Neoenergia's Deputy CEO Solange Ribeiro has participated last night (16) in “SDGs in Brazil – The Role of the Private Sector", an event of the UN Global Compact held in New York focused in showcasing actions from companies involved in meeting Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). She presented the initiatives of the Eficiência Energética (Energy Efficiency) Program, focused in multiplying information among students, with the proprietary projects “Festival Tô ligado na Energia" and “Paxuá e Paramim" - characters created by Carlinhos Brown musician, who help, in an interactive manner, in the learning of efficient and safe energy consumption. Based on the Energy Efficiency Program, regulated by the Electric Energy National Agency (Aneel), Neoenergia's distributors (Coelba, Celpe, Elektro and Cosern) disseminate knowledge to over 13.9 million customers,, with a focus on the natural resources preservation and reduction of the impacts to the environment.
Solange Ribeiro was one of the panelists in “Engaging Youth for a Sustainable Future" panel. In addition to the presentation of Festival “Tô ligado na Energia" and “Paxuá e Paramirim", she also talked about other Neoenergia's project: “Energia que Transforma", which provides content and methodology so that teachers may multiply the subject of efficient energy use. From 2013 to 2018, this project has trained 3,589 teachers from 2007 schools, in 657 cities, reaching 370,730 students.
Other company's action highlighted by Solange was “Educação com Energia", which sets visits to communities and education institutions with an educational mobile unit, and “Aulas de Energia" Project, a network of education spaces that help in the understanding on how electric energy is generated, its route, cost and how to use it efficiently.
From 2008 to 2018, Neoenergia has invested R$ 500 million in social projects. From this total, R$ 51 million were allocated to a series of actions in education area. The remaining R$ 448 million were focused in low-income projects - resulting in a 538 GWh annual reduction in energy consumption, the equivalent to the monthly use of 4.9 million Brazilian households.
“With this program, we were able to avoid the emission of around 40 tons of CO2 per year in the atmosphere, reinforcing our commitment in combatting climate change", said Solange Ribeiro. “The social and environmental investments are a priority for Neoenergia, and are a part the company's strategy". She also added that the efforts of government, companies and society are required for achieving UN goals for reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. “Due to this, we promote network technologies, clean energy generation and energy efficiency", she said.
Neoenergia focuses its efforts in SDGs in which its contribution is more relevant, such as the supply of affordable and clean energy; combat climate change and its impacts; ensure availability of water and sanitation; build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation; promote respect to life; strengthen the means of implementation and global partnerships for sustainable development.