by mythological connotation) related
- Power generation & energy management
- Motor vehicles
- Space ("Sky/Ether by mythological connotation) related
- Green areas promoting photosynthesis in the City
- Emissions into the sky
- Earth related
- Built-up environment & solid waste management
- Regional planning & the urban-rural continuum
- Three indicators are subsumed under each of the aforementioned 10 parameters of the ESCI (refer to the ESCI). Each City applying for the ESCA must give data covering a four year period for at least 2 indicators under each parameter. However, it will be appreciated in case a City provides data on all the indicators. In case, a given City provides technical information on all the thirty indicators, its two best Indicators under each parameter will be considered for purposes of adjudication.
- In case a City does not have information on any given indicator, it can provide information on a "comparable or "related indicator. The said information will be submitted to the international jury for appropriate use in the process of adjudication. This rule has been stipulated to enhance "flexibility in the process of evaluation. Similarly, in the case of some indicators, an alternate option has been given to promote flexibility of the Index.
- Besides technical information on stipulated indicators, each City participating in the ESCA can submit additional information on what it considers as "more advanced indicators. The additional information will be submitted to the international jury for appropriate use in the process of adjudication.
- Technical information on a minimum of 20 Indicators and a maximum of 30 indicators (which form part of the ESCI) is to be submitted in terms of data over a four year period. Similarly, technical information by ESCA applicants on "comparable or related Indicators as well as "Indicators deemed to be more advanced should be submitted in terms of data over a four year period. Data over a four year period has been solicited to enable the independent international jury to ascertain the trend and rate of improvement over a period of time with a view to examining "the process and commitment factors in evaluation.
- Technical information submitted by any City applying for the ESCA should preferably indicate the public authority from which the data/information has been sourced, Third party authenticating the data or give the analysis sheets indicating the presumptions and method of calculating the information provided. The illustration of data sourced from an Indian public authority pertains to data regularly collected and processed for 127 cities in India under the national air quality monitoring programme (NAMP) project being implemented by the Ministry for Environment & Forests. A key table is provided by the Ministry on its website (http://cpcb.nic.in/air.php).
- Information submitted by ESCA Applicants on the five evaluative groups of Air, Water, Energy, Sky and Earth and the parameters there under will constitute the generic aspect of assessment and the innovative project submitted (by each applicant) will constitute the specialized aspect of assessment. The ratio of marks allotted to the generic aspect vis-a-vis the specialized aspect will be 2:1.
- The specialized aspect refers to a chosen project submitted by the City showcasing its resolve towards improving the environmental sustainability of the City. The Environmentally Sustainable City Index (ESCI) is to be constructively applied to the successfully implemented project of each ESCA applicant at two points of time: before and after the successful implementation of the project.
- Whereas the generic aspect of Assessment is meant to emphasize "quantitative as well as "holistic orientation, the specialized aspect of assessment is meant to emphasize "qualitative as well as "pro-active orientation in the process of adjudication.
- Cities applying for the ESCA must get both Part A and Part B of the application form duly signed: the former by the Mayor / Chief Councillor / Elected Head and the latter by the Administrative / Technical CEO of the Municipal Body.
|