Poland: EIB supports Jerónimo Martins Polska’s energy efficiency investments

• The European Investment Bank and Jerónimo Martins Polska, owner of the Biedronka retail chain, have signed an agreement to finance energy efficiency across the company’s store network.
• The green loan of PLN 1.5 billion will save energy and reduce carbon emissions and air pollution.

The European Investment Bank (EIB) is providing financing of PLN 1.5 billion to Jerónimo Martins Polska, owner of the Biedronka retail store chain, to support energy efficiency investments across its network. The loan from the EIB will be strategically allocated to fostering sustainable practices, aligning with the broader objectives of promoting environmental responsibility and resource efficiency in commercial enterprises. Through this partnership, Biedronka aims to reduce its carbon footprint while saving energy.

The loan from the EIB will finance the refurbishment of Biedronka stores to improve their energy efficiency. The refurbishments will not only make the stores more customer-friendly, but also more environmentally friendly, through technical solutions that improve energy efficiency, such as closed refrigeration based on natural gases and photovoltaic panels.

EIB Vice-President Teresa Czerwińska said: “We welcome the agreement with Jerónimo Martins as it aligns with the European Union’s and the Bank’s priorities for the energy transition, contributing to the REPowerEU plan of reducing our dependence on fossil fuel imports and advancing the EIB’s climate action objectives. The collaboration is expected to provide substantial social benefits by reducing greenhouse gas emissions and enhancing air quality.”

Luís Araujo, chief executive officer of Biedronka, said: “We are very pleased that thanks to the agreement with the EIB we will be able to further strengthen our commitment to the environmental agenda. Biedronka’s remarkable achievements in this field have led to a 30% reduction in our operations-related carbon footprint over the past six years. Our goal is to achieve a fully green energy supply for our stores and distribution centres by 2028, namely through investments in photovoltaics and power purchase agreements for solar and wind power. By the end of 2024, all our distribution centres and around 2 000 shops should be producing their own energy from photovoltaics.”

Buildings are responsible for 40% of the European Union’s energy consumption and 36% of its greenhouse gas emissions, but only 1% of buildings are renovated each year. As the owner of around 3 500 stores, Biedronka has a market share of more than 27%, meaning it will play a pivotal role in the energy efficiency transition of the Polish retail sector.

Speeding up the green transition and promoting investment in energy efficiency and renewables is the key priority of the REPowerEU plan, which the EIB Group is supporting. In 2022, the EIB Group committed €20.86 billion globally to support sustainable energy investment. In Poland, this financing reached €996 million, with a total of €3.25 billion committed between 2018 and 2022 to aid the transformation of Poland’s energy sector.

Background information

The EIB Group is the European Union’s long-term financing institution, owned by its Member States. It is made up of the European Investment Bank (EIB) and the European Investment Fund (EIF). We finance sound investments that contribute to EU policy goals, including social and territorial cohesion, and the just transition to climate neutrality.

The EIB was the first multilateral development bank to end support for fossil fuels and has committed to support €1 trillion in climate investment this decade. Over half of the EIB Group’s lending in 2022 was devoted to climate and environmental sustainability projects, while almost half of the EIB’s financing in the European Union was signed for projects in cohesion regions, where per capita income is lower, highlighting the Bank’s commitment to equitable growth.

EIB and energy security

Over the past decade, the European Investment Bank Group has channelled more than €100 billion into the EU energy sector. These timely investments are now helping Europe weather the crisis triggered by the abrupt cut in Russian gas supplies. In 2022, the EIB signed financial support totalling more than €17 billion for projects in energy efficiency, renewables, electricity and storage in the European Union, thus helping strengthen the resilience of the European economy.

In July 2023, the EIB’s Board of Directors decided to raise the Group’s clean energy financing volumes to unprecedented levels in support of the REPowerEU objective of reducing Europe’s dependence on Russian fossil fuel imports by fast forwarding the clean transition. An additional €45 billion will be invested over the next five years, on top of the EIB’s already robust support for the energy sector in the European Union. It is estimated that the REPowerEU package will mobilise an additional €150 billion in additional investment by 2027, thus making a substantial contribution to Europe’s energy independence and the EIB Group’s target to mobilise €1 trillion this decade in climate financing.

Jerónimo Martins Polska/Biedronka

Jerónimo Martins Polska S.A. is the owner of Biedronka, the largest retail chain in Poland (as at the end of the third quarter of 2023), with 3 489 stores (together with 16 Micro Fulfilment Centres to supply Biedronka’s ultra-fast delivery operations) across more than 1 300 Polish towns and cities. Biedronka has been serving Polish families for 27 years. The pillars of the company’s strategy are carefully selected products of the highest quality, offered at everyday low prices. In 2022, Biedronka cooperated with almost 1 400 Polish suppliers, from which more than 93% of the products in the chain’s offer were sourced. With over 80 000 employees, Jerónimo Martins Polska S.A. is the largest employer in Poland and the second-largest Polish company in terms of revenues. The company is a strategic partner of the Responsible Business Forum.