The EU LIFE+ Investing in Water project from Malta was named a runner-up in the Supporting the Development of Green Markets and Resource Efficiency category at the 2014 European Enterprise Promotion Awards.
Seven winners, 12 runners-up and three special mentions were announced in Italy. Organisations from all 28 EU member states, as well as Iceland, Serbia and Turkey, competed for the chance to win either a specific category or the prestigious Grand Jury Prize.
Initially, hundreds of projects competed in national competitions. Then 58 national winners entered the European level of competition.
The Grand Jury Prize winner came from Hungary. Encouraging Business Start-ups by mothers with young children helps mothers to acquire the entrepreneurial skills and mind-set to start a business and make it profitable. In Hungary, half of mothers with small children are not able to return to their job at the end of their maternity leave and employment of mothers with children under three is well below the EU average.
The Malta Business Bureau’s EU LIFE+ Investing in Water project is aimed at identifying water-saving measures among best practice enterprises, disseminating this information to others and supporting their implementation. The project is focused on sharing information through face-to-face meetings, printed materials and an interactive CD, workshops and via the website. The project has identified 26 best practice enterprises and saved an estimated 141 million litres of water per annum.