PROBONO project involves 47 partners from 15 countries and intends to foster reference sustainable spaces for the future, one of them located in Portugal.
Sonae Campus, the group’s headquarters in Maia, will become a living lab for innovation in the field of sustainability and efficiency for buildings and communities. This evolution follows the EU’s approval of the PROBONO project, which will entail more than 25 million euros in funding, gathering 47 partners from 15 countries. In Portugal, the consortium includes Sonae and its subsidiaries Sonae MC, Elergone, and Sonae FS, as well as Capwatt, a Sonae Capital company.
The PROBONO project aims to provide validated solutions for the design, construction, and operation of new and/or retrofitted buildings, with reduced emissions and positive energy, contributing to more sustainable communities. The solutions will be tested through living LABs established in six European countries: Sonae Campus in Maia, Portugal, Madrid (Spain), Dublin (Ireland), Brussels (Belgium), Aarhus (Denmark), and Prague (Czech Republic).
Sonae Campus is already home to renowned eco-efficient buildings, such as Sonae Maia Business Center and Sonae Tech Hub, which is among the 100 buildings worldwide with the higher score from the United States Green Building Council concerning LEED certification (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design). Resulting from the collaboration between the Group’s companies for PROBONO project, Sonae Campus will benefit from an investment of circa 1.37 million euros, which will allow the testing of new solutions in biodiversity, energy, and sustainability.
The project plans to test the most recent green energy technologies and use Sonae headquarters to third-party research in energy and biodiversity, while also testing management and control tools to reduce emissions. Additionally, Sonae Campus will welcome the implementation of new solutions in biodiversity, such as the currently being studied including vertical gardens, birdhouses, or vegetable gardens.
The PROBONO project will start in January 2022 and have a duration of five years. It should be noted this was one of the three selected projects among 115 proposals for the Horizon 2020 Framework Programme's call LC-GD-4-1-2020: Building and renovating in an energy and resource-efficient way. Its total budget is EUR 25,252,011 for the period 2021-2026.
Source: CCIPV / Sonae Press Release