Environmentally-friendly businesses in Romania

75% of the respondents in the same 2019 survey showed their interest in environmentally focused campaigns on waste management while 86% were concerned about deforestation. People's involvement in environmentally focused campaigns is lower though, 38% of the Romanians would participate in waste management activities while only 33% would get involved in reforestation campaigns.

There are more and more initiatives, either individual or belonging to smaller groups, of involvement in curbing pollution and other environmentally friendly activities. A case in point is Dinu Drog, a lawyer from Bucharest, who founded a civic engagement group involved in solving some of the issues currently facing the district he lives in.

Mr. Drog has recently become an entrepreneur in the field of renewable energy. Late last year, upon the initiative of one of his neighbours, he set up a renewable energy cooperative together with a Dutch partner. The cooperative, which initially had 15 members now, two months after its launch, boasts a total number of 140. But what exactly is a renewable energy cooperative? Here is Dinu Drog at the microphone.

Dinu Drog: "A renewable energy cooperative is actually an energy community, a business vehicle, which provides renewable energy to the members of this network. At the same time it produces energy in keeping with the EU legislation. Energy democracy is a trend in Europe nowadays with a view to involving its citizens in this process of producing energy by means of solar panels. We, the members of this cooperative, are presently holding talks for the purchase of an entire solar field. For the time being the cooperative is functioning as an investment fund and its members are making interest in exchange for their contributions."

Members of the aforementioned energy cooperative are also shareholders; they benefit from the energy they produce but they are going to turn into suppliers as soon as they have obtained a production license. Sometimes these cooperatives are allowed to invest in renewable energy facilities. Although unique in Romania and Eastern Europe at this time, Mr. Drog's cooperative is an example of civic engagement proving the increasing concern some citizens have for the world they live in and the air they are breathing. Here is Dinu Drog at the microphone again.

Dinu Drog: "Individual solutions are easy to find, if people want to. They can start by sorting waste, recycling, monitoring electricity consumption...But we also need public instruments, communities, whose contribution to this initiative is even greater because it brings people with the same degree of interest in sustainability and environmentally -friendly activities together."

Another example of environmentally-friendly entrepreneurship is the Seneca publishing house, which describes itself as Romania's first green publishing house. The enterprise also includes a bookshop and a cafeteria showcasing books on environment and where visitors pay for the time spent rather than for the drinks, which they prepare themselves out of natural ingredients. Here is director Stefania Oprina with more on how a green publishing house is actually working.

Stefania Oprina: "When you make a product, you need to take into consideration the environment. We produce books, and that means we need to use recycled paper and we also recycle the waste resulting from the production process. We use this paper to print leaflets or other materials in order to avoid using fresh paper. The type of ink that we use is also a special one, and all these efforts eventually pay off as the final result is very beautiful books, always well-received by readers who know that less trees had been cut for their production."

The growing interest of the Romanians in environment preservation has been proven by the fact that 'The Almost Zero Waste Family', a book written by Jeremie Pichon and Benedicte Moret was a best-seller at the Gaudeamus Book Fair last year. Here is Stefania Oprina again.

Stefania Oprina: "People are already looking for practical solutions to apply. They carry reusable textile bags to avoid using plastics and are no longer using plastic forks and knives for the same reason. Some are interested in recipes of less polluting detergents in a bid to save money and time both in supermarkets and at home because these recipes allow them to produce the quantity of detergent they need."

All these initiatives, ranging from investment in renewable energy to avoiding the use of plastics or polluting washing powders are indicative of the Romanians' growing interest in a cleaner and healthier environment. 

(translated by bill)