An inspiring International Ceremony
The Quarry Life Award is a competition created by HeidelbergCement simultaneously at national and international level, with the aim of discovering new ideas for the promotion and protection of biodiversity at its quarry sites. Nearly 400 proposals were submitted from 22 countries, of which 95 were selected for the competition in five different categories: “Biodiversity and Education”, “Biodiversity and Innovation”, “Biodiversity Enhancement”, “Raising Public Awareness” and “Student Project”. The best project in each category received a monetary award of €10,000, and a “Grand Prize” of €30,000 was awarded to the best overall project.
On 9 December 2014, seven awards were presented to the international winners at a gala ceremony in Prague. The guest speaker for the event was Nick Baker, British naturalist and TV wildlife presenter, who inspired the audience with his passion for living things – weird and wonderful exotic creatures in particular.
Dr Jane Goodall, the Edition 2012 keynote speaker, was also with the participants in spirit thanks to a touching verbal address.
“Once again, the Quarry Life Award was a tremendous success,” said Daniel Gauthier, member of the Managing Board in charge of Environmental Sustainability, in his welcome address. “The Quarry Life Award has generated fresh enthusiasm amongst researchers, students, environmental organisations and our own employees. Through the competition and the research projects, HeidelbergCement not only improves its own biodiversity management practices, but allows other quarrying companies to improve theirs as well. The competition clearly contributes to a sustainable increase in knowledge about the biological value of mineral extraction sites worldwide."
The International Award Ceremony was organized under the auspices of the Czech Ministry for Environment, the Czech Ministry for Industry, the Czech Ministry for Education and of the Prime Minister of the Czech Republic.
> Learn more about the 7 international winners
(YouTube movies of 1.30 min.)
> and discover their outstanding projects
> Find out more about all national winners of the Edition 2014
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