The Energy Globe World Awards 2019: actions needed

14 November 2019
by smeunited -- last modified 14 November 2019

"European companies are global pioneers in environmental protection and resource efficiency. This is underlined by the nomination of many European initiatives among the finalists for the Energy Globe World Award," says Ulrike Rabmer-Koller, President of SMEunited, after yesterday's award ceremony in Espoo, Finland.

International events like the Energy Globe World Awards are an important occasion to enhance visibility and support companies in their activities for becoming greener and more sustainable.

"Our SMEs are already making substantial contributions to climate protection, for sustainable business models and increasing energy efficiency. They are ready to do even more, but they need substantial incentives, appropriate framework conditions and extensive information. Because SMEs are the key to achieving our climate and sustainability goals," says Rabmer-Koller in her keynote statement. Due to their role as main source of growth, jobs and social cohesion, no strategy to achieve the climate and sustainable development goals is going to be successful without SMEs!

Therefore, she emphasised that: "In order for SMEs to manage the green transformation successfully, we have to make sure that on the one hand GreenTech SMEs keep innovating and successfully developing new technologies to give the EU a competitive edge worldwide. On the other hand, the EU will have to provide the right political and legislative framework for the big bulk of SMEs to move to more circular and carbon neutral business models. This includes information, technical assistance, easier access to finance for the upfront investments, reskilling and upskilling of their workforce as well as capacity building of SME organisations, particularly at local level."

The Energy Globe World Award, presented in the following categories, brings projects and companies to the front whose innovations, products and services promote energy and resource efficiency, environmental and climate protection and the sustainable business model. By showcasing innovate solutions and best practice examples from all over the world, companies may follow the same path enabling transformation and thus multiplying the savings effects.

• In the category Earth, the award goes to Bioestibas, the first ecological pallet and board factory in Latin America. The main component of the product is the stem of hydrangeas, a Colombian flower exported in large quantities. The agricultural waste is now used for production of ecological pallets and boards.
• In a sustainable showcase project from England, London introduced Europe's largest fleet of electric buses changing from diesel to electric operations. This project is awarded in the category Fire.
• The award in the category Water goes to Morocco, where the winning project is addressing water scarcity and uses fog-collection technology to produce up to 34,000 litres water per day.
• In the category Air, the award goes to Austria for a company which developed a new treatment for an environmentally-friendly and cost optimized automated hull treatment system for maintaining ship hulls reducing pollution and use of fossil fuels. Ex aequo, the Finnish town Espoo has been awarded for its goal of making the city carbon neutral by 2030 through the establishment of public-private-partnerships.
• In the category Youth, a project from Moldova is awarded for developing a map-based project management tool which helps to manage environmental projects and fieldwork collaboratively within a global community.
• The special category "Energy for All" award goes to a showcase project from Indonesia. Rural regions are supplied with solar energy, providing schools, hospitals and residential buildings with electricity.

SMEunited is the association of Crafts and SMEs in Europe with around 70 member organisations from over 30 European countries. SMEunited represents national cross-sectoral Craft and SME federations, European SME branch organisations and associate members. Combined, it represents more than 12 million enterprises with around 55 million employees across Europe. SMEunited is also a recognised employers' organisation and European Social Partner. SMEunited was formally known as UEAPME.

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