Novi Pazar, 4 March 2024 – Due to the support by the Government of Japan and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) four companies from Novi Pazar and Sjenica have started to use renewable sources of energy and reuse waste in getting new raw materials and products. Additionally, these companies have supported a couple of households at risk, in order to decrease energy poverty in the area, while by retraining workers for new green professional positions, they also contributed to their better employability.

The Embassy of Japan’s Second Secretary Kaori Igarashi and UNDP Deputy Resident Representative in Serbia Fabricio Andreuzzi visited these companies in order to become directly acquainted with the innovations they had introduced into their operation.

“We are certain that the successful implementation of these projects would additionally raise the awareness in the wider community concerning the importance of the green transition and decarbonisation, while the effects of lowering CO2 will be felt in the long run,” said Igarashi on this occasion.

The jeans producing company “Join” from Novi Pazar has decreased the consumption of fossil fuels and air pollution by installing a solar power plant and air purifying filters. The textile manufacturer of “Mizan Line” from Sjenica uses solar panels and heat pump for producing energy in their facilities, thereby decreasing greenhouse gases’ emission. The “Iskop” construction company has decreased construction waste pollution by recycling concrete waste into the aggregate used as a new raw material in construction industry, while the public utility company of “Public Cleaning” Novi Pazar has come to contribute to more efficient use of natural resources by collecting wood waste and turning it into an energy source used in heating.

“Our support to these companies is a part of our wider efforts to make available adequate support to the regions and communities highly dependent on the use of fossil fuels in the process of green transition, so that no one would be left behind,” said Andreuzzi.

This “greening” of business will also benefit the companies themselves, as they will become more competitive on the EU market, as well as domestically.

“This solution is highly important for us because we thus enabled two large public utility companies, “Public Cleaning” and “Public Heating” to work together,” said Faruk Suljević, director of the “Public Cleaning” public utility company. According to him, the wood from the banks of the rivers of Jošanica and Trnavica had already been collected and processed into the energy source that the public heating company would use as biomass for heating, which contributes to the reduction of waste, but also to the decrease in air pollution in Novi Pazar.

The four companies from Novi Pazar and Sjenica are among the 12 best business solutions for just green transition of economy and reduction of energy poverty, realised thanks to the Government of Japan, with the total value of the support being USD 450,000, within the project entitled “Innovative and Just Green Transition in Securing Systemic Energy Security and Reduction of Energy Poverty”. The project has been mplemented by the UNDP in partnership with the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Ministry of Mining and Energy.