Coinciding with World Environment Day on June 5, Ford Motor Company has launched the 17th edition of its Conservation and Environmental Grants program, with $105,000 made available to successful entries from around the Middle East and North Africa region.
World Environment Day is the United Nation’s most important day for encouraging worldwide awareness and action for the protection of our environment. Since it began in 1974, it has grown to become a global platform for public outreach that is widely celebrated in over 100 countries. Each World Environment Day is organized around a theme that focuses attention on a particularly pressing environmental concern.
The theme for this year’s World Environment Day is “beating plastic pollution,” and Ford is increasing the total fund offering for 2018 with a $5,000 special category grant for the project that best displays a plan to tackle the scourge of plastic on our environment.
Accepted from Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Morocco, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, and Yemen, the touted Conservation and Environmental Grants projects should be focused on one of three main areas: Environmental Education, Protection of the Natural Environment and Conservation Engineering.
Two further categories will receive financial support for the winning projects: Best in Research — projects that show use of research in finding, and implementing, solutions to a specific environmental issue — and Best in Community Engagement, for the project that best demonstrates community engagement during its undertaking.
Individuals or organizations with on-going projects focused on any of the main areas of focus are invited to apply by downloading the form from me.ford.com, and email it to [email protected]. Applications will be received from June 5, with closing date for submissions on July 15. Jury voting will take place, virtually, in August, with winners announced in September of this year.
“Our planet faces increasing environmental challenges; such as greater congestion in cities, the rise of the global population, and the ongoing implications of climate change — and so we continue to work tirelessly to maximize our energy and water efficiency and minimize the waste and emissions footprints of our manufacturing plants and vehicles,” said Mark Ovenden, president, Ford Middle East and Africa.
