Shell’s societal impact director tells Impact Investor why the oil giant started a just transition-focused impact fund aimed at helping vulnerable households and small businesses navigate the energy transition.
The Shell Impact Fund has added four new companies, taking its investment portfolio to eight. The Netherlands-based fund, which supports entrepreneurs committed to a more just and inclusive energy transition, invested in Homii, which has developed a software programme that helps people in rented accomodation slash their energy bills.
It also added GEHECO, which is working on a heat pump that can extract heat and cold for homes from the ground. Klimashift, a third new investment, offers a virtual management platform that can track energy use for businesses. And finally, the fund invested in Energiewending, which helps vulnerable households in Amsterdam and beyond lower their energy use.
“Ideas and new technologies can be conceived anywhere,” Anne Schreuder, societal impact director at Shell, told Impact Investor, when asked the reasons behind the launch of this impact fund earlier this year.
“Sometimes it is the small companies that have innovative ideas but lack the means to fully develop them,” Schreuder said. “That is why we have established the Shell Impact Fund.”
“As an energy company, Shell provides the energy of today and tomorrow,” Schreuder said. “But we believe that our contribution to Dutch society goes beyond that. We also believe that everyone should have access to cleaner forms of energy and more sustainable mobility.”
Although Shell remains committed to its goal of becoming a net-zero company by 2050, it told investors in March it was lowering its emissions-cut target to 15-20% by 2030, compared to the 20% target it set in 2016.
Energy poverty on the rise
Schreuder pointed to data by Dutch research organisation TNO from last year, which said the number of Dutch households living in energy poverty had increased significantly.
“The way we heat our homes, drive our cars, and produce goods is changing, and the transition to cleaner energy is one of the greatest challenges of our time,” said Schreuder. “Moreover, this transition will only be successful if no one is left behind.”
Schreuder said the fund is aiming to help social enterprises in the Netherlands transition to cleaner forms of energy and more sustainable mobility through various financial instruments, including grants, loans, or investments, for those households and SMEs who cannot make this transition on their own.
€15m investment
Shell Netherlands has allocated €15m to be deployed over three years for just transition initiatives, with around half of that available for the Shell Impact Fund, according to Schreuder.
Schreuder said the fund is on the lookout for enterprises “that prioritise equality, fairness, and inclusivity”, when it comes to making their innovative solutions for clean energy “accessible to marginalised and underserved communities”.
The impact venture will be a recurring fund. “The intention is that as the impact venture develops further, part of the investments will flow back into the fund,” Schreuder said. “This way, other impact ventures and social enterprises can also benefit from the fund.”
