ENERGY POVERTY

ENERGY POVERTY

At the beginning of 2016, Fundació SURT began a pilot project for The Fight Against Energy Poverty, backed by the City Counsel of Barcelona in conjunction with the Catalan Entities for Social Action (ECAS).

This innovative project has two objectives. On one side, it hopes to visit nearly 5,000 homes in the city with the intention of advising residents how they may improve the energy efficiency of their homes and viable methods for reducing consumption and the cost of electricity, water, and gas bills. Advising will be primarily conducted by professionals in the areas of constructions and long-term unemployment. This effort responds to the second objective, creation and improvement of job opportunities in a sector hit particularly hard  by the economic crisis.

This project is also innovative due to the collaboration born between Suara Cooperativa, Fundación Surt, Fundación Salud y Comunidad, Fundación Mercè Fontanilles, Fundación Ciudad y Valores, Fundación Ámbito Prevención, Asociación Iniciativas Solidarias and finally, the organization responsible for leading the initiative, Asociación Bienestar y Desarrollo.

At this time, the project is finalizing the technical training of professionals lead by the Ecoserveis who contributes to the project through material addressing energy efficiency.

Fundació SURT, in alliance with Suara Cooperativa, will coordinate a team of 20 professionals servicing nearly 1,000 homes in the districts of Ciutat Vella y Sarrià-Sant Gervasi, until July of 2016.

This project originated from the need to fight against the issue of energy poverty that unfortunately affects a large part of the population. Although we are aware that this is not a solution in itself, it’s a first step towards rationalizing the energy consumption of homes in our city, bettering energy efficiency, and contributing to a city that is more sustainable and respecting of the environment.

Fundació SURT and Suara Cooperativa, like the initiative’s other participants as well as the City Counsel of Barcelona, are very aware of the challenge and responsibility this project entails and because of which, we hope to live up to the height of the circumstances and respond in the best way possible to the challenge that lies ahead.