News from EKOenergy

All over the world, renewable energy is uniting people and is bringing positive dynamics to villages, cities, regions and countries.

No matter what politicians decide and why they decide it, the transition to a 100% renewable world is unstoppable and this evolution brings along new opportunities for poverty reduction, social progress, equality, peace and sustainable economic growth.

One of EKOenergy's aim is to make it easier for people to get involved in this transition and to contribute to it. We encourage consumers in over 20 countries to vote with their wallets, we make electricity sellers enthusiastic about renewable energy, we unite environmental organisations and activists from over 30 countries around a concrete and promising project. No matter whether you live in the EU or outside (or somewhere in between), join us and let's focus on what unites us, not on what divides us.

EKOenergy is donating €20,000 to the North-American NGO Green Empowerment to implement a solar energy project in remote villages in Northern Nicaragua.

Green Empowerment is creating a revolving-loan fund that will provide rural families with 15-month interest-free microcredits for the purchase of solar systems. This is a follow up project of an earlier sucesssfull project in the same area. The project happens in cooperation with the local organisation Association of Rural Development Workers – Ben Linder (ATDER-BL).

Click here for more information about the project.

"At this moment, EKOenergy labeled electricity is the most environmentally friendly option. It is developed by environmental organisations to avoid that the expansion of renewable energy goes at the expense of nature. With the exception of the Estonian Government, we all understand that fueling the power plants of Eesti Energia with wood from the forests of Ida-Viru, is only green on paper, but not in reality."

Piret Väinsalu (Estonian Fund for Nature) in the digital version of Postimees, one of the main Estonian Newspapers.

For each MWh of EKOenergy-certified electricity sold, at least €0.10 goes to EKOenergy’s Climate Fund. We want to use this year's money of the Climate Fund to finance small renewable electricity projects aiming at alleviation of energy poverty.  We are looking for projects to be financed in 2017 and 2018.

The deadline for submission is 30 September.

Click here for the call for projects.

We also welcome experts, EKOenergy consumers and EKOenergy suppliers to be part of the jury. Jury members can choose themselves at which stage of the selection they want to be involved (preselection / top 30 / top 15). Contact us for more information.

Last week, Savero, a German 100% renewable electricity supplier, launched a new EKOenergy-certified product: "SAVERO Öko-PUR Privat".

The electricity originates from an Austrian hydropower plant which has recently invested in a new fish passage.

Savero, thanks for leading the way! We are proud to have you on board and we are looking forward to a nice and successful cooperation.
 

"For Otava, the switch to EKOenergy was mainly a question of ethics: our Group wants to support Finnish, sustainable energy as well as the transition to a more sustainable way of using energy. EKOenergy is an obvious and simple way to do so."

Otava’s CSR manager Wilhelm Ehrnrooth, in the newest blogpost on our website: "For Otava, switching to EKOenergy was easy".

The EU Ecolabel, (sometimes referred to as the EU flower) is a voluntary ecolabel scheme established in 1992 by the European Commission. It has criteria for a wide range of product groups, such as for paper, cosmetic products and clothing.

In the last two years, the European Commission has been reviewing the criteria for the European Ecolabel for Tourist Accomodations Services (i.e. hotels, hostels,...).

According to the new criteria, adopted 10 days ago, hotels get extra points if their electricity contract is ecolabeled by an independent entity and if the ecolabel promotes the investment in new renewable power capacities. EKOenergy fulfills these requirements and we are really looking forward to working together with hotels aiming at getting the EU Ecolabel.

We are happy that the EU Ecolabel endorses the work of other ecolabels that are specialised in energy and we hope that the reference to ecolabeled electricity will find its way to the criteria for other product groups too.

Contact Steven Vanholme for more information.

The Finnish Association for Nature Conservation, which hosts the EKOenergy Secretariat, has installed solar panels.

This means that the EKOenergy Secretariat is now mainly powered by solar energy!

You can follow the output of our installation via http://www.sll.fi/solar.

And we have of course an EKOenergy certified electricity contract, to provide us with sustainable electricity whenever the sun doesn't shine!

Our member organisation Ecoserveis is an active member of the Fuel Poverty Group. That is a network of people and organisations fighting energy poverty through energy advice for vulnerable consumers.

In the past months, over 50 activists have been involved in 80 events such as workshops about energy and energy saving.

So far, the Fuel Poverty Group is only active in Spain, but there are plans to replicate the model in other countries.

See http://energiajusta.org/

Many regions in the Middle East, Asia,  Africa and Latin-America are experiencing higher air temperatures, drier air and severe droughts.

Droughts are detrimental to the environment. But droughts also have serious consequences for people’s livelihoods, affecting everything from agriculture and water supply to transportation and health. Nearly 40 percent of the world relies on agriculture as its main source of income. So if severe droughts lead water shortages in an area dependent on agriculture, it puts the health and wellbeing not only of animals and crops at risk, but of the farmers and communities that depend on them too.

Studies revealed that the drought that is affecting the eastern Mediterranean Levant region since 1998 is likely the worst in the past 900 years and played (plays) a crucial role in the Syrian tragedy.

These paragraphs are partially based on the article The Link Between Climate Change and Drought.

For more news about the droughts, see also India Is Suffering One of Its Worst Droughts in Decades, Why Vietnam Is Running Dry, Worst Drought In Nearly 100 Years, Ethiopia struggles with worst drought for 50 years leaving 18 million people in need of aid, El Niño And Climate Change Are Making The Amazon Dry And Flammable, and many, many more...