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The 10th Nevsky International Ecological Congress, at which the overriding theme will be ‘Ecology: A Right, Not a Privilege’, will be held at Tavrichesky Palace in St. Petersburg on 25–26 May. The Congress will include an ambitious programme of environmental events and campaigns that aim to draw attention to problems related to preserving and restoring the environment, promoting an ecological lifestyle, conscious consumption, environmental education, and the creation of an environmental culture.
Such events will include a fair of organic producers, an exposition of contemporary artists on the theme of ecology and recycling, the ‘Clean Up After Yourself’ environmental clean-up days, a recycling workshop, an eco-film festival, and an environmental run.
The first fair of organic producers in Russia will be held on 25–28 May at Manezhnaya Square in St. Petersburg. More than 60 manufacturers from all over the country will present their products at the fair, which is being organized by the Federation Council, the Russian Ministry of Agriculture, Russian Quality System, and Rosselkhozbank. The visitors will attend presentation sessions, master classes, raffles, and educational lectures, and can also taste and purchase organic Russian products.
Several environmental events will be held with the support of Russian Environmental Operator (REO), one of the Congress’s co-organizers. REO will present the documentary film What Is a Circular Economy?, which was filmed in collaboration with Channel One. This informative film details Russia’s experience with waste disposal and the practices of other countries. The film was shot at Lake Baikal, in the Arctic, and the Black Sea with footage from existing enterprises that process plastic, waste paper, electrical scrap, and textiles. An eco-film festival will be held at St. Petersburg cinemas in the run-up to the Congress, on 20–23 May.
The theme of nature conservation will be the starting point for the creation of upcycling collections by young St. Petersburg designers. At 16:30 on 25 May, a show featuring recycled fashion collections will be shown at the Great Exhibition Hall of the St. Petersburg Stieglitz State Academy of Art and Design. The materials for the fashion collections will include old clothes collected from recycling boxes at the Second Wind Foundation in St. Petersburg.
Contemporary art reflects environmental issues and the subtleties of interaction between man and the surrounding world, and the Congress will feature an exposition of contemporary artists. The Triumph Gallery, the Tavrida Art Cluster, and Recycle Group have prepared art objects that address issues concerning the circular economy, waste recycling, and separate collection.
The ‘Green Van’ mobile recycling workshop will be parked outside Tavrichesky Palace on 25–26 May. This will mark the first time that the mobile recycling workshop has been deployed at the 10th Nevsky International Ecological Congress, and it will then travel on to the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum and eco-festivals around the country. The workshop will provide an opportunity to visually see the waste recycling process, and visitors will be able to pedal a ‘bicycle shredder’ to crush the plastic cover into small pieces, which will then be melted down. The van will also host various master classes on recycling plastic and creating new items from it, sewing eco-bags from banners, and customizing clothes.
The Congress will also kick off the large-scale ‘Clean Up After Yourself’ eco clean-up campaign, which will take place in 50 regions of Russia. The clean-up campaign will start at Tavrichesky Palace on 26 May at 11:00 before the opening of the Congress’s plenary session. The ceremony will be attended by the co-chairs of the Congress’s Organizing Committee – Federation Council Speaker Valentina Matviyenko and Russian Deputy Prime Minister Viktoria Abramchenko. Ten flagship regions will be directly linked to the Congress participants via teleconferences. The eco clean-up campaign will identify the leading regions that collect the most waste.
The environmental run, which will take place on 27 May in St. Petersburg and eight other regions of Russia – the Trans-Baikal Territory, the Kemerovo, Irkutsk, Orenburg, Sverdlovsk, Lipetsk, and Vologda Regions, and the Republic of Dagestan – aims to combine physical activity and concern for the environment. More than a thousand people are expected to take part in the environmental run, which is being held in partnership with the ‘Choose Clean Air’ project and the St. Petersburg running community PushkinRun. The main run will be held from 8:00 to 13:30 in St. Petersburg along a route that passes from Rastrelli Square through Ulitsa Smolnogo and Smolnaya Naberezhnaya before circling back to Rastrelli Square. It will include three distances: 400 metres (for children), 5 kilometres, and 10 kilometres.
You can register to take part in the environmental run on the official website of the 10th Nevsky International Ecological Congress.