Last Saturday, we presented our half yearly progress report to the Board of the Finnish Association for Nature Conservatlon, which is kindly hosting (and sponsoring) the EKOenergy Secretariat.

Things look very good. EKOenergy's approach works!

- Although we have a very small marketing budget, we continue to expand fast.
- The amount of sellers and the sold volumes of EKOenergy certified electricity are increasing nicely.
- We can show very concrete results, such as the projects financed by our Climate Fund and our Environmental Fund.
- We actively engage in a dialogue with the energy sector, we are a partner in national and international 100% renewable energy campaigns and we attract volunteers and trainees from all over Europe.

Our first Italian licensee, Multiutility, has launched their own EKOenergy product. We are very happy about this new step for EKOenergy in Italy!

Marco Merler, CEO, told to the press "Multiutility wants to offer its consumers a concrete opportunity to combine the needs of business with environmental and social concerns.”

The launch was mentioned in several websites, including wn.com, QualEnergia.it and greenews.info.

EKOenergy's Climate Fund donates €15,000 to a solar panel project in South-Cameroon. The Swiss organisation Solafrica and its local partners will install PV panels on three schools. 

The goal of Solafrica is to improve peoples’ lives by providing sustainable energy solutions. Schools without electricity mostly have kerosene lamps for lighting. This not only uses fossil fuels, but is also expensive. Also, kerosene lamps produce low quality light, are a fire risk and produce hazardous fumes.

Solafrica is a spin-off of Greenpeace Switzerland and works closely with local organisations.

See our website for more information on EKOenergy's Climate Fund.

TrackmyElectricity, or TME, is a product launched by Bergen Energi. It allows companies to source renewable energy in any geographic location. TME also includes an additional guarantee that a portion of the money invested by the companies will be spent directly funding projects that further support renewables.

One of TME's projects is a project of EKOenergy's Climate Fund: an off-grid solar project in the Peruvian Andes. 

We are confident this is the start of a long and fruitful cooperation. We are looking forward to it!

The festival season has started! The volunteers of the EKOenergy Secretariat spent last weekend at a stand in the World Village Festival, Helsinki.

In Italy, EKOenergy was an official supporter of the festival Fare i Conti con l’Ambiente, a well-established event which took place in Ravenna from 20th to 22nd May. And we are a partner of il Festival dell’Energia, which is taking place this week in Milan.

More than 7.7 million people are now employed by the renewable energy industry worldwide, according to a new report released by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA). This is an 18 % increase from last year’s figure of 6.5 million.

“Renewable energy continues to assert itself as a major global employer, generating strong economic and social benefits worldwide,” said IRENA Director-General Adnan Amin. “This increase is being driven, in part, by declining renewable energy technology costs. (...) We expect this upward trend to continue as the business case for renewable energy continues to strengthen.”

Click here for the full report: Energy and Jobs – Annual Review 2015.

Discussions between EKOenergy members, the EKOenergy Board and/or companies selling EKOenergy certified electricity can be referred to our Arbitration Panel, which takes a final decision.

We are now finalising the rules and procedures and we are composing the Arbitration Ranel.

We have found excellent candidate arbitrators, but before our Advisory Group and our Board will take the final decision, we want to give everybody a last chance to submit candidates.

Contact Steven.Vanholme@sll.fi for more information.