Start of Competition for NonHazCity Building Award in the Baltic Sea Region

CCB • November 16, 2023

16 November 2016 - Tallinn, Estonia - Today the competition for the first ever NonHazCity Building Award in the Baltic Sea Region was announced at the Green Governance Conference by the Green Capital of Europe 2023 Tallinn and the World Future Council in Tallinn.


The NonHazCity Building Award is the first policy prize recognizing best policies in construction in the Baltic Sea Region at local, regional or national level. It aims is to highlight policies protecting people and the environment from hazardous chemicals in buildings, integrating circularity, toxic-free & climate neutrality. The World Future Council co-ordinates and bestows the award in the framework of the NonHazCity 3 Project.


“Municipalities have a responsibility to protect their citizens and the environment from hazardous chemicals and to contribute to climate-neutral and circular construction. We cannot have sustainable cities and communities without sustainable construction. This award helps us to show that sustainable construction is possible and raise awareness among cities to be at the forefront to implement these solutions,” said the Deputy Mayor of Tallinn, Joosep Vimm.




Alexandra Wandel, Chair, Management Board of the World Future Council commented “Everyone has a responsibility towards future generations that the building sector can make a contribution to a non hazardous, circular and climate-friendly construction. We invite policymakers, civil society, scientists and citizens to submit their nomination for this unique award. We aim to provide inspiration to showcase innovative solutions.”


The nominations can be submitted here.


The announcement was made at the conference "Driving change: empowering sustainability through green governance" that took place at Tallinn Creative Hub as part of Tallinn's Green Technology Week. The conference aimed at bringing together cities from the Baltic Sea region and beyond, as well as businesses and experts, to discuss green public procurement and support for sustainable consumption and production.


- END


For further information:

Kai Klein, BEF Estonia, Tel +372 53 33 8572

Alexandra Wandel, World Future Council, Tel+49 172 748 39 53

CCB is looking for a Network Officer to join our team at the CCB International Secretariat

By CCB • April 9, 2025
Coalition Clean Baltic – CCB is a politically independent network, uniting 27 environmental non-profit organizations, as well as partners and experts from 11 countries surrounding the Baltic Sea. The main goal of CCB is to promote the protection and improvement of the environment and natural resources of the Baltic Sea region by encouraging new and constructive approaches and engaging people to become part of the solution instead of part of the problem. CCB Secretariat is based in Uppsala, Sweden.

Attacks on NGOs: 570+ Organisations Join Forces to Defend Civil Society

By CCB • April 7, 2025
European civil society organisations (CSOs) are currently facing an attack coming from certain Members of the European Parliament. Spearheaded by some MEPs from the European People’s Party (EPP) and by far-right groups, this attack resorts to misleading arguments to fabricate a scandal. This portrayal has been amplified through the media, with notable exceptions of articles that attempted to clarify this misleading narrative. European CSOs are crucial to ensure the voices of citizens from different parts of Europe are heard in the EU institutions. Attacks against civil society are unfortunately not new and are exacerbated by this harmful idea. Furthermore, for-profit corporate lobbying is through the roof when compared to non-profit advocacy. In 2024, the 50 corporations with the largest lobbying budgets collectively spent nearly €200 million on lobbying the EU alone (66% more than in 2015). Comparing this to the funding environmental NGOs receive under the LIFE programme - €15.6 million annually of a €700 million yearly budget - truly shows the weakness of this ‘scandal’. This is why over 570 civil society organisations from 40 countries, including all EU Member States, have joined forces to call on those in power to act now and ensure that civil society is adequately funded and enabled to share our crucial perspectives . In this statement, we address: The source of this false narrative; Inaccurate claims made about how CSOs obtain and use funding; Why it’s paramount that CSOs receive sufficient funding; The need for civil dialogue to enable CSOs participation. Democracy is about the right of citizens to be collectively heard for building an inclusive society and a shared European future; properly funded independent CSOs are a crucial tool for that. We call on decision-makers to ensure civil society organisations can thrive and play their role in interacting with policy-makers in order to have a more fully informed decision-making process. Read the full statement here . -END Civil Society Europe (CSE) is the coordination of civil society organisations at EU level. Through its membership, CSE unites EU-level membership-based organisations that reach out to millions of people active in or supported by not-for-profits and civil society organisations across the EU. CSE was created by several civil society organisations as a follow-up to the European Year of Citizens and was established as an international not-for-profit under Belgian law in 2016. Since then, it has become the point of reference for EU institutions on transversal issues concerning civil dialogue and civic space.