Messina Community Foundation

Italy

ABOUT:

The Community Foundation of Messina promotes social justice and economic and human development by designing, financing, experimenting and evaluating new socio-economic paradigms, going therefore beyond the pure logic of philanthropy.

PROJECT TITLE: MESSINA ENERGY COMMUNITY

TARGET GROUP:

Marginalised families living in the new eco-buildings created by the Foundation after the dismantlement of a local slum.

PROJECT’S MAIN GOAL:

To set up a “renewable energy community”, generating economic savings for member families  with a stronger impact on marginalized people thanks to the “fairer” electricity distribution and pricing system based on social criteria, thus reducing both poverty AND inequality; a stronger awareness by participants on environmental issues and the importance of a cooperative approach, needed to strenghten the community.

PROJECT’S DESCRIPTION:

The Foundation will create a “renewable energy community” in the eco-buildings constructed by the Foundation after the dismantlement of a local slum. The community will be able to produce, use and store solar energy. Given the presence of marginalized people among the beneficiaries, a specific electricity distribution and pricing algorithm has been designed to manage the community: it is based on social criteria, taking into account the social priorities of the users, tackling both energy poverty and inequalities.

SDG TARGETS:

Within this project, Messina CF will be tackling SDGs 1.2, 1.5, 10.2, 11.1, 13.3 because the target area is a local urban slum, a context characterized by a combination of several elements of socio-economic degradation: poverty, inequality, marginalization, housing precarity and low awareness of climate issues. The policies to address such complex context must necessarily be complex as well. The MESSINA ENERGY COMMUNITY is part of a wider development programme implemented by the Foundation in such area.