Global Green News: Green projects get a $47.6 million lift from EU

Global green news for the past week has revolved around funding for renewable energy projects.  This week, another financing project for clean energy makes it to the news as enterprising small and medium-sized businesses may now be able to get financing support of up to 50 percent from the European Union.

A total of 35 million euros or $47.6 million will be invested into the E.U.’s eco-innovation program. According to E.U., the eco-innovation will include new products, manufacturing methods, services, management, and business processes that lessen impact on the environment and maximize use of resources available.

According to the European Commission, the fund will be assisting start-up projects in green business, sustainable building products, materials recycling, and the food and drink sector in entering the market.

Around 45 to 50 new green projects are expected to receive assistance from the fund.  The projects will be selected based on their market duplication potential, originality of processes, and participation to European environmental policies.

Green businesses, according to global green news, are said to take around 2.5 percent of the E.U.’s gross domestic product.

For materials recycling, the E.U. is on the look-out for projects that have environment-friendly design, green sorting methods, and innovations that increase effectiveness of the recycling business.

Green building projects that will be approved by the E.U., on the other hand, should concentrate on using products and processes that lessen use of resources and which has less waste product and carbon.

For the food and drink area, E.U. hopes to see projects that use packaging processes and materials that can optimize raw material use and lessen the impact on the environment.  E.U. is also looking for those that offer processing that can boost material recycling and recovery and can push better water management of systems for the supply chain.

To qualify for the E.U. fund, green business and smart purchasing projects should give replacement materials that offer higher efficiency and should have innovative production processes.

The eco-innovation program will only be accepting applications until September 9.

For the duration of 2008 to 2013, the E.U. is setting aside 200 million euros for the eco-innovation project.  A total of 44 projects have already been supported by the program.  Green projects include using bamboo plantations as water purifies for use in bathing and household washing; substituting traditional paper labels with modern laser technologies; and transforming used tires into insulation instruments.

European commissioner for the environment Janez Poto nik says the eco-innovation program will prove that helping the environment is good for the business, as global green news show that various products and services in the market are now showing how environmental protection can go hand in hand with aggressive industry growth.