The European Commission has announced the winners of the first EU Ecolabel Communication Award.

The European Commission has announced the winners of the first EU Ecolabel Communication Award. The award recognises exceptional promotional activities to increase public awareness of the EU Ecolabel – the EU's label for environmentally-friendly goods and services. The three winners, selected by a jury of environmental and communication experts, were announced at a ceremony in Brussels last night. The Bush Hotel in Carrick-on-Shannon, Co Leitrim, which became the first hotel in Ireland to be awarded the EU Ecolabel in March this year, won the service provider category. The hotel was praised by judges for raising awareness of the EU Ecolabel through a variety of promotional tools, including an in-house awareness campaign, a suppliers' charter and organised site visits. Two organisations were named joint winners in the producer category. Ceramic tile maker Gruppo Concorde, based in Modena, Italy, was singled out for its outstanding promotional campaigns. The group, which has more than 1,500 EU Ecolabelled products, was congratulated for its publicity materials, including a series of very attractive and well targeted brochures, as well as their effective use of the logo.

Joint winner in this category was French paints and varnishes producer ONIP, based in Le Kremlin-Bicêtre, near Paris. The company began a promotional campaign in 2005 to raise awareness of the EU Ecolabel in the trade and professional sector. It has successfully used a variety of approaches including website publicity, conferences, leaflets and press articles. The EU Ecolabel – the only pan-European environmental label – was launched in 1992 to encourage the production and consumption of green products and services across the European Union. Today, nearly 20,000 products and services carry the label's signature Flower logo. For further details contact ecolabel@biois.com or visit www.ecolabel.eu .