Seocho-gu Eco-friendly Policy Wins Triple Crown at the 'Green Apple Awards'

Triple Crown Winner at the '23 Green Apple Awards' Ceremony Held on the 20th in London, UK... South Korea's Most Awards
· Gold Award for the Eco-friendly Yangjaecheon Restoration Project Combining Ecological Stream Creation and Ecological Experience
· Silver Award for 'Cham Chakhan Seocho Coin' Leading Positive Influence through Carbon Neutral Practice and Good Point Accumulation
· Bronze Award for 'Toy Repair Center' Promoting Natural Circulation and Sharing through Repairing Broken Toys
Jeon Seong-su, Seocho District Mayor, “Continuously Advancing Eco-friendly Administration in Daily Life for Everyone”

Seocho-gu's everyday eco-friendly policies have once again been recognized globally.

Seocho-gu, Seoul (Mayor Jeon Seong-su) won three awards at the ‘Green Apple Awards’ ceremony held on the 20th (local time) at the UK Parliament in London.

▲ The restoration project of Yangjaecheon Stream won the Gold Award ▲ The Truly Good Seocho Coin won the Silver Award ▲ The Toy Repair Center won the Bronze Award. With this achievement, the district earned the honor of receiving the most awards among local governments in South Korea.

At the awards ceremony, host Phil Williams introduced, “Seocho-gu is the local government with the most awards in Korea and has a very high contribution to carbon neutrality, making it a ‘green city’ with great expectations for the future.”

The ‘Green Apple Awards’ is one of the world’s top four international environmental awards, organized by the UK eco-friendly non-profit organization ‘The Green Organization’ and recognized by the European Commission, the Royal Society of Arts (RSA), and the UK Environment Agency. Since its inception in 1994, more than 500 organizations participate annually, selecting outstanding eco-friendly cases worldwide.

This year’s Gold Award-winning ‘Yangjaecheon Ecological Stream Restoration Project’ was highly praised for creating an eco-friendly ecological stream where nature and people coexist. Plants such as silver grass and mugwort were planted along Yangjaecheon, which suffered flood damage this summer, contributing to soil stabilization. Additionally, reed and silver grass areas were restored to preserve habitats for wild birds and improve the water quality of Yangjaecheon. The excellent environmental education program for children, ‘Yangjaecheon Slow Tour,’ operating since 2018, practiced environmental protection together with the local community. Especially, river purification activities such as ecological experiences and making and throwing soil balls containing Effective Microorganisms (EM) received great responses from children and parents.

The Silver Award-winning ‘Truly Good Seocho Coin’ was recognized for spreading positive influence by combining smart technology with resource recycling and sharing. The ‘Truly Good Seocho Coin’ is a ‘good point’ system that exchanges good values in various fields such as environment, welfare, and education, including carbon neutrality practices and protection of socially vulnerable groups. Accumulated coins can be used for payments at public facilities and about 400 carbon-zero shops or donated. It won the grand prize in the smart administration category at the Korean Local Government Administration Awards last September and was internationally recognized by participating in the ‘2023 Smart City Expo World Congress (SCEWC)’ held in Barcelona, Spain this month.

Use of Carbon Zero Shop Seocho Coin

The Bronze Award-winning ‘Toy Repair Center’ was recognized for achieving a triple effect by repairing broken toys to provide environmental education through recycling, sharing through donations, and reducing parents’ economic burden. It opened in April at Seoripul Culture Plaza. This place also operates a rental service for childcare products for infants and toddlers.

Meanwhile, since participating in the Green Apple Awards in 2017, the district has won awards for nine projects so far, enhancing its prestige as an eco-friendly city.

Jeon Seong-su, Mayor of Seocho-gu, said, “I am grateful and pleased that Seocho-gu’s eco-friendly policies have been recognized not only in Korea but also globally,” adding, “We will continue to implement eco-friendly administration in daily life for future generations and everyone living now.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.