UNDP Moldova and Green City Lab support five innovative sustainable development projects in Chisinau. Each initiative will receive a grant of up to $8,000 from the Global Environment Facility (GEF).

The projects were selected out of 14 ideas submitted to a public grant competition, entitled "Fast Track Challenge". The finalists will have to ensure a contribution of at least 30% of the total value.

The five winning ideas are:

1. Raise community awareness of sustainable waste management and create a platform for selective waste collection at source. The project involves automatic and manual sorting of waste, with maximum recovery of fractions allowed for recycling. The plastics obtained will be transferred to a recycling factory, where they will be transformed into flakes and granules of recycled plastic, sorted by color, ready for reuse. The other recyclables will be baled and transported to other recyclers to ensure their recovery.
2. Edible glasses: production of edible glasses based on a biscuit recipe. The product contains only natural ingredients (wheat flour, eggs, milk, sugar, vanilla and water) and is resistant to storing liquids for 5 hours. The glass tastes like a milk biscuit. The shelf life of the product is 3 months, it has passed all laboratory tests, having the necessary certificates of conformity.
3. Green wheels: bicycle delivery service for products within the Chisinau municipality. The selected company will create a network of cyclists who will provide courier services delivering goods from entrepreneurs to customers through a fast and environmentally friendly method. Thus, it will reduce traffic on the city streets, popularize cycling, and products will be delivered to any corner of the city in a short time.
4. Green and safe corridors in Chisinau. A lane dedicated to cycling will be created along Dacia Boulevard in the Botanica sector of the capital, using tactical urbanism methods. The proposed model will prioritize the safety of pedestrians, cyclists and people with reduced mobility. The model applied on Dacia boulevard will serve as a testing platform and will eventually be able to be replicated on the other streets of the capital.
5. Renovation of interior lighting in public buildings. The lamps in some public buildings in Chisinau will be replaced with efficient LEDs, lamps with modern automatic control functions. The project will also test the financial mechanism for recovering public investments by signing energy performance contracts.

The winning projects will be completed for a maximum of 9 months.

The “Fast Track Challenge” grant program was first launched in 2019 and then four project proposals were selected:

1. Recycling of vegetable and animal waste (anaerobic composting according to the Bokashi method).
2. 30 scooters integrated in a public sharing service.
3. Installation of sensors for measuring water quality in the Bic River and an online platform for data visualization.
4. New utility for used vehicle battery.

The financial support for the program is provided under the UNDP projecy “Sustainable Green Cities”, funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF). Chisinau City Hall is the main partner of the project.