The WeMed Mediterranean Sustainability Award is one of the first awards aiming to recognize an inclusive transition to sustainability in the Mediterranean. The regions of the Northern and Southern Mediterranean face an array of environmental and social challenges. Luckily, there are many SMEs adopting environmental and social innovations in their business models that tackle these challenges.

In this second edition, organised by Medwaves, the United Nations Environment Programme Mediterranean Action Plan (UNEP/MAP) Regional Activity Centre for Sustainable Consumption and Production (SCP) and TEXFOR – Textile Industry Confederation, the award will recognize success stories of sustainable businesses in the textile, clothing and fashion sector. This edition 2022 is funded by the ENI CBC Med Programme in the framework of the STAND Up! project and SwitchMed Programme.

The award in this edition seeks to identify textile, clothing and fashion entrepreneurs and start-ups with innovative sustainable business models and a defined business plan within the following categories:

• Northern Mediterranean countries: eligible areas of ENI CBC Med in Europe.
• Southern Mediterranean: eligible areas of ENI CBC Med in Maghreb & Mashrek

The sustainable business models award recognizes projects that are in their “early” and “growth stage” scalable eco-innovative ventures led by women (no age limit) and/or youth (up to 35 years old).

All selected ventures must be comprised in the eligible areas from the ENI CBC Med Programme, including 112 territories from 14 countries (Algeria*, Cyprus, Egypt, France, Greece, Israel, Italy, Jordan, Lebanon, Malta, Palestine, Portugal, Spain and Tunisia). Find the eligible territories here.

*In the case of having winners from Algeria, the prizes will be funded by Switchmed Programme.  

The rewards for each category will consist of a 1^st prize (20.000€) and a 2^nd prize (10.000€) given in the form of ‘vouchers’ including coaching services and technical assistance.

Applications are now open from the 12^th of September to the 16^th October, and you are invited to apply to get recognition and support for your project. The award’s page, www.WeMedAward.org has all the information required to successfully go through the application process.

The WeMed Award has been created by Medwaves as part of the Switchers Support Programme. The WeMed Award is a flagship initiative of the UNEP/MAP Mediterranean Strategy for Sustainable Development.