The International Association of Horticultural Producers (IAHP) has named Ville de Saint-Lazare one of seven recipients of the Certificate of Merit for the 2024International Green City Awards. Not only that, but Saint-Lazare is the only Town in Canada to achieve certification.

"Our town has real potential for environmental leadership, especially in terms of inspiring by example

our commitment to protecting our resources. To become leaders, we need to be recognized for our good deeds. This also creates a sense of pride not only for our employees, but also for our residents," said Saint-Lazare Mayor Geneviève Lachance.

The AIPH World Green City Awards are the world's first and only awards for cities where plants and nature are central. As a permanent competition open every two years, the awards recognize the role of municipal authorities in promoting and supporting greater inclusion of plants and nature in urban environments.

The awards aim to recognize public initiatives that rely on greater use of plants and nature to create better urban environments, helping to meet local aspirations for improved economic, social and environmental resilience.

Last August, Ville de Saint-Lazare's Service de l'environnement submitted its application for the prestigious AIPH World Green City Awards 2024. The aim of the process was to measure how the various initiatives put forward in recent years compare with what is being done elsewhere in the world.

Ville de Saint-Lazare's submission put forward a holistic approach to protecting and restoring forest areas and creating biodiverse green spaces. Ville de Saint-Lazare thus joins six other AIPH award-winning cities: Dubai (United Arab Emirates), Tel-Aviv (Israel), Yafo (Israel), Belo Horizonte (Brazil), Barranquilla (Colombia) and Ljubljana (Slovenia).

In addition to selecting the 21 finalists for the AIPH World Green City Awards 2024, the technical jury has the opportunity to nominate candidates for Certificates of Merit. These are cities that did not score highly enough to be finalists, but demonstrate a particularly bold and innovative feature or features that the members of the technical committee consider inspiring, replicable and worthy of recognition.

"The Green City space is certainly an exciting space at the moment. It's encouraging to see how many cities are taking concrete steps for plants, for nature and for people. Congratulations to the recipients of the Certificate of Merit. In awarding these certificates, AIPH is delighted to demonstrate how local action truly inspires a global movement for greener, healthier and more resilient cities," emphasized Tim Briercliffe, Secretary General, AIPH.