The Green Award — 2025 Finds Its Heroes: Best Eco-Projects in the Country Awarded at the National Centre RUSSIA
The Russian Environmental Operator has awarded the winners of the Green Award — 2025. Over 7,000 applications were submitted to the competition from representatives of business, public and volunteer organisations, active citizens, and bloggers. The winners received monetary prizes totalling 9.75 million roubles. The award ceremony took place on 1 December at the National Centre RUSSIA.
"Five years ago, when this project was still just in the plans, we believed it would definitely resonate in the minds and hearts of people concerned about the fate of our planet. And as our experience later showed, we were absolutely right. Year after year, we receive a large number of applications to participate in the contest. On one hand, it is truly not easy for our esteemed jury members to select the best from such a number of projects, as they are all very worthy. On the other hand, we see that a huge number of people and organisations care about a clean future for our country," said Deputy Minister of Natural Resources and Ecology of the Russian Federation Denis Butsaev.
The winners in the "Students" category were announced by Vyacheslav Fetisov, First Deputy Chairman of the Committee on Ecology, Natural Resources, and Environmental Protection of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation.
"Students and young people here understand that we are shaping the future and what we all need to do is to treat nature very carefully. And these are our common answers. Both decision-makers and business must understand that their children breathe this air, their children eat these products, and drink this water. Therefore, it is a great honour for me to present awards today to those young people to whom the future belongs. You are doing a great job, and I think the order in which you receive awards is not important here, but you are on the right path," Vyacheslav Fetisov addressed the youth.
Director General of the "National Priorities" ANO, Sofia Malyavina, presented the awards in the External Corporate Projects category.
"I want to announce one positive figure we managed to achieve together with you and the Ministry of Natural Resources this year. For the first time, we started popularising the topic of ecotourism. The Ministry is doing a lot for the development of national parks and reserves in our country, and in just 10 months we have increased the number of ecotourists by 3 million people compared to 2024," said Sofia Malyavina.
Director General of the Russian Environmental Operator, Irina Tarasova, noted that the Green Award is becoming a real mechanism for financial support of volunteers, young specialists, and creators of environmental initiatives.
"Following the selection, we awarded 34 laureates in 11 categories. They will be able to direct the awards towards developing their projects. Furthermore, for the second year now, we have been awarding scholarships to students from leading Russian universities. I want to thank all participants of the Green Award and all citizens of Russia who persistently and systematically engage with environmental issues. Thank you to all those who, not with words but with deeds, promote environmentally conscious behaviour," said Director General of the Russian Environmental Operator Irina Tarasova.
In 2025, the jury evaluated projects within the public and professional tracks in such categories as "Non-Profit Organisations", "Environmental Centres", "Environmental Leaders", "Educational Projects" (schools, colleges, and supplementary education institutions), "Educational Projects" (higher education institutions), "Technological and Digital Projects", "Sustainable Practices in the Agro-Industrial Complex", "Ecological Entrepreneurship", "Industry Company Initiatives", " Internal Corporate Projects", and "External Corporate Projects".
The monetary prizes were distributed as follows: one million roubles each to three winners in the "Non-Profit Organisations" category; 500,000 roubles each to the laureates of the "Environmental Centres" and "Environmental Leaders" categories; 500,000 roubles each to the winners of the "Ecological Entrepreneurship" category; 500,000 roubles each awarded to the best projects in the "Industry Company Initiatives" category. Additionally, five participants of the scientific-practical conference "Circular Economy — A Youth Perspective" will receive scholarships of 150,000 roubles each.
The evaluation of the entries was conducted by representatives of major Russian companies, public organisations, universities, and industry institutes. Partners of the award include "Ekomashgroup" LLC, Sberbank PJSC, "Khartiya" LLC, singer Nyusha, "NEO" JSC, and the EcoLine Group.
The award results are published on the Russian Environmental Operator's website. The list of winners includes:
Sustainable Practices in the Agro-Industrial Complex
"Kola Mining and Metallurgical Company" JSC, a full-cycle technology using artificial nest-incubators for caviar.
Educational Projects (Schools, Colleges, and Supplementary Education Institutions)
The 1st place —"Netology" LLC: volunteering in disaster zones;
The 2nd place — GBOU DO SO "Samara Regional Children's Ecological and Biological Centre", a project titled "Eco-Education: The Samara Region";
The 3rd place — FSBI (Federal State Budgetary Institution) "Kronotsky State Nature Reserve", a project titled "School of Nature's Defenders".
Educational Projects (Higher Education Institutions)
The 1st place — FSBEI HE (Federal State Budgetary Educational Institution of Higher Education) "Plekhanov Russian University of Economics", an environmental marathon;
The 2nd place — FSBEI HE "Kabardino-Balkarian State University named after H.M. Berbekov", a comprehensive environmental project "Green Patrol";
The 3rd place — FSAEI HE "Moscow State Technical University named after N.E. Bauman (National Research University)", creation of the "Nature Protection Technologies" cluster based at Bauman Moscow State Technical University.
Technological and Digital Projects
The 1st place — "Pervy Zavod Galvanicheskikh Elementov" LLC and "NEK-Innovatsii" LLC, creation of a closed-loop ecosystem for the production and recycling of alkaline batteries;
The 2nd place — "Terra Tech" JSC, a suite of geoservices "Digital Earth";
The 3rd place —"Natural Technologies" LLC, a mineral-cellulose sorbent AG Sorb for oil spill cleanup.
Industry Company Initiatives
The 1st place — "LeaderTex" LLC, the eco-cluster "Green Thread";
The 2nd place —"ROSA-1" LLC, an interregional system for collecting waste from the petroleum product group and their disposal;
The 3rd place — "Yugra-Ekologiya" JSC, an educational project "Recycle Batteries in Yugra!".
Internal Corporate Projects
The 1st place — Lemana PRO, LLC "LE MONLID", a project "Closed Loop: How Packaging Film Waste Turned into Private Label Products";
The 2nd place — "Novolipetsk Metallurgical Plant" PJSC, processing wood waste into biochar;
The 3rd place —"KAUSTIK" JSC, a bird house;
The 3rd place — "Magnit" PJSC, a restoration of biodiversity in the Black and Azov Seas.
External Corporate Projects
The 1st place — Retail Chain "Pyaterochka", food sharing in Murmansk;
The 2nd place —"KEKH eCommerce" LLC (AVITO), project titled "#IHelp" (#YaPomogayu);
The 3rd place — "Russian Agricultural Bank" JSC, project titled "Plant Trees" Certificate with Rosselkhozbank.
Environmental Centres
The 1st place — Centre for Environmental Upbringing "Ekotoriyum" GBU NO, "the Regions’ Environment" (Ekologiya Regiona), the Nizhny Novgorod region;
The 2nd place — Charity shop "Gusto" (the Novosibirsk region);
The 3rd place — Centre for Sustainable Development "GAZON" (the Kemerovo region).
Environmental Leaders
The 1st place — Yana Valeryevna Trudkova (the Chelyabinsk region);
The 2nd place — Darya Alexandrovna Kovalenko (the Republic of Crimea);
The 3rd place — Inna Evgenyevna Muklaeva (the Republic of Altai).
Non-Profit Organisations
The 1st place —"EcoKolyma" ANO;
The 2nd place — Arkhangelsk Regional Youth Environmental Public Movement "Clean North — Clean Country";
The 3rd place — Lipetsk Regional Public Youth Volunteer Organisation "Council of Leaders of the Lipetsk Region".
Ecological Entrepreneurship
The 1st place — the Federal Network of SWOP Markets "Let’s Swop" (Davay Menyatsya);
The 2nd place — Neo Mosaic;
The 3rd place — the Plastic Recycling Studio "Replavim".
The public-law company "Russian Environmental Operator" was established by Presidential Decree on 14 January 2019. The key task of the Russian Environmental Operator is to form a comprehensive system for municipal solid waste (MSW) management in Russia. Starting in 2025, the Russian Federation welcomed the new national project "Environmental Well-being", which has replaced the "Ecology" national project, which ended in 2024. One of its directions sets the task of forming a circular economy, ensuring by 2030 the sorting of 100% of the annual volume of generated MSW, landfilling no more than 50% of such waste, and integrating at least 25% of production and consumption waste into economic circulation as secondary resources and raw materials.
