New year, same commitment: incorporating sustainability in the world of business for the environment’s sake. That’s where the EIC Greenhouse Gas Programme comes in. Part of the European Innovation Council (EIC), this GHG initiative is all about bringing awareness and developing ways of reducing carbon emissions through sustainable practices. The programme provides awareness of global warming and climate change by offering a set of top-notch tailored services to stimulate and support companies to reduce their carbon footprint and improve their business practices. We invite you to embark on a journey with us that highlights the initiatives and successes of the EIC’s GHG Programme throughout 2021.
In the past year, working on environmental-friendly practices and incorporating them into one’s business proved to advance on each company’s agenda. With that notion, the EIC reinforced its innovative role and took a step forward with the creation and launch of the EIC GHG Programme as a way of supporting its community of entrepreneurs and innovators.
EIC Greenhouse Gas Programme: Launching Event
With it, 5 Co-creation events with 160 SMEs present, eight dedicated monthly webinars with 250 participants, and the launch of the EIC GHG Tool with more than 100 registered users took place. This last one - the GHG Tool - offers support and expertise to its beneficiaries when accessing and monitoring their carbon footprint. As a result, deeming this innovative green initiative a success is an obvious choice. In this light, here’s our rundown of the key aspects of the GHG Programme in 2021.
A green world comes from green initiatives
Following the EIC’s GHG activities throughout 2021 meant keeping track of the various initiatives that took place across the Programme in declaring action towards GHG-emission-reduction targets. Strategic partners, such as corporates, industrial associations, regions in carbon transition, and others were involved counterparts in this commitment.
For that to happen, the EIC GHG Programme provided a variety of services that included:
1) thematic Webinars that covered topics like Green Electricity, Science Based Targets, Agricultural Sector, Electric & Hybrid Vehicles – among others;
2) co-Creation events with business partners such as Bondalti, Unilever, Suez, or the region of Western Macedonia;
3) a Resource Library available to all EIC beneficiaries with 26 different sources distributed among seven specific categories related to the programme to provide additional support.
On top of that, EIC-beneficiaries were offered the opportunity to access a dedicated carbon footprint tool to help track the company’s CO2 emissions and better develop more efficient solutions to track and reduce GHG emissions – the EIC GHG Tool. With it, companies could anticipate future regulations regarding sustainability and stay ahead of the green curve.
Choose the EIC for this carbon-reduction mission
These types of initiatives organised by the EIC are meant to support companies and promote sustainable innovation and growth. Hence why joining them and choosing the EIC for it is an obvious choice. With that in mind, getting to know the opinions of our EIC beneficiaries about organised GHG initiatives matters.
Take Sandra Andreu (Chief of Marketing and Innovation at Suez) who attended the EIC GHG Co-creation event with Suez, for instance. She pointed out that joining forces with the EIC was beneficial and stated: “The benefits are huge because the EIC possesses a very good view of all the interesting start-ups and scale-ups at the European level, and this was the perfect opportunity to work with some of them”.
When asked about Suez motivations for joining the EIC GHG initiative she immediately mentioned: “We thought it was a good idea to join this initiative because of our ambitious 1.5-degree strategy to reduce our emissions and our clients’ ones. […] For us, internal innovation is key to achieving this, but because we aim to accelerate the process that’s why we turn to start-ups, SMEs or more mature companies that could potentially have more interesting technologies to accelerate this transition and help us”.
She also added: “Being able to co-create with industries and adapt to each other’s needs is always beneficial. Hence why co-creation is so important and poses a valid way of working”.
What will happen next in this green journey?
The ‘green global trend’ isn’t disappearing anytime soon, so preserving modern society for future generations is mandatory. As an EIC-funded SME, you can join the initiatives of the EIC GHG programme, be it the co-creation activities, the webinars & resource library or by use of the EIC GHG Tool. Being a journey towards carbon neutrality, with a set of unique steps that you can benefit from, this programme will aid you in making your green contribution towards a cleaner and safer planet. So, if you’re looking for opportunities like these make sure to follow our EIC GHG Programme here.
DISCLAIMER: This information is provided in the interest of knowledge sharing and should not be interpreted as the official view of the European Commission, or any other organisation.