Founded in 2018, today it includes more than 1200 Italian companies and homes
Agricultural energy source-to-consumer is the first community of Italian farms using 100% renewable and sustainable EKOenergy-labelled energy. Launched in 2018, thanks to the collaboration between Coldiretti and ForGreen Spa Società Benefit (Benefit Corporation), the project aims to raise awareness about and encourage the spread of information on the use of renewable energy. From 2021, the project has been extended to the national level following the accession of Coldiretti Puglia.
In the Italian production landscape, there are currently many companies that use EKOenergy-labelled energy and display the respective logo to show their commitment to the environment. The climate emergency is, in fact, a much-debated and concerning issue that has and continues to mobilize several sectors towards corporate social responsibility, increasingly so due to continuing negative impacts on the environment.
Coldiretti and ForGreen, which have always been particularly sensitive to environmental sustainability and management transparency, have effectively responded to the climate crisis through the development of Agricultural energy source-to-consumer, the first agro-energy community to use sustainable and totally renewable EKOenergy-labelled energy. This is a new service of assistance and management of the entire energy supply chain created for the community by combining production (already existing and coming from photovoltaic systems installed by farms) to consumption (by companies that do not have their own system and that, before joining the community, were consuming fossil energy).
«The EKOenergy label«, commented Vincenzo Scotti, CEO of ForGreen Spa SB, «is one of the important values of our model and of the project that we are developing together with Coldiretti to transform a daily need into a responsible choice«. As manager of the entire energy supply chain, ForGreen, which since 2009 has been developing energy sustainability models aimed at businesses and people, is responsible for taking back the energy produced, labelling it with the EKOenergy label and putting it back on the market for the farms and homes of Coldiretti members in Veneto region, the pilot area chosen to start the project.
The Italian aThe Italian agricultural sector has realised the potential and the guarantees that an international ecolabel such as EKOenergy provides and has embraced the idea of creating the Community with great awareness: to date, some 1200 farms and homes in the Veneto and Apulia regions have joined the initiative, with a total of 31,000 mWh exchanged between producers and consumers.
According to Luca D’Apote, Head of the Energy Department at Coldiretti and first advocate of the idea together with ForGreen, «it is important that the energy consumed by farms carries an ecolabel such as EKOenergy. Traceability and the possibility of guaranteeing the origin of a product, including energy, is a cornerstone of the agricultural policy promoted by Coldiretti because we’re able to guarantee the uniqueness and peculiarity of products and territories. It is, in fact, a ‘social pact’ able to offer the best guarantees to Italian and European citizens who have the right to be protected and to receive accurate information about the products they choose to buy. The environmental sustainability actions adopted by agricultural companies are also important, in addition to the place where the raw materials are collected and processed, the origin of the ingredients and the production methods«.
The success of Agricultural energy source-to-consumer has allowed ForGreen to launch an important informational and promotional campaign in which participants of the project can share their experiences and enhance their energy choice. Through the use of EKOenergy-labelled energy from ForGreen the participating farms are, in fact, demonstrating that they want to meet the challenges of the future and improve their market positioning, both in Italy and abroad.
«The Agricultural energy source-to-consumer project«, concluded CEO Scotti, «represents a major turning point in the role that energy can assume within a model that aims at sustainability. One key aspect of EKOenergy that we would like to emphasise more and more is also the social aspect. As a ‘Società Benefit’ (Benefit Corporation), it is, in fact, our objective, as well as a reason for great pride and satisfaction, to make all the people and companies that choose ForGreen aware of their contribution in the realization of beneficial projects financed by EKOenergy’s Environmental and Climate Funds«.
We thank Luca D’Apote and Coldiretti, Vincenzo Scotti and ForGreen, and all the agricultural farms participating in the project for choosing EKOenergy and contributing towards tackling climate change.
