Moscow, Russia– 24 December 2020 – Mechel Group became a laureate of the “Region Development. Best for Russia 2020” Award. For the contest, the company submitted its projects of improving Chelyabinsk’s environment and promoting the region’s sustainable development.

The award aims to highlight the most efficient regional practices that enable fruitful cooperation between businesses, society and authorities in the business’s territory of presence. The award’s expert council, which includes heads and representatives of more than 20 Russian regions, voted on the best projects in 14 key categories, from retail to digital technologies.

One of the program’s priorities is to showcase best regional practices aimed at resolving acute social and economic problems. Mechel became the best in the “Social Projects and Sustainable Development” category, winning the Best Ecological Project nomination.

Mechel presented its social and ecological initiatives for consideration, including the project of urban beautification and greening in Chelyabinsk’s courtyards and public areas. Over the past three years, the company joined forces with public ecologists to conduct over 150 such events, planting more than 2,000 trees and shrubs and distributing more than 30,000 free saplings to city dwellers. Mechel also arranged for compensatory planting in Chelyabinsk’s Balandino Wood that had suffered from forest fires – a total of 100,000 pine saplings were planted there.

The company also presented for expert evaluation its ecological grant contest Eco-Projector, which had been held three times in a row. Proactive city inhabitants present their ecological projects for consideration by the contest’s jury. Experts choose the most important ideas for ecological education, volunteering and city beautification. Authors of the best projects receive the company’s grants for implementation. Over these three years, more than 80 ecological initiatives were implemented with Mechel’s support.

Mechel’s stable development measures include an annual ecological forum Ecoengineering, which is an open space for discussing environment issues. The forum invites various experts, college professors, students and ecologically minded city inhabitants, with about 1,000 people taking part in the forum every year. Such a discussion area helps create awareness, implement scientific achievements and new technologies for the environment, and improve popular ecological education in Southern Urals.

“We are very glad that our stable development projects in Chelyabinsk won recognition by representatives of Russian regions. We sincerely believe that such social initiatives help create conditions for stable regional development. These projects complement the ecological agreements we have signed with Chelyabinsk Region’s Governor Alexey Texler. We consistently fulfill the obligations we have assumed on decreasing our impact on the environment by upgrading our facilities. At the same time, we are interested in reducing social tensions in the region, creating opportunities for discussing ecological problems, building good neighborly relations with local communities, and promoting interesting ideas aimed at improving the city environment,” Mechel PAO’s Chief Executive Officer Oleg Korzhov noted. 

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Mechel PAO
Ekaterina Videman
Tel: + 7 495 221 88 88
ekaterina.videman@mechel.com