The Federation of Municipalities, leader of LCA3, awards this municipality with a grant worth 35,000€.
One of the requirements to be chosen was that the project had to be financially supported by a local company through a collaboration agreement
The Federation of Municipalities of the Region of Murcia (FMRM), in the framework of the European project it leads, has announced that Beniel Town Council has been the winner of the ideas competition aimed at town councils in the Region of Murcia, to financially support a project for local adaptation to climate change.
The 35,000 euros of the prize will be allocated to a comprehensive action to be carried out by this municipality in Avenida José Pujante and Plaza de la Hispanidad, works that are part of the renaturalization plan of the City Council of Beniel.
Life City AdaP3, an initiative coordinated by the FMRM since 2020 and involving the municipalities of Alcantarilla, LorquÃ, Molina de Segura and the Italian Reggio Emilia, together with the CSR Chair of the UMU and the EuroVértice consultancy, is a project whose main basis is the adaptation to climate change under the creation of public-private mechanisms to finance urban adaptation measures through the participation of local industries and companies in these municipalities, validating collaboration schemes that can be transferable and replicable at European level.
Following the implementation of the pilot actions in these localities, the project
moved on to the replication phase, for which various initiatives have been carried out, including the ideas competition.
The call for ideas
The purpose of the call for ideas is to award a grant to co-finance the implementation of an action that contributes to making an urban area healthier, more liveable and more resilient to the threats of climate change.Beniel, the winning municipality, will receive a grant of 35,000 euros.
The winning project must be part of the urban public space, and, among the requirements, the projects submitted must have the support of at least one company located in the municipality, which undertakes to contribute financially to the implementation of the action through its CSR, through a collaboration agreement with private companies, unless there are several signatory companies, in which case it will be accepted that one of them is a company owned by the applicant municipality.
Four very good projects were presented to the competition, in which the project "Beniel Natura" obtained the highest score.
Maria Dolores Muñoz, president of the FMRM and mayor of Bullas, was pleased that "the initiative of the FMRM to lead this European project has resulted in a close collaboration with the other partner municipalities of the project in the Region and the Chair of CSR, allowing the exchange of good practices among them and with other municipalities such as Reggio Emilia, with the important participation of local companies. This initiative is now joined by Beniel with its award-winning project on urban adaptation to climate change".For his part, the secretary general of the Federation, Manuel Pato, precursor of this competition has said that, "as mentioned when we launched the competition, this is a great bet of Life City AdaP3, for its innovative nature to achieve replication, but also a big step for the FMRM, as it is the first of its kind. We hope that all municipalities will work towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals by making their towns and cities friendly and sustainable places".
Longinos MarÃn, director of the UMU CSR Chair and vice-rector for social responsibility and culture, stressed the role of public-private collaboration: "Global problems require the commitment of companies. As a Chair, one of our objectives is to raise awareness among companies so that they implement CSR projects, and in this case it is very positive that they do so by participating in climate change adaptation projects in their municipalities".
The mayoress of Beniel, Mari Carmen Morales, pointed out that "thanks to the European funds and the Life City AdaP3 project, we are going to continue developing our renaturalisation plan, with which we will improve every corner of the municipality".The councillor stressed that "these small changes will have a great impact on the quality of life of the residents, making our environment friendlier and healthier".
The event was attended by representatives of the two companies collaborating in the project.On the one hand, Ignacio Paco Ferreira and Virginia Nicolás, Chief Operations Officer and Environment Manager of the pharmaceutical company HTBA Formulating New Standards. On the other hand, Juan Jaime Ferrer, manager of Sermubeniel. The councillor of Beniel thanked them for their commitment to the town and the environment.