Collaborative funding for more sustainable future
In 2015, 195 countries adopted the first-ever universal, legally binding global climate deal. The Paris Agreement set important targets limiting global warming to below 2°C. Moreover, Europe has taken the lead by pledging to cut its global carbon emissions by 40% by 2030. These are ambitious goals that involve all of us to make them happen!
Recent years of technology development in renewable energy and energy efficiency, along with innovative business models, have created exciting and competitive opportunities for the transition to a more decentralized, efficient and clean economy. Huge projects have been implemented in recent years that have brought great results, but today these benefits are also available for smaller-scale projects, especially those that fit in the business logic and competitiveness of SMEs, a segment of special relevance in Portugal.
What is more, new financing modalities supported by peer-to-peer platforms (crowdfunding or collaborative financing) have opened new, diverse markets that connect investors with projects to be financed. This is an exciting area that has seen significant growth, and in Europe alone it went from 1,127M € invested in 2013 to 7,671M € in 2016.
A new community of investing citizens, who are seeking not only the financial return, but also the environmental and social return of the projects or companies in which they invest, has emerged. The conditions have been efficiently defined accordingly with the constant increase of sustainable projects realisation.
At GoParity, we have done our part and a number of sustainable projects have been introduced in order to give them visibility and gain input from the community of consciously investing citizens, explains Luís Couto, GoParity’s CFO. Projects, such as Pegões Solar, respond to the specific needs of small and medium organizations (SME), which are able to realize the economic rationale of becoming more sustainable. These are projects whose investment is paid in a few years with the savings generated by their implementation and that allow a positive impact on the environment.
The Pegões Solar, is a project of Cerâmica de Pegões — a company from a traditional ceramic sector, but with a clear awareness of the return that can lead to greater environmental sustainability. Knowing that energy is one of the key components of its cost structure, the company quickly moved towards the implementation of more competitive and environmentally friendly solutions. After a significant investment in a biomass plant, which provides all the energy required for brick drying and firing, they then moved towards a new investment in a photovoltaic plant, which enables to save money while increasing its consumption profile of renewable energy.
This is just one example, but more and more projects like this one bring together consciously investing citizens, whose main objective is not only making financial profit, with sustainable ideas of small and medium-sized organizations (SME). By that, both sides can make a significant contribution to the involvement in building a sustainable future.
