On November 19, we held the Green Cities are GREAT conference for the fourth consecutive year. Тhe event was under the patronage of the Mayor of Sofia Vassil Terziev and we also had the pleasure to welcome as a guest speaker Seb Dance, Deputy Mayor of London.
This year we focused on three main angles which cover interaction with government, municipalities and local agencies, sharing know-how from UK cities, and how can the business help in this transition (sharing best practices). Representatives of the municipalities of Stara Zagora, Gabrovo, and Bourgas attended the event, as well as experts from leading municipalities in the UK who shared their knowledge.
The event was opened by BBBA Chair Miroslava Kostadinova. We were delighted to hear welcome notes from Peter Dimitrov, Minister of Environment and Water, H.E. Nathaniel Copsey, British Ambassador to Bulgaria. Vassil Terziev, Mayor of Sofia, also delivered a speech highlighting that the public transport is one of the main priorities of the municipality, the other is the partnership with the construction industry, as it is also a major source of carbon emissions. All highlighted the importance of such forums and the dialogue between business, municipalities and citizens in order to achieve green cities.
Special guest at the conference was the Deputy Mayor of London for Transport, Seb Dance. “London will have the cleanest air of any major city in the world by 2050, and by 2041, 80% of all journeys will be made by public transport, walking or cycling,” he said in his keynote presentation on ”The largest clean air zone in the world: lessons from London”.
Guests had the opportunity to hear presentations by:
- Rebecca Teasdale, Baringa on ” Greening Our Cities: The Importance of Collaboration and Partnerships in the Decarbonisation Journey”;
- Thomas Akkerhuis, Shell on ‘‘Shell’s Energy Security Scenarios with focus on green cities in Bulgaria‘‘;
- Teodor Iliev, MTK on ”Тhe Hydrogen Transition in Urban Transport”
We would like to thank our panel participants and our moderator Alex Daw, Green Buildings Council on the discussion on Urban Planning:
- Nadezhda Bobcheva, Deputy Mayor of Green Systems and Ecology of Sofia
- Tanya Hristova, Mayor of Gabrovo
- Anna-Marie Vilamovska, Business Development Manager, Hewlett Packard Enterprise operated by Selectium
- Chris Halligan, Norse Group
- Pru Ashby, Head of Sustainability, London and Partners
Special thanks our panel participants and our moderator Tim Buisseret, British Embassy on the discussion – Digitalization:
- Daniela Alexieva, Manager, Innovation Systems Bourgas
- Dimitar Atanasov, Principal Software Engineer, Athlon
- Ian Thompson, Commercial Director, 3DEO
And last but not lease we would like to express our gratitude to our panel participants and our moderator Liliya Goranova, SeeNext on the discussion – Clean Cities and Educated Citizens:
- Hristo Popov, CBO, Theoremus
- Mihaela Robu, Business Development Manager at ACCA Southern Europe
- Radostin Tanev, Deputy Mayor of Stara Zagora
- Galia Chausheva, Net Zero Neighbourhoods Lead, London Borough of Hounslow
We would like to thank Baringa, Shell, MTK, Athlon, Theoremus, ACCA, Hewlett Packard Enterprise operated by Selectium, SeeNext, ESG News and British Embassy Sofia for the support. And last but not least, we would like to thank all the guests for their engagement in delivering a lively discussion. Shout out to Vibe Systems for the technical support, Hilton Sofia for the warm hospitality, and Roy Hill for capturing the moment. Presentations from the event are available on request.
You can find photos from the event HERE.
