November 24, 2020 - The third selection of the best smart and eco-cities in Croatia took place today at the Zagreb hotel Esplanade. The cities of Pazin, Koprivnica, and Rijeka were named as the smartest, and Križevci is the best eco city.

In mid-October, Jutarnji list, Gradonačelnik.hr, and the Ipsos agency announced the best cities in four categories (quality of life, economy, demography and education, withdrawal of money from EU funds) and three competitions according to city size.

After the big competition where 10 cities (Sveta Nedelja, Hvar, Samobor, Cres, Labin, Šibenik, Krk, Rovinj, Čakovec, and Virovitica) were awarded as the best cities in Croatia in those categories, today, the best cities were chosen in the categories of "smart" policies and policies for environmental protection and sustainable development.

In the finals of the Smart city selection, Dubrovnik, Karlovac, Pula, Rijeka, and Zagreb entered the competition of large cities. Out of the medium-sized cities, Ivanić-Grad, Koprivnica, Labin, Poreč, and Zaprešić were shortlisted, and in the competition of small towns Krk, Pazin, Pregrada, Supetar, and Donji Miholjac. The Eco city award was given to only one city, and the competitors were Križevci, Krk, and Osijek.

As Jutarnji list reports, the conference was held at the Esplanada Hotel in Zagreb and was organized following epidemiological measures, so that only a limited number of participants were present, mostly mayors of cities candidates for the Smart city and Eco city awards.

This year's winners

The winner in the Smart city 2020 category, in the subcategory of small cities, is the Istrian town of Pazin. This title was awarded to Pazin based on a series of successes: the highest index of the digital readiness of the administration and the biggest allocation for education (as much as 52.69 percent of the budget).

"Smart is sustainable. That's how we organize the work of the city administration of Pazin. It is our guiding star. Let’s move on with the implementation of smart strategies. Now, among other things, we have to provide faster optical internet for rural areas around the city," said the Mayor of Pazin Renato Krulčić while receiving the award.

Koprivnica won the award for the smartest medium-sized city in Croatia, due to the highest support to IT companies and start-ups and the highest rate of separately collected waste (51 percent).

"We are very proud that after last year's Eco city award, we also received the Smart city award and we managed to connect three important axes – we connected science (through the University of North), start-ups and entrepreneurship (through the new Incubator of creative industries), and the communal economy which we raised to an extremely high level through a separate waste collection rate of over 50 percent and 97 percent purifier efficiency and losses below 10 percent, which is lower than the European average," said the mayor of Koprivnica Mišel Jakšić, reports Gradonačelnik.hr.

In the competition of big cities, the winner is, for the second time – Rijeka. Mayor Vojko Obersnel points out that this is not a coincidence because they have been implementing a smart city development strategy for years, they stand out due to the digital readiness of the administration, and they also give great support to the IT sector and start-ups.

"When we introduced the first smart traffic lights in Rijeka 15 years ago, there were ironic questions about what smart traffic lights are. As early as 2011, when we introduced e-consultations for citizens, there was less or no surprise, and today everyone already knows what smart solutions and smart cities are. The other day we decided to build a new start-up to support the implementation of smart solutions. To receive the Smart city award two out of three times in this selection is a great honor and recognition to my associates and all the citizens of Rijeka," said the Mayor of Rijeka Vojko Obersnel.

Rijeka / Copyright Romulić and Stojčić

In the selection of Jutarnji list, the Gradonačelnik.hr portal, and the Apsolon agency, the winner of the Eco city award for 2020 is Križevci.

The long-time champion of the EU funds category, the City of Križevci won this year in the Eco city category. According to the expert jury, with its good practices and standards in the field of environmental protection, it surpassed competitors Krk and Osijek.

Joining the Smart city and Eco city awards with video link, the mayor of Križevci Mario Rajn said that the Eco city award goes to the citizens of Križevci who have shown high awareness of the importance of environmental and sustainable policies in the city.

Josip Juraj Strossmayer Square in Križevci / The City of Križevci

Criteria

According to Gradonačelnik.hr, the criteria for selecting the best cities in the Smart city category are divided into six units – digital readiness of the administration, the strategic orientation of the city as smart, smart economy, smart society, smart infrastructure, and smart environment. They were developed in cooperation with the consulting company Apsolon, ie Apsolon's methodology for analyzing the digital readiness of Croatian cities, which was applied to our 20 largest cities in 2019 and 2020. Besides, the data sent by the cities themselves were analyzed by filling out a special questionnaire in which they answered specific questions about the focus of the city's economy and society on smart solutions and sustainability – the city's relationship to resources and the environment, and urban mobility and infrastructure quality.

The jury of the Eco city award consisting of Marko Biočina (editor-in-chief of Hanza Media), Zdravko Ivić (Gradonačelnik.hr), Marijana Palijan (CIOS), and Lidija Tošić from the Fund for Environmental Protection and Energy Efficiency considered 21 candidacies received at the invitation of the organizers. The candidatures were analyzed by evaluation criteria based on the responsible policies of cities in environmental protection and sustainable development: waste management, reduction of harmful gas emissions, primarily in transport, and the use of energy from renewable sources for public lighting and heating.

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As Novac/Vedran Marjanovic writes on the 1st of October, 2019, out of the twenty nominations of the Croatian cities that applied for the best Eco City award, the jury included Ludbreg, Koprivnica, Belišće, Čakovec and Jastrebarsko as nominations in the finals.

The Best Eco City award, as part of an extensive survey of the best Croatian cities in six categories, is awarded to the city that has achieved the best practices and solutions in a kind of trinity of environmental concerns - waste management, green energy and clean-transport.

Candidate cities were asked, among other things, for information and data on strategic waste management documents, and then on ways and forms of informing citizens.

The candidatures of the Croatian cities in question were also evaluated in view of the possible use of "green fuel" in official cars and utility vehicles. When it comes to traffic, information about the introduction of public bicycle systems, electric scooters and other non-GHG systems was also important.

In the case of communal infrastructure, the application could be backed by data on the installation of energy efficient solutions for public city lighting, as well as data on the application of energy efficient solutions in the renovation of buildings managed by the cities themselves.

The results of the candidate cities' withdrawal of EU funds in the field of energy efficiency in construction, heating and water infrastructure management were also taken into account. The prepared or developed projects for building energy potentials for renewable energy sources, such as solar power plants or wind farms, were of particular importance.

Finally, the Croatian cities in question were invited by public invitation to submit a summary of their projects related to energy sustainability, lower energy consumption, or waste management.

''The number of 'eco city' practices and solutions attached to each city's application is irrelevant, as is, for example, their total and individual financial value. But the highlight in our decision-making was the quality of these practices and solutions,'' they point out from the jury of Jutarnji list, Gradonacelnik.hr and the Ipsos agency.

Ludbreg's trump cards to grab the Eco City title for 2019 include, among other things, the availability of separate collection bins for all citizens, a secured recycling yard in accordance with the population, and the disposal of separated municipal waste at a nearby landfill. Nearly one hundred percent of public lighting in this city located within Varaždin County is energy efficient through the installation of LEDs and energy-saving lights.

Ludbreg's example of a solar tree and a downtown solar bench is the first of its kind in the Republic of Croatia and one of the first in the surrounding countries. Ludbreg's local governmental unit also embarked on the provision of energy from renewable sources.

“The plan is to build two smaller hydropower plants on Bednja and several rooftop solar power plants on public buildings. We also have an entrepreneur in the city who is planning to build a photovoltaic solar field,'' they stated from Ludbreg. The remediation of the Meka landfill is also one of the projects attached to Ludbreg's candidacy. It involves a large investment of 36.71 million kuna, with the EU co-financing of 85 percent of the investment.

Last year's winner of the Eco City award, Jastrebarsko, achieved its goal of separating and disposing of mixed municipal waste in all households back in 2011. The city disposes its rubbish in recycling yards according to their size and need, and conducts organised information campaigns among citizens and in the area's schools.

Jastrebarsko's utility companies have five electric cars at their disposal, and twelve electric bicycles are available for a fee to citizens. As many as eight bicycle paths with a total length of 250 kilometres have been drawn in the wider Žumberak Nature Park area.

"In the area of ​​energy efficiency, Jastrebarsko will begin replacing 3,199 lamps with environmentally friendly equipment with an investment of 13.8 million kuna," said a statement from this city located in Zagreb County, and their candidacy also includes another fourteen projects related to energy sustainability.

Čakovec entered the Eco City award race, by providing, among other things, access to separate collection bins for all citizens, building two recycling yards and incorporating LED lights into the city's public lighting. Of the 44 buildings administered by the city administration, ten have now been made energy-efficient.

Much like Jastrebarko, there are also 250 kilometres of marked out cycle paths in the Čakovec area, and utility companies have hybrid and gas vehicles at their disposal.

A project which involves waste has been running in the city since way back in 2000, and has resulted in a fifty percent reduction in the amount of waste that is being disposed of permanently, according to a statement from Čakovec's city administration. The total value of all of Čakovec's submitted projects is 30 million kuna.

All residents of the continental Croatian city of Koprivnica, according to the candidature of their city administration, can have their waste collected separately.

As far as clean transport is concerned, there are as many as eight electric vehicle charging stations in the city, the Koprivnica's city administration uses five electric and two hybrid vehicles, and two mini buses are included in their public transport offer.

''Two fully electric buses are used for free public transport. The utility has three electric vehicles for the maintenance of the city's cemeteries and green spaces, while the city regional energy agency REA North (Sjever) has one electric vehicle,'' they state from Koprivnica.

Six local projects have been co-financed from European funds and are attached to Koprivnica's Eco City award application. One of the biggest investments is the construction of a new recycling yard worth 5.23 million kuna.

Belišće is the only Slavonian city in the shortlist of all six categories of the competition for the best cities, and in the finals for the Eco City award, among other things, the construction of a stationary recycling yard with the possibility of separating as many as 38 types of waste has been made possible.

"We're one of the first Croatian cities to have installed energy-efficient LED lighting fixtures in all of our areas which use public lighting,'' they state from Belišće.

The winner will be announced on October the 4th, 2019 at the Days of Regional Development and EU Funds, which will be held in the coastal city of Šibenik.

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