| 1. Electric vehicles charged with EKOenergy-labelled electricity |
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Virta's consumers now get 100% EKOenergy-labelled wind power when charging their electric vehicles at Virta's more than 5000 charging points in Finland. Virta also aims to expand the use of eco-labeled wind power to cover charging transactions in many other countries.
Virta is the fastest-growing electric vehicle charging platform in Europe and is operating in over 50 countries. Their digital platform connects all the key players in the electric vehicle ecosystem and provides services for the entire value chain: from user authentication, charging event management and billing to the flexible regulation of charging capacity and grid usage.
The fast electrification of the transport sector is crucial for the transition to a carbon-free society. By charging vehicles with EKOenergy-labelled renewable energy, users go the extra mile to speed up the energy transition.
Thank you for using EKOenergy! Together we can further amplify the positive impact of using renewables.
Photo: Ville Vappula / Virta |
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| "The transition to renewable electricity is crucial for the climate. It is technically possible and economically viable. By choosing renewable EKOenergy, we are making an environmentally friendly choice for our customers and accelerating the ongoing energy transition." - Elias Pöyry, Deputy CEO of Virta |
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| 2. First Ugandan EKOenergy user |
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St. Mary’s Hospital Lacor is a private, non-profit hospital located in Gulu, Uganda. Its mission is to guarantee affordable medical services, especially to the most needy.
The hospital's board has decided to add the EKOenergy ecolabel to all the electricity they get from their on-site solar installation. These panels currently produce about 30% of the electricity used by the hospital.
For energy consumers such as St. Mary’s Hospital Lacor, choosing EKOenergy is a way of showing that it's important to act locally while thinking globally.
By choosing our ecolabel and allowing us to use their example, EKOenergy users help us promote renewable energy worldwide. They can also use our internationally recognised logo in their communication to raise awareness. EKOenergy users also support clean energy projects we finance in places where people need it the most. |
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| 3. Help us select this year's Climate Fund projects |
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With our Climate Fund, we finance renewable energy projects that fight energy poverty and address several of the UN's Sustainable Development Goals.
All projects are selected through an open and transparent process.
We are now looking for consumers, energy sellers and experts who want to be involved in the selection of this year's projects.
Are you interested in becoming a part of the jury and participating in the selection process in the second half of April and May? Members of the jury will have to read, score and rank 15-20 pre-selected project proposals of 4 pages each.
If you'd like to be involved, contact Steven.Vanholme@sll.fi for more information |
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| "The ecolabel adds another layer of information. One of these elements is environmental sustainability. Another one is the fact that thanks to the demand from buyers, we finance new renewable energy projects all around the world." - Merve Güngör, Coordinator at EKOenergy ecolabel, on in an interview on SustaiNews |
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| 4. EKOenergy's 9-year anniversary |
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Today, on the 23rd of February, we celebrate the ninth anniversary of our ecolabel.
A good moment to look back on some of the achievements of the past years:
In 2013, we welcomed our first licensees and first consumers, mainly in the Nordic countries. In 2014, we participated in the development of the Greenhouse Gas Protocol Scope 2 Guidance. In 2015, we launched the EKOenergy ecolabel in Italy, Germany, France and several other countries. In 2016, we organised a renewable energy campaign in cooperation with Protect Our Winters and became active outside of Europe. In 2017, we approved our renewable gas criteria and developed our expertise regarding the environmental impact of hydropower thanks to the LIFE Freshabit project. In 2018, our "Renewable energy for breweries" campaign was one of the nominees for the European Sustainable Energy Week Award. In 2019, we spoke at conferences on three continents and were nominated for the Nordic Council Environment Prize, alongside Greta Thunberg. In 2020, the total cumulative contributions of our Climate Fund exceeded 1 million euros and we welcomed our first licensees in New Zealand and Russia. In 2021, we got the European Citizen's Prize from the European Parliament and experienced a fast-growing interest in EKOenergy-labelled power from on-site solar installations.
None of these would have been possible without the active support of many of you! Thanks to all our partners, licensees and consumers. Together we are making a difference, and the positive impact is growing year after year.
For our most recent results and developments, see our Annual Report 2021. |
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| 5. News from our previously financed Climate Fund projects |
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In the past weeks, we received news from many ongoing and recently finished projects that we have financed thanks to EKOenergy users.
In 2021, we granted 27,000 € to Association Jeunesse Verte du Cameroun to help them launch solar-powered sewing machines. The project aims to create income-generating opportunities and improve the living standards of women. On the 9th of February, 40 seamstresses received sewing machines at the ceremony at l’Hôtel Girafe in Yaoundé.
Last year, EKOenergy granted 18,500 € to Amazon Conservation Team and their local partners for the installation of solar energy systems at 2 new indigenous community health centres in the Colombian Amazon. The health centres have been finalised in recent weeks. The solar systems will be installed soon.
In 2020, EKOenergy granted 22,000 € to Istituto Oikos to bring solar power to 2 remote communities in Rakhine State, Myanmar. All installations are now in place, as seen in the video they recently made. This project brought reliable renewable energy to 50 households.
In 2019, EKOenergy granted 24,000 € to Santé Sud to equip 8 maternity centres in Madagascar with solar energy. The project was successfully finalised last year, and we received some more photos earlier this month.
Follow us on social media for regular updates! |
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| "We thus conclude that the transition to clean energy business models is not occurring, since the magnitude of investments and actions does not match discourse. Until actions and investment behavior are brought into alignment with discourse, accusations of greenwashing appear well-founded." - Li M, Trencher G, Asuka J (2022), The clean energy claims of BP, Chevron, ExxonMobil and Shell: A mismatch between discourse, actions and investments |
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| 6. We are a supporting association of the REC Market Meeting (5 - 6 April) |
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As in previous years, EKOenergy is a proud supporting association of the REC Market Meeting.
EKOenergy is particularly involved in the organisation of the C-stream sessions. That stream focuses on basic information about tracking systems and how they are being used in practice. It will also zoom in on new developments in the field of energy tracking. Together with the organisers, we want to make sure that both long-term experts and newcomers have a fruitful conference, with plenty of opportunities to meet, learn and discuss.
This year's REC Market Meeting will take place in Amsterdam, under “business as usual” circumstances on the 5th and 6th of April.
For the full program and registration, see the conference website. You can register at the normal rate until the 15th of March.
After two years of virtual meetings, we are looking forward to seeing many of you there! |
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| 7. Sharing information about renewables, ecolabelling and more |
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We continue spreading information about renewable energy to various audiences and in different languages. We focus on the importance of immediate climate action and on how the EKOenergy ecolabel contributes to the global energy transition.
In the past weeks, Merve Güngör from our Secretariat gave a guest lecture about renewable energy markets to the students of the Technische Universität Bergakademie Freiberg and participated in the bilingual Cypriot radio program Αντίστροφοι Πόλοι / Zıt Kutuplar, which focuses on the importance of cooperation in the fight against nature degradation and climate change.
As you may have seen in the short trailer on our social media, Merve was also interviewed by SustaiNews last week. You can watch the full interview about Energy Attribute Certificates and ecolabels on the Think RE YouTube channel. |
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| 8. EKOenergy on social media |
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By following EKOenergy on social media, you get relevant updates about the climate crisis, renewable energy and EKOenergy's activities worldwide.
Here are some recent posts: Consumers can use EKOenergy-labelled renewable electricity from on-site installations. The consumption of Etiquetas Macho from their solar panels carries the EKOenergy ecolabel. (on LinkedIn)
Our call for clean energy project proposals is now closed. We received 200 applications and started the sorting! Thanks to all EKOenergy users and sellers for making our Climate Fund projects possible. (on Twitter)
Sisifo SRL uses EKOenergy-labelled energy from ForGreen. This way, they promote the energy transition in Italy and worldwide. Grazie! Thank you Sisifo! (on Twitter)
We were at the climate strike in front of the Finnish parliament again. It's getting a bit repetitive but we'll continue to give the same message: End all fossil fuels! Climate action now! (on Instagram)
The video about the solar project in the village of Pimperna, Mali, now has subtitles in English. (on Youtube) |
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| 9. Fossil and nuclear sectors continue lobbying as before |
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In the past weeks, we have once again seen many examples of fossil fuel and nuclear lobbying — all at the expense of renewable energy and our planet
The following drew our attention in particular: There are many personal and economic links between Germany's former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, Gazprom, Russian president Putin and the prime minister of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Manuela Schwesig. It's quite likely that this helps explain the approval of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline from Russia to Germany.
The Californian action group "Affordable Clean Energy for All", which campaigns against support for rooftop solar, is a public relations campaign sponsored by big utility companies that will benefit from policies that hurt rooftop solar!
Some media highlighted that the following incidences are possibly related: French president Macron's generous support for the nuclear sector, the financial problems of the state-controlled energy provider EDF and the expectation that EDF will sell electricity cheaper in the months ahead of the French presidential elections (which will cost EDF around 8 billion euros).
Five Polish energy (coal) companies, all with close ties to the current government, have launched a three-million-euro campaign to blame the EU's climate policy for the skyrocketing energy prices. These are only from countries where the press has the freedom to investigate such cases and report about them... |
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We at EKOenergy are always enthusiastic to collaborate with new partners.
For further information, please do not hesitate to get in touch. |
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