Ostrava awarded for the top presentation about the environment
Candidate for European Green Capital 2020
Ostrava with its presentation of environmental information is at the head of Czech cities. On 18 January 2018, results of the seventh year of the Green to Information contest for the best environmental presentation on official websites of Czech cities was festively announced at the headquarters of SKANSKA, a.s. in Prague-Karlín.
In the competition of 254 judged candidates, Ostrava placed second in the Green to Information contest. Svitavy won this year, beating Ostrava by two tenths of a percentage point. That is, Svitavy became a Mover of the Year. The contest has been held since 2010; this was Ostrava’s third success with its environmental presentation. In 2014 and 2016, Ostrava placed 1st (with the contribution of a point bonus for annual advancement in the total ranking).
“I am pleased with the jury’s decision, by which it confirmed that our approach to presenting specific environmental topics was correct. We put all the information about the environment, which used to be scattered in several internet presentations, on one ekoweb. My priority was to have a modern bilingual responsive web where the people interested could find all “green” information well arranged. Our consistent work, which was acknowledged by the judges, is by far not over. We will keep updating the web and adding new topics. I am very glad that we got the highest point score of all cities with the population over 5,000,” said the Deputy Mayor Kateřina Šebestová.
Although Ostrava’s ecowebsite had the highest point score in the scored categories, ironically, it was not enough for the first place. The first place was lost due to a bonus for interannual advancement in ranking – from the Best Mover of the Year category – which, because of the 1st place the year before, Ostrava could not get. With only two hundredths of a point Ostrava placed second behind Svitavy, which got a bonus of 0.35 points, but Ostrava was the only one of the previous year’s winners to have defended a medal position. The city of Tábor placed third.
The award for Ostrava was commented on behalf of judges by Miroslav Lupač from the Koniklec Agency:
“Ostrava’s web presentation surprised all the judges with its unique concept, which was different from any other website in the Czech Republic. The city used its potential and showed that it was a duly justified candidate for the European Green Capital 2020. Only thanks to bonuses for advancement did Svitavy get in front of Ostrava. Apart from that, the special jury considered Ostrava’s website the best.”
On behalf of Ostrava the award was taken over by the Deputy Mayor Kateřina Šebestová and the editor of the czech version of the website Michal Gacka.
A note regarding judging of the Green to Information contest:
In the first part of judging, points in particular judged categories were awarded, maximum total of 5 points. Up to 1.5 points were added to this result for interannual advancement in ranking (for advancement by 1 place 0.05 points were added).