Amsterdam Awarded Prize for sustainability fund
Amsterdam was recently awarded for its fund of sustainability at the 2016 year-end ceremony. The Amsterdam Investment Fund was described as being an “excellent example of innovation” and it will help improve the city’s its sustainability. The award is a tribute and recognition that is paid to the city’s efforts to decrease consumption of energy on a global scale.
The Amsterdam Sustainability Fund
Many Dutch companies have shown interest in investing in Amsterdam’s sustainability, but they claim to not have enough funds. The city of Amsterdam then organised this sustainability fund as a solution to the problem. The fund provides loans or equity capital to sustainable projects developed by companies or Amsterdam residents. One of the conditions for these sustainability projects is to recover the initial investments so that the loan returns to the fund so that the money is then put into other sustainable projects.
The fund addresses every citizen, company, project or large Dutch enterprises in Amsterdam, making it very unique. The fund has already raised 22 million EUR and one of its first projects was to install solar panels on the roof of the Amsterdam RAI. The project’s success lies in the fact that it reduces about 150 tons of CO2 gasses per year.
One of the fund’s founders, Abdeluheb Choho, says that they are working on speeding up funding and investments towards these projects. He mentions that the project contribute to several social and environmental benefits on a local and international level. This only makes the point clearer that sustainable energy is crucial for investors. He also states that this win has brought a 30 million EUR influx to the sustainable that will be used to further fund projects in Amsterdam.
Amsterdam at the City Climate Leadership Awards
Representatives of the city of Amsterdam were also invited to attend the City Climate Leadership Awards – a programme initiated by over 40 countries. Amongst the C40 cities that participated was Beijing, London, New York and Sao Paolo and together they collaborated in the field of innovation and sustainability to make cities greener.