Aleksandr Beglov, Governor of St. Petersburg, Vadim Potomsky, Deputy Plenipotentiary Representative of the President of Russia in the North-West Federal District, Aleksandr Belsky, Chairman of the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg, and Sergey Voronkov, General Director of Expoforum International, spoke at the opening ceremony of the forum.

“Over the recent years, St. Petersburg has repeatedly topped the life quality ratings among the regions. It would have been impossible without environmental improvements,” the Governor emphasized. He reminded that this year St. Petersburg celebrated the 30th anniversary of the Environmental Protection Agency.

The environmental situation in the city is being constantly monitored. The monitoring includes the quality of atmospheric air, water reservoirs, and soils. 24 posts are controlling the radiation situation.

This year, 338 water bodies are included in the targeted program for cleaning up floating contaminants and debris, which is a record in the recent years. For comparison, only 104 water bodies were cleaned in 2016. Smolenka riverbed cleaning has been completed under the national project “Ecology”.

Aleksandr Beglov reminded that the year of 2021 in St. Petersburg was declared the Year of Ecology. One of the city's key projects – putting into operation the Okhta sewage collector – was completed as part of the initiative. Now 99.6 % waste water is treated in St. Petersburg.

The Governor said that in winter the city took the difficult step of forbidding snow dumping into rivers and canals. “For the sake of people's health, we also gave up chemical reagents. A few years of this approach should give a decrease in the incidence of diseases,” said Aleksandr Beglov.

The Governor also mentioned that gas-fueled buses will be put into service on April 1 within the New Model of Transport Services. “In the next few years, we plan to switch all public transport to environmentally friendly gas and electric power. We plan to build a fleet of electric buses,” said the Governor.

“The Big City Ecology Forum will include more than 30 events of the congress program. It will be attended by the delegates from 50 regions of the Russian Federation, including St. Petersburg, Leningrad region, Moscow, Sevastopol, Grozny, Ulan-Ude, Yaroslavl, Yalta, Astrakhan, Orenburg, Petrozavodsk, Reutov, Pskov, Surgut, Orel, Ekaterinburg, Khanty-Mansiysk, Yakutsk, Kazan, Tver, Naryan-Mar,” said Sergey Voronkov. “For the first time, the forum will address such topics as “Environmental trends in creative industries”, “Environmental trends in socially oriented design”, “Ecology of historic gardens and parks in modern metropolitan cities”, and “Animals in the urban environment”. Representatives of 45 constituent entities of Russia reported participation in the conference “Best practices in development of educational tourism and volunteering in specially protected natural areas of federal and regional significance”.”

He also informed that this year the Big City Ecology International Forum will be held with the support of the Federation Council, Ministry of Natural Resources and Ecology of the Russian Federation, St. Petersburg Government, St. Petersburg Legislative Assembly and St. Petersburg Veterinary Department.

The officials walked around the exhibition. Sergey Togulev, Project Manager at BaltUtilCom LLC, presented a Russian-made pavilion for collection of recyclable materials and equipment; Nikolai Gerasimov, Director of Komfortnaya Sreda (Comfortable Environment) LLC, spoke about the installed children’s playgrounds, general director of Ecostyle Ksenia Krivskaya demonstrated the Russian experience of producing playground equipment from natural materials.

Since this year, St. Petersburg joined the reform of solid municipal waste management. Together with the Leningrad Region, a unified concept of waste management in the two regions has been developed. Among other measures, the city has begun to create a comprehensive infrastructure for separate waste collection. 4,500 locations for separate collection of solid municipal waste have already been created at St. Petersburg. They have been mostly initiated by the local communities and private organizations. Now the task is to extend this system. In the near future, 3,000 additional containers will be installed in the Kalininsky and Krasnogvardeisky districts. 800 locations have been prepared to accommodate them. At the stand of Nevsky Environmental Operator, General Director Ekaterina Gorshkova spoke about the ongoing extensive consulting and awareness-raising effort of the company.

Komsomolskaya Pravda publishing house was the general media partner of the forum. Event partners: Megafon and Megaline LLC.

The Forum will be open until March 24. See business program at https://ecology.expoforum.ru/delovaya-programma-2022.

Business Networking Exchange will be open throughout the forum.