Investing and earning on sustainability: a possibility open to all

The energy revolution is a topic that concerns everyone, a reality with which everyone, sooner or later, will have to deal directly. What we are already learning today is that being sustainable is a choice that can no longer be postponed and that it can be faced in various ways: waiting for others to decide for us, or we can act, doing our part even in our small way.

However, to participate in the energy revolution and to achieve greater collective prosperity, coordinated actions are needed so that every euro invested goes towards building a future of the same quality as what is bought or financed.

It is in this area, with this objective, that the digital investment platforms that invest in sustainability are also moving. We talked about it with Giorgio Mottironi, co-founder and strategy manager of Ener2Crowd, the first Italian platform for energy and sustainable lending crowdfunding.

According to the 6th Italian Report on CrowdInvesting, Politecnico di Milano, Italians rely more and more on digital tools to invest their savings. What can they do with Ener2Crowd?

From the first minute, our mission has always been clear: to build a better future by promoting innovative investment methods, spreading sustainability and sharing its benefits. Through our platform and app, we offer the opportunity to invest and save sustainably. Each investment aims to reduce CO2 emissions related to the generation, transformation, and use of energy which today account for 75 percent of all climate-altering emissions that cause climate change.

Why is investing in Ener2Crowd revolutionary?

For several reasons. By choosing to invest your savings and financial resources well, you make the riches of the present available for a shared future of greater wealth and well-being. To make a difference, for everyone, together. Thanks to the financial technologies developed and launched by Ener2Crowd, it is possible to seize an enormous opportunity to redistribute wealth, avoiding leaving the enormous benefits deriving only to large capitals, and incurring direct or indirect costs linked to the potential future taxation of emissions. With Ener2Crowd we are turning this paradigm upside down. Today we are the largest community of ethical investors in Italy, with more than 7,000 registered people, almost 12 million euros in funds raised (at a rate of 600,000 euros – one million euros per month) and around 12,000 tonnes of CO2 avoided.

Who are the people who have joined your project, who are the investors?

60 percent of users are under the age of 44: this demonstrates that it is a tool much appreciated by the new, more digitized generations who, due to the volumes used, use it as an alternative to savings products (direct or integrated). Over-45s, who represent about 18 percent of users, are instead more likely to use it as an opportunity for differentiation in their investment strategy. But these data are precisely those that, through its initiative, Ener2Crowd wants to reverse by supporting the younger generations in building a path of growth of their wealth over a time horizon of 5, 10 and 20 years, for which we have even set up a ” Green Generation Bonus”, i.e. an additional return of 0.5% paid by us, in favor of the Under24s.

Is it easy to become a Greenvestor?

It takes a few minutes and an identity card to sign up and open the wallet. Additional documents are uploaded to top up your digital wallet and invest. Everything happens quickly and safely. Then just choose the most suitable project for you and lend money to organizations that promote sustainable projects. Proposers will use the funds to implement green projects. In addition, you can monitor your investments in the reserved area: stay in touch with proposers and receive updates on projects. The project promoters will repay the capital together with interest based on the type of amortization plan envisaged: this means that progress can be measured every three months.

What do you recommend?

The advice we give is to invest with a certain frequency, to build a savings plan. Various studies have shown that by investing small sums a month, or every two months, and reinvesting them with the interest generated, it is possible to build an accumulation plan which within 5/10/15 years is able to generate an snowball about the wealth a person manages to hoard. And this with quite surprising results: by investing 300 euros a month after ten years, the capital is multiplied by 1.6/1.7 times which practically means having obtained returns equal to those who are immediately able to invest 60 thousand euros and leave them there to pay for all this time with traditional financial instruments. And this is one of the significant aspects of the revolution we are bringing about: we are giving the possibility to small capitals made available for the construction of a sustainable future to return what big capitals are able to do through the instruments of traditional finance.

Do you help investors in their choice?

We recommend reading returns, looking at the loan term, to decide which product is best suited to your financial situation and your projects. To give greater guarantees of safety and effectiveness of the environmental impacts that these projects are capable of generating, we give a score – and we are the only digital investment platform to do so – the high or low value corresponds to an investment rate. It is a synthetic indicator of the goodness of the offer: people can understand if that project is managed by a large or small company, if it is historic or new, if it uses a newer technology than others. In the coming days, the “EnerLine” will also be activated, i.e. a direct telephone line with us to receive technical assistance or discuss investment opportunities.

Who proposes their projects on your platform?

The main operators in the sector work with us who have understood the importance of directly involving people, private finance, because it manages to get there very quickly where it is needed. The great benefit we bring to the sector is to quickly get capital to where that capital is capable of being immediately put to work to increase the sustainability of a company or of our energy production system.

What is your goal?

We want to create a socially motivated financial movement that demonstrates that sustainability is the key to progress. By redistributing the benefits, a more equitable economic dimension can be achieved. We want to create a more just society through the proposition of inclusive opportunities. Because our goal is to involve all those who believe in our message.

To find out more, just access the platform: https://www.ener2crowd.com/it/home