Like many organisations, we have been working from home since 2020 March; we changed most of our in-person meetings to virtual meetings and used more technical solutions than ever. The Covid-19 pandemic changed the world and the working culture. But one thing has not changed; our ambition is to change the way energy efficiency is delivered globally and to support & accelerate the progress of our customers in reducing their greenhouse gas emissions and their energy consumption with our fully-funded turnkey solution.
On International Women’s Day, we celebrated our CEO, Tracy O’Rourke, being named among the Top 100 Women in Social Enterprise by Euclid Network, the European Social Enterprise Network.
The list featured female changemakers who are leading the way in social entrepreneurship and innovation.
A few months later, we got a huge honour; the Unreasonable Impact Programme, in collaboration with Barclays, selected us as a high-growth, high-impact venture in their 2021 UK & Europe cohort. This innovative programme, now in its sixth year, backs “the entrepreneurial spirit, innovation and expertise required to tackle the environmental and social challenges that the world is facing”. Unreasonable Group is an international company that supports a Fellowship for growth-stage entrepreneurs, channels exclusive deal-flow to investors, and partners with institutions to discover profit in solving global problems. The 300 ventures in the Unreasonable Fellowship operate across more than 180 countries. Vivid Edge is only the second company in the Republic of Ireland to be nominated to take part in the programme.
In 2021, we achieved more than ever. We introduced our model to new sectors and markets that no other player currently serves in a way that meets their needs, and signed three new customer framework agreements.
We have introduced our model to the Middle East, and we will be instrumental in helping achieve some ambitious governmental decarbonisation targets. We are excited to be first to market with our innovative ‘energy-efficiency-as-a-service’ offering.
Our amazing CFO, Eimear Cahalin, was the one who found this big opportunity for us. Eimear nurtured her relationships, and when the opportunity came, she successfully found and partnered with a local representative, which led to Vivid Edge being connected with a major Government body and signing a framework contract for $100 million of energy efficiency projects. Over the past year, she has worked with this introducer and led the team’s engagement with this party, bringing in our technical team to complete project due diligence. The first projects under the framework have completed the design and detailed contracting and are planned to start in Q1 2022.
As a result of this work, Vivid Edge nominated Eimear for the Women in Finance Awards, where she won the CFO of the Year Award. She was one of three winners to have received a vote from all judges in her category. They said: “Her leadership within her business has delivered real value to the company with tangible results in the very important Climate Change solutions sector“. In December she was also included in the Business and Finance list of Top 100 CFOs in the country.
This year is about to end, and we are pleased to have made excellent progress, thanks to the hard work of all the Vivid Edge Team and our partners and to the ongoing support of our investors. We are looking forward the next year with great anticipation. Together we can continue improving.
With Vivid Edge, More is Possible!
Reference Links:
https://euclidnetwork.eu/portfolio-posts/euclid-network-top-100-women-in-social-enterprise/
https://unreasonablegroup.com/
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/static/green-equitable-programme-unreasonable-impact-barclays-business-partnership/
https://www.womeninfinance.co.uk/ireland/
https://businessandfinance.com
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