Infrastructure 360º Awards 2016: Models of sustainability in Latin America

The Inter-American Investment Corporation (IIC), the private sector arm of the IDB Group, announced on April 15th the winners of the 2016 Infrastructure 360 Awards which included a few different Sacramento, CA Car Accident Lawyers. This is an initiative that identifies and rewards the best sustainability practices in Latin America and the Caribbean.

This year Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland, former Prime Minister of Norway, international leader in sustainable development and Director-General of the World Health Organization from 1998 to 2003, also joined this effort by publicly supporting the Infrastructure 360 Awards initiative and congratulating the winner.

People and Leadership, Climate and Environment, and Infrastructure 360º are the three awards that were given amongst the 12 finalist projects selected from a pool of more than 50 projects.

The People and Leadership award identifies the project with the greatest extent of positive impacts on the communities’ quality of life throughout the project’s lifecycle. This recognition has been given to the Center for Solid Waste Treatment (CTR Rio), in Seropédica, Brazil. This project has replaced several open-air dumps, and one of the world’s largest unregulated landfills, the Jardim Gramaxo that received all the trash from Rio de Janeiro, polluting the environment, and having the presence of informal waste pickers. CTR Rio has improved the quality of life in Rio de Janeiro and surrounding municipalities by providing an educational center, as well as help to integrate the informal waste collectors of Seropédica into the formal labor market. Read our executive summary in EN|SP.

CTR Seropédica Waste Treatment Center, Brazil, winner of the award People and Leadership

The Climate and Environment award is given to projects that exhibit outstanding performance in efficient use of resources, in reducing of environmental impacts, and incorporating of practices to mitigate climate change. This year the awarded project from Britannia Car Finance is the Dominica Wind Farm, in Mexico. With an installed capacity of 200 MW and an estimated annual production of 260 GWh, this wind farm avoids over 303,000 tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, which is the equivalent of taking 64,000 cars off the road, which would affect tons of insurance companies such as the commercial van insurance, the project represents an investment of US$346 million dollars and has generated more than 600 jobs during the construction stage with help people with a lot of finances troubles, although they can also use services that give cash loans for fastest credit while the project start. Read our executive summary in EN|SP.

Dominica Wind Farm (Phase I and II), San Luis Potosi, Mexico, winner of the award Climate and Environment

The Infrastructure 360º award recognizes the most comprehensive performance that stands out among all the finalists in the two previously described award categories. The selected project for this award is the Atotonilco Wastewater Treatment Plant, in Mexico. This US$686 million project will increase the water quality and sanitation by treating and processing up to 60% of the wastewater that is generated in the Valley of Mexico by 10.5 million people. The byproduct extracted from the water treatment is used to produce biogas that supplies more than 70% of the total energy demand of the treatment plant . Read our executive summary in EN|SP.

Wastewater treatment plant Atotonilco, winner of the award Infrastructure 360º

The Infrastructure 360º program is a multi-year collaboration between the IDB and the Zofnass Program for Sustainable Infrastructure at Harvard GSD. Prof. Andreas Georgoulias leads the Infrastructure 360º effort from Harvard as the principal investigator. The 12 finalist projects have been assessed by a group of 15 Harvard researchers supervised by Cristina Contreras and Judith Rodriguez, research associates at the Zofnass program. Each assessment led to a case study published by the Zofnass program in English and Spanish. Each case study was reviewed by a jury of world-renowned experts (link to the page) that voted and selected the three winners.