“Messages have an important role and you are the new ambassadors of environmental protection. In your essays, you have shown not only innovative thinking but also leadership ideas. You are our environmental ambassadors and I challenge you to transmit this energy to you universities and schools to inspire more of your peers in the mission of conservation.”

With these words, the Minister of Environment and Water Rositsa Karamfilova congratulated the winners in the student contest for high academic achievements “Green support for a sustainable future” - Alexander Manov, 5^th year in Landscape Architecture at the Forestry University, and Alexander Pregyev, 4^th year in Landscape Architecture and Landscape Planning at the University of Archtecture, Civil Engineering and Geodesy. Both were awarded for best performance with the annual financial support of 2 970 BGN.

Minister Karamfilova also awarded the two winners with diplomas and added: “This is not just a diploma for a winner, but for a leader and in recognition of a way of thinking. Therefore, I wish you to be ever more ambitious and responsible. And in the future you will stand in the position to award diplomas to the winners from the next generation.” Karamfilova highlighted that foresight and an active stance are vital for developing policies on issues of environmental protection.

The contest was held for a second consecutive year under the auspices of the MOEW within the framework of the European Commission’s European Mobility Week campaign. It is implemented by the Environmental Executive Agency with the financial support of the Enterprise for the Management of Environmental Protection Activities.

The challenges of a sustainable future on a global scale and in Bulgaria require key decisions and active steps by highly educated and well-prepared “green” leaders of the future - this is the motto under which the contest “Green Support for a Sustainable Future” was held.

In their essays, in addition to demonstrating in-depth theoretical knowledge, the two winners presented initiatives that provide solutions to a number of sustainable mobility problems – for public transport, pedestrian areas, also around riverbeds.

Alexander Pregyev wrote in his essay that “the landscape architects and all specialists who are ‘involved’ in building the environment around us are responsible to the public and the world for the spaces they build” and added that “we must be able to make each person feel as one with nature. If we provide an environment indistinguishable from the natural one, we will evoke certain emotions and feelings in people and this, in turn, will inevitably strengthen the relationship between human and nature.”

Alexander Manov draws attention to fatigue as one of the main reasons for using private cars. He writes: “Long working days, heavy bags from the market, carrying laptops or tools to work become difficult for people after a certain age. The car appears as a the solution – something that helps these people catch up.” He believes that despite this overwhelming daily tasks, people can change their pace and more green spaces can help them do so, whereby the focus should be on urban rivers. Based on this social aspect of the problem, the urban environment should be designed with the mission of slowing down life, he argued in his essay.