SOFIGREEN. An European project to support green transition of social economy enterprises and entrepreneurs
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SOFIGREEN, a project co-funded by the European Commission under the SMP-COSME-2022-SSE Call of which the MeSSInA Foundation is the leader partner, started on October 2023 for a 24 months contract.
The main objective of SOFIGREEN is to support the greening of processes and activities of social and solidarity economy enterprises through the following types of actions: improving their investment readiness, their access to finance and their multi-stakeholder and multi-level cooperation network.
The project brings together a wide variety of organizations, from social finance intermediaries to philanthropic foundations from 3 advanced social economy areas (Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes in France, southern Italy regions and Andalusia in Spain), to create an ecosystem where investment opportunities match the needs of social economy enterprises.
SOFIGREEN‘s action plan entails first of all the co-design of a capacity-building package for social economy enterprises that addresses: the identification and assessment of skills, infrastructures and related investment needs necessary to achieve long-term climate objectives; the economic and financial planning required to realise these investments; access to funding opportunities and multi-stakeholder and multi-level cooperation practices. Then, two capacity-building courses (one for start-ups and one for growth enterprises) will be delivered in the target areas (Italy, France and Spain) by selecting a minimum of 90 enterprises.
At least 60 of them will then receive further financial support and coaching to improve their investment readiness and ecosystem approach, eventually accessing the necessary funding for their ecological transition. To further ensure the achievement of this objective, the consortium will discuss and co-design financial instruments suitable for SMEs and launch a European Venture Philanthropy Fund interconnected with a network of local funds and financial intermediaries. Cross-border cooperation will be developed through six transnational sessions.
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Co-funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the authors only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or EISMEA. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.
