Energy Community:
2 years of shared success
On the afternoon of 24 September, we opened our doors to mark the anniversary of the launch of our renewable Energy Community, created in partnership with Greenvolt Comunidades. Two years after the project went live, the time was right to share with our stakeholders the figures behind our strategic decision to invest in solar photovoltaic power generation, and why we chose to do it within an Energy Community.
The event, named “Shared Energy, Shared Value”, brought together companies, local partners and guest experts for a roundtable, fittingly set up in front of the solar panels. It was an afternoon of reflection and, above all, of exchanging ideas on sustainability, industrial competitiveness and shared value.
The figures speak for themselves
The numbers speak for themselves! On average, our solar panels generated around 360,000 kWh of renewable energy per year. Close to 200,000 kWh of that is surplus energy, which we share with four neighbouring companies. The results are already clear: in two years, savings have exceeded €31,000, and we avoid around 28 tonnes of CO₂ emissions per year. To put that in perspective, this is equivalent to the carbon absorbed from the atmosphere each year by 1,200 mature trees.
A solution born out of necessity
The Energy Community was not where we started. Maria Lobo Maia, Managing Director of Groupe GM Cosmética Portugal, recalled that after the pandemic and the outbreak of war in Ukraine, we realised just how dependent we were on energy suppliers. However, individual self-consumption proposals didn’t fit our consumption profile. “I didn’t want to install a power plant that would generate energy Groupe GM didn’t need.” When Greenvolt’s model came along, the idea of sharing won her over straight away, because it meant “no longer thinking of our needs as being ours alone.”
Miguel Lobo Maia, CEO of Groupe GM for the Iberian Peninsula and the United Kingdom, noted how real these issues are for those working in industry. Once a project becomes collective, “we step outside our own bubble” and it takes on a territorial dimension. For him, what has been achieved so far is only one stage, and there is still a long road ahead in terms of improvement and sharing.
José Queirós de Almeida, CEO of Greenvolt Comunidades, explained that the model adopted grew out of Portugal’s regulatory framework, and that Greenvolt invested on behalf of its customers, meaning Groupe GM pays only for the energy it consumes. For him, sustainability has to be financial first: “The sustainability solutions we bring to businesses must, first and foremost, make economic sense.” He also left a warning: “Doing nothing has a cost too.”
Plenty of expertise around the table
After the opening remarks came the moment most eagerly awaited by those present. The roundtable was chaired by Margarida Rossi, Managing Director of the Business Association of Minho (AEMINHO), with Paulo Cunha, Chief Financial Officer at Domingos de Sousa & Filhos, and Tiago Carrilho, Head of Knowledge & Training at BCSD Portugal, joined by Maria Lobo Maia and José Queirós de Almeida.
Tiago Carrilho drew on his experience at BCSD to show that collaboration creates value through scale, efficiency, shared risk and innovation, summing it up as follows: “Sustainability isn’t a strategy. It’s the strategy.” He also stressed the importance of sharing real-life examples because “we learn by imitation.”
The closing remarks were delivered by Artur Silva Jorge, Senior Economic Advisor at Viana do Castelo Municipal Council, who praised the project’s pioneering spirit and its ability to inspire other businesses: “Two years on, we are not at a finishing line. We are at a starting point.”
The afternoon ended on a celebratory note with the unveiling of a commemorative banner, followed by a cocktail reception that kept the conversations flowing.
The feedback from our guests was overwhelmingly positive and reinforced our conviction that the Energy Community, a first within Groupe GM, creates value for the company and the community alike, in line with the sustainability goals that are part of our DNA.
