On 10 November, Belarusian small and medium-sized businesses that use new approaches to struggle with climate change were awarded.
At the first call round award ceremony, four companies received Vouchers worth 170,000 euros, about 40,000 each. Representatives from the European Union (EU), the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), and other partners attended an event. In Belarus, this program is implemented with the CIVITA consulting company.
The grant will cover 75% of the cost of innovative solutions and technologies developed and implemented by the winning companies. These are engineering services, development of design documentation, searching of market needs, etc.
Experts emphasised the company’s market potential, innovativeness, ability to scale, and competitiveness as criteria in choosing the winners.
Among the winners are the company that organises the short-term rental of micro mobile vehicles Eleven By; My Shop Bel develops and manufactures charging stations for electric scooters and bicycles; KinoMayak automates the transfer of data from the repertoire planning form to the cinema projector; Chek Back does a project that reduces coffee waste.
Eleven BY has developed an electric scooter to participate in the project and is now working on an electric bike for sharing.
Charging stations from My Shop Bel will simplify the terms of use for owners of individual electric vehicles and for organisations that rent them out.
KinoMayak creates a program that will automatically extinguish the lamp and send the projector to "sleep mode" for the time set for starting/leaving the cinema hall and cleaning the hall between sessions.
Chek Back and its EcoCoffee project use coffee grounds as fertilisers, additives to biofuels or cosmetics, and street deicing agents.
Before the award, a webinar about climate innovations, helpful world, and Belarusian practices is organised for CIV participants and online listeners. Speakers include Marius Brinzea, EBRD International Energy Efficiency and Environment Consultant, and other European and Belarusian experts.
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CIV aims to increase the competitiveness of small and medium-sized businesses in the development and implementation of climate technologies. Vouchers enable Belarusian SMEs to receive a grant of up to EUR 50,000 to develop climate innovations.
The program includes five rounds of selection, two of which are in Belarus, the rest in Ukraine.
