Monte-Carlo Beach has take out the Special Prize in the Green category of the Hotel & Lodge Awards, recognition of the establishment’s dedicated commitment to sustainability.
On Thursday 24th March, French tourism magazine Hotel & Lodge held its third ceremony of the Hotel & Lodge Awards at Pavillon Cambon in Paris. Monte-Carlo Beach claimed the Special Green Prize, a new category that is awarded, on the selection of editorial teams and a judging panel made up of tourism professionals, to a hotel resolutely committed to an eco-responsible and sustainable development approach.
The award recognises that Monte-Carlo Beach has been Green Globe certified since 2014, with Green Gold status since 2018. This approach is driven by General Manager Daniele Garcelon, who has been working for many years to achieve a zero-plastic policy, recycle waste and drastically reduce energy and water consumption.
“My teams and I accept this award with joy and humbleness,” said Daniele Garcelon. “It is a recognition and strong encouragement in the pursuit of our everyday commitment.”
The hotel has implemented a proactive policy to protect biodiversity, in particular with the creation in 2021 of a positive biodiversity reef dyke. Located under the water 100 metres from shore, this dyke has been designed to protect the beach and allow the development of marine life in a protected area.
Pointe de la Vigie and its surrounding pine forest have also been classified LPO (Ligue pour la Protection des Oiseaux) bird protection status. The latest wildlife inventory listed no fewer than 20 species of birds, including 10 nesting species and 15 protected species.
“This site at Monte-Carlo Beach is becoming an essential refuge for local biodiversity,” said Monte-Carlo Société des Bains de Mer in announcing the award for its hotel.
Keen to develop its local eco-system, Monte-Carlo Beach and the Elsa restaurant, which has been Ecocert certified since 2013 for its 100% organic and wild-caught fish, work closely with local producers to give preference to seasonal products as well as nearby estates and gardens: Jardin des Antipodes in Menton for aromatic herbs and fruit, and Domaine d’Agerbol in the heights of Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, which supplies Elsa with organic vegetables, from farm to fork.
During Monaco Ocean Week, the players of RAMOGE, an agreement between Monaco, France and Italy, released an awareness video highlighting the impact of marine pollution, called Thrill in the Abyss.
It’s only just over four minutes long, but Thrill in the Abyss (Frisson dans les abysses) packs a big punch.
The short French film covers exploration campaigns undertaken by scientists from the three nations that make up RAMOGE, where they found in underwater canyons, along with beauty, an alarming amount of waste accumulation at depths of over 2,000 metres, roughly 30 kilometres off the coast.
The staggering amount of waste was captured on film from wire-guided underwater vehicles in September 2018, which can reach depths of 6,000 metres below sea level. It shows the extremity of the situation, with piles of rubbish sitting on the seabed that had been carried from the land and rivers to these resting places.
The jarring impact of seeing a veritable junk yard where there should be grasses and creatures puts a fine point on the problem facing the seas with regard to ocean pollution. These undersea garbage dumps are filled with plastic cups, old cans, tennis balls and a variety pack of unidentifiable detritus.
There was even a pot of yogurt from the brand Chambourcy, a French company that shut down in 1996.
“It looks light and fragile, but it has been here, in this deep area of ecological interest, for several decades. Seeing is believing. And that’s only the visible part, there are also microplastics,” Anne Vissio, Executive Secretary of the RAMOGE Agreement, told Monaco Matin. “We realised that the canyons are areas of accumulation of waste. All this waste comes from the earth, has been abandoned in nature, then carried by waterways and currents.”
Screenshot from Frisson dans les abysses
“Removing them is very complicated technically and would cost a fortune,” she said. The purpose of this video, which we hope will be relayed massively, is to say ‘Stop, let’s not add more!’ Individually, we can act and stop the use of plastic. On a global scale, we must stop the production of plastic packaging.”
The footage also showed the marvels of the seas, such as fish, tiny sea crustaceans, coral and other such incredible sea flora and fauna, but these beautiful images don’t hold a candle to the mess found in their habitat.
Beyond the horror of how terrible it looks, it is also possible they are dangerous to health. As the plastics slowly break down, they release microplastics which are typically passed through the body without harm. The danger comes from the microplastics on the surface of the ocean that attach to plastic and travel long distances. The plastic actually serves as a carrier. Certain micro-organisms attached to it can be pathogenic for marine organisms, toxic or invasive.
RAMOGE is made up of delegates from France, Monaco and Italy and was formed in 1991 after an oil tanker sank off the coast, threatening the coastlines and the sea life. They work to fight against accidents such as these and establish cooperative agreements in the event of any such occurrence. Additionally, the representatives work to protect the biodiversity of the Mediterranean, which hosts between 25% and 30% of the endemic species and 10% of the marine species known to man, despite only covering 1% of the world’s ocean surface.
See the video below…
Photo: Screenshot from Frisson dans les abysses
Finest takes over Monaco Esports in $10 million deal
Israeli sports organisation Finest has acquired Monaco Esports for $10 million, ending all Monaco Esports branding and operations after the upcoming Sim Racing event, as the bigger venture will absorb the Monaco-based company.
The merger between Finest and Monaco Esports was announced on 14th March and is part of Finest’s plans for international expansion.
“I am really glad to welcome the Finest group in Monaco, their experience and knowledge of the esports world will help the Principality of Monaco and the Federation to improve and put Monaco in the front of the esports scene,” said Louis Ducruet, President of Monaco Esports Federation.
Finest was founded in 2019 by Rubik Milkis but is now being run by former CEO of the Israeli Football Association Rotem Kamer. Milkis still retains an active role as the company’s Chief Gaming Officer (CGO).
“It is a new era of esports we will witness in Monaco. For years we have been working to build the foundation of what would become a highly global structure. Monaco Esports merging with Finest gives that worldwide reach we’ve been expecting. We are now looking forward to the extraordinary results we are going to achieve within this new family,” said Boris Fedoroff, President and Founder of Monaco Esports.
Finest was recently taken over by media giant RadarZero when CEO Mark Klein took over the majority stake in the business in late 2020. This makes it part of a larger portfolio of gaming operations owned by Radar, such as GameSquare, Enthusiast Gaming and FaZe Clan.
In July 2021, Klein met Louis Ducruet and Boris Fedoroff and began talking about a merger, which made sense for both sides. Monaco Esports would get a money injection and a higher profile, and Finest would get access to Monaco’s market, reputation and enthusiasm.
“The Principality wants to make Monaco a gaming hub in Europe,” Klein explained to gaming site dextero.com. “They would like to see events every two months. Events made for the fans, for the pro teams, for the industry, to create best practices and bring financiers and investors in gaming companies and technology to Monaco.
“They 100 percent want to support those initiatives. They also want to subsidize the fanbase through afterschool programs for kids, for example. Their support is something that, unfortunately, I cannot say that we have here in Israel [from a government perspective].”
Finest also wants to encourage more girls to be part of this world, and already support the Valorant Girls Team. It should be noted that metrics are showing the split between boys and girls in esports is coming close to equal, so the women’s market is becoming hugely important as an untapped resource.
Monaco Ocean Week is an event where ocean experts are discussing everything from innovation and scientific research, to ocean health and blue economy development. One participant, the MERI Foundation, highlighted the role that whales play in mitigating climate change and why their conservation should be a top priority.
“People may not know that the oceans are one of the main sources of nature-based solutions to mitigating climate change,” Patricia Morales, CEO of Cortés Solari Philanthropy tells Monaco Life. “In Chile, we are working around what we call ‘marine ecosystem services’, in particular from whales. Do you know that each whale captures around 33 tons of carbon, which is equivalent to 1,500 trees? It is much more efficient to protect whales instead of killing and selling them for food.”
Cortés Solari Philanthropy is part of the Melimoyu Ecosystem Research Institute (MERI) Foundation, a private, non-profit institution that seeks to highlight the importance of ocean conservation due to its valuable “ecosystem services” and its role in mitigating climate change.
During Monaco Ocean Week (MOW), the foundation teamed up with the Scientific Centre of Monaco for a series of panels which brought together scientists, business people, politicians and economists to look at the value of marine ecosystem services and innovation technologies for community environmental awareness raising.
One main area of MERI’s research has been the Melimoyu Elemental Reserve and the conservation of the blue whale, a species which has returned to the Corcovado Gulf after years of absence.
Within eight years, researchers were able to identify that this whale species is capable of capturing enormous amounts of carbon, 1,500 times more than a tree, making it a valuable nature-based solution for climate change mitigation and worthy of increased conservation efforts.
Together with the Chilean Ministry of Environment, the MERI Foundation is now leading the Blue Boat Initiative, which seeks to alert vessels of the presence of whales through early warning systems.
“We are trying to promote the conservation of whales through this initiative,” says Patricia Morales. “It is a national project where we install intelligent buoys on Chilean coasts in order to prevent a collision between ships and whales.”
Through an acoustic system, the buoys send out a signal to the ships alerting them to the presence of whales, thus reducing the risk of collisions with boats, one of the main causes of the dramatic decline of this species.
According to MERI, between 2007 and 2019, it is estimated that more than 1,200 whales died due to collisions with cargo ships or smaller vessels.
“This is why the Blue Boat Initiative seeks to address the problem, taking care of the species and guaranteeing the generation of blue carbon,” says Morales.
Blue carbon refers to C02 that is naturally stored in aquatic ecosystems. The habitat with the largest deposits is the ocean, which absorbs 25% of the atmosphere’s C02 annually. It plays a fundamental role, and therefore, whales play a key role.
Photo of Patricia Morales, CEO of Cortés Solari Philanthropy, by Monaco Life
Morales says the foundation is also economically evaluating the marine ecosystem services of these whales in order to attract investment to the project as well as similar conservation initiatives.
“We have been backed by philanthropy for many years now, but science is not rentable, and we are a bit invisible from the banking side,” says Morales, who is also an economist. “We aim to connect with those that really want to invest in a green solution. We aim to find as many natural solutions as possible, and try to monetise them, but first, we have to evaluate them. So, we identify a technology, a natural solution, then we try to understand it and see how much carbon are we capturing, and then we evaluate this carbon and certify it.”
The Foundation is now starting to work closely with the private banking industry and companies that would like to invest in the initiatives backed by MERI, of which there are about 50.
In October 2021, MERI participated in the Blue Economy Workshop, organised by the CSM and FPA2, which aimed to draft Monaco’s national proposal on nature-based solutions and marine ecosystem services, that was presented at the COP26 in Glasgow.
The next step?
“Each country has its own economic exclusion zone, but then the ocean is no man’s land. Even if you cannot kill whales, there is no marine traffic regulation. What we need is to work together with the International Whale Commission in order to promote traffic regulation, not only for whales but all the marine ecosystems, the main source of nature-based solutions in the mitigation of climate change.”
How to keep Ukrainian women safe, and fill a job shortage
Around three million people, mostly women and children, have fled Ukraine across international borders since the war began. The latest estimates from UN agencies predicts that four million people will be displaced from the country as the conflict continues.
Poland, which shares a 500-kilometre border with Ukraine, has taken in the majority, with effectively two Ukrainian refugees entering Poland every three seconds. According to reports, around 250,000 refugees have also crossed the border into Moldova.
With Ukrainian men aged 18 to 60 required to stay and support the war effort, it is women and children who make up 90% of refugees.
The exodus from Ukraine is the fastest-growing refugee crisis in Europe since WW2, and right now, attention is rightfully focussed on their entry and reception. Volunteers are serving up soup and sandwiches, handing out clothes and sleeping bags, and offering temporary places to stay.
But soon the EU will need to consider how to best help the refugees settle in. Activation of the Temporary Protection Directive gives Ukrainians the right to access key integration-related services and employment, but national administrations now face an enormous challenge to make such access a reality.
Meanwhile, fears are growing that among the refugees who have arrived in Poland, Moldova, and other European countries, many now face much greater risks of being exploited, trafficked and forced into prostitution.
German police recently confirmed rumours that some of the refugees crossing the border had been approached by people and offered money to come and “stay” with them. As well as women, young people traveling alone are being targeted. The social media network Telegram is being flooded with reports that traffickers are trying to pick up children and women traveling by themselves.
In some countries, specialist anti-trafficking NGOs are disseminating leaflets to refugees, warning them of the risks of accepting transportation and accommodation from strangers, and informing them how to seek help and report suspicious cases to national helplines for trafficking victims.
Once the refugees have safely crossed the Ukrainian border, it is vital, therefore, that attention shifts to their protection and the provision of safe and legitimate job opportunities so they are not lured or tricked into human trafficking.
This is the focus of Jon Purizhansky. He is CEO of Joblio, a technology-based platform that connects potential labour migrants with employers via a transparent digital process that mitigates employer fraud and human rights violations. He is also a New York lawyer and a former refugee from Belarus.
“I relate to these people because I used to be a refugee. I was a teenager when my family and I went through the same thing,” Jon Purizhansky tells Monaco Life. “What is different about this refugee wave from the last in 2015/2016, is that was a group of men from the Middle East and this is women and children from Ukraine, so it is a completely different community from a demographic perspective but also from a vulnerability perspective.”
Jon Purizhansky
Joblio has been established for around two years now, primarily connecting male labourers in countries like Africa, South East Asia and Latin America with jobs in Europe.
Since 24th February, it’s operations in Poland and Moldova have kicked into hypergear and, with Joblio staff positioned at refugee centres in Moldova and on the border with Ukraine, the company is now helping female refugees find work in Germany, home to one of the largest Ukrainian communities in Europe.
“Being a refugee means that you don’t know what will happen tomorrow because you are on the run. So, Joblio turns the unknown into the known by securing employers in Germany who are willing to provide these refugees with jobs. Germany has a strong economy and a very severe shortage of labour, particularly within the fields of hospitality, care giving, and office cleaning. These sectors do not require formal qualifications, which is why they are a perfect temporary solution for the refugee community. Some used to work in agriculture, others were professors of French literature just two weeks ago. Now they are all the same.”
Purizhansky says that Joblio is using its existing corporate infrastructure in Europe to hire citizens of Ukraine, in compliance with a government-to-government agreement that existed between Poland and Ukraine prior to the refugee crisis that allows Polish companies to bring Ukrainian citizens on staff immediately. “This allows us to then place them with clients in Germany, thereby creating a secure and safe environment for the refugees while providing the German corporates with the staff that they need.”
Monaco Lifemet with Jon Purizhansky while he was in Monaco in September 2021. He told us then that his aim was for Joblio to become the global standard and platform for cross-border employment, utilised by corporates and governments throughout the world.
Joblio is not an NGO, says Purizhansky, it is a business, so it is geared towards efficiency and benefits everyone involved.
Backed by legal expertise in the fields of immigration law, tax law and labour law, Joblio is also an inspiring social impact project.
“We are sending the first bus of refugees to Germany, where Joblio Germany staff are going to meet them on the ground. We are doing this Elon Musk style, creating impact by operating a business. We are delivering staff that the German companies are advertising desperately for,” says Purizhansky, adding that half of the refugees on the bus are children.
“These are women with kids, so we also securing housing for them as well as childcare, daycare and schooling. We are going to create an ecosystem for them that allows them to safely move to Germany very fast, and have their kids in childcare or school. Our entire team is on it so they can start going to work and supporting themselves. This is also very helpful to the government of course, because they don’t have to subsidise them.”
Purizhansky is now calling on the corporate sector and the largest companies in Europe to join Joblio in its quest to create a safe and secure environment for the refugees.
“It is very important that we get help from the corporate sector and that it does not meet this initiative with cynicism. But even if we do face cynicism, the trump card is the business sense that it makes to the corporate world. It’s a win, win.”
The Roca Team’s overtime clash against Strasbourg (105-103) reached a breathtaking crescendo as Dwayne Bacon nailed a deep 3-pointer on the buzzer to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.
At times on Wednesday night, the game looked beyond the home side, as a certain lethargy and sloppiness crept into their game for large swathes of the match. However, with confidence high and a deep roster of highly talented players, there was always a lingering sense of the inevitable comeback.
Monaco’s inefficiency both inside and outside the key was rarely more pronounced than it was in the opening moments of the first-quarter. As is the tradition, the crowd remained standing until the first Monegasque hoop, few would have been expecting to be stood up for almost three minutes. Everyone was finally grateful for the chance to sit down.
In that time, Strasbourg had grown a six-point lead, and this set the tone for the fixture as the away side repeatedly constructed advantages, only to be reeled back in. Often, Strasbourg ceded the momentum through their own indiscipline. Monaco had an inferior efficiency in two and three-pointers on the night, but an avalanche of free-throws was ultimately crucial (27/36).
Speaking to Monaco Life, head-coach Sasa Obradovic alluded to this post-match, stating, “The opponent gave it to us, they gave us 27 assists. That was a magic number for us.”
For comparison, Strasbourg only converted 10/12 free-throws. That indiscipline undid much of the hard work done by Gaylor Curier and Matt Mitchell, the former particularly empathic outside the key (5/8).
Despite Strasbourg’s generous free-throw offering, Monaco still struggled to keep up with their more efficient opponents, and midway through the third-quarter found themselves with a 15-point deficit to overturn.
A Brock Motum three-pointer changed the atmosphere in the Salle Gaston Medecin, as the crowd once again got behind their side, spurring a late rally. A Mike James three-pointer on the third-quarter buzzer brought the Roca Team back within three, and the momentum was clearly with the home side going into the final quarter.
Parity was restored early in the final-quarter, before the sides began matching each other blow-for-blow, taking the game to overtime.
The five-minute overtime was a microcosm of the game itself, as Monaco found themselves in the familiar position of having to muster a comeback. With less than 1:40 on the clock, Bacon and Alpha Diallo helped overturn a five-point deficit, before DeAndre Landsdowne’s two-pointer with 1.7 seconds on the clock looked to have sealed the game in Strasborug’s favour (102-103).
There was, however, one more spectacular twist in the tail. From the baseline, Leo Westermann launched the ball towards Bacon, who swivelled and released from deep in what was almost a blind pop shot. Miraculously, and to the delight of the crowd who sprung to their feet, the ball found the hoop via the back-board, sealing a highly unlikely late victory (105-103).
Post-match, the American, Bacon described the match-winning shot to Monaco Life: “When you’ve played basketball for so long, you know what types of shots you can get off, and I knew I had the time to do it.”
Relying on such a moment of brilliance, the fortuitous circumstances of the victory were not lost on Obradovic. “We didn’t deserve to win today. The other team played better basketball.”
Bacon alluded to mindset being a key factor in the game not being wrapped-up earlier, saying, “We have a really good team, but sometimes we pick and choose when we come out to play. Tonight was one of those nights where we chose when we wanted to play, and it got late in the end.”
Bacon and co. will be hoping to register a more controlled victory when they visit Paris on Sunday.
Click on our Instagram post below to see some top shots from the night…
