{"id":15089,"date":"2023-06-21T12:03:46","date_gmt":"2023-06-21T12:03:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/startgreen.nl\/collaboration-between-asn-bank-and-startgreen-strong-ties-short-lines-of-communication\/"},"modified":"2023-06-21T12:03:46","modified_gmt":"2023-06-21T12:03:46","slug":"collaboration-between-asn-bank-and-startgreen-strong-ties-short-lines-of-communication","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/startgreen.nl\/en\/collaboration-between-asn-bank-and-startgreen-strong-ties-short-lines-of-communication\/","title":{"rendered":"Collaboration between ASN Bank and StartGreen: strong ties, short lines of communication"},"content":{"rendered":"

June 22, 2023<\/span><\/p>\n

Like StartGreen Capital, ASN Bank encourages sustainable progress. This makes the two parties ideal partners in project financing. In addition, ASN Bank brings a number of specially selected campaigns from Oneplanetcrowd, StartGreen’s crowdfunding platform, to the attention of its customers. ASN Bank Director Arie Koornneef explains how shared objectives lead to gems in collaboration. <\/strong><\/p>\n

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ASN Bank and StartGreen collaborate on several levels. For example, ASN Bank’s Sustainable Financing department, together with Energiefonds Overijssel, structures financing for sustainable energy projects and sustainability initiatives. It does so with the capital of investors in the ASN Groenprojectenfonds, which is managed by ASN Impact Investors. <\/p>\n

Origin of the collaboration<\/strong><\/h6>\n

This collaboration dates back to 2012, when ASN Bank and StartGreen Capital were both involved in the establishment of Energiefonds Overijssel. ‘The management was fully transferred to StartGreen in 2018 because it did not align with our core activities,’ Arie explains. ‘A logical choice, as StartGreen already had a strong track record as a fund manager at the time. Fortunately, we are still involved with the Energy Fund as co-financiers. A great example, in my opinion, is the Bomhofsplas<\/a>: the largest floating solar park in Europe, which provides energy to seven thousand residents of Zwolle.’ <\/p>\n

Financing growth<\/strong><\/h6>\n

In addition, ASN has been working with Oneplanetcrowd since 2015. ‘We have made clear choices regarding the services we want to offer entrepreneurs,’ says Arie. ‘We only provide services for self-employed professionals. We do not currently offer a proposition with financing for companies. By bringing together Oneplanetcrowd’s knowledge and expertise in the field of crowdfunding with ASN Bank’s customers, we can still help sustainable entrepreneurs grow. Furthermore, this allows us to fulfill our customers’ desire to invest in impact companies. In this way, we kill two sustainable birds with one stone.’ <\/p>\n

Successful collaboration<\/strong><\/h6>\n

ASN Bank and Oneplanetcrowd have now collaborated on eleven projects<\/a>. ‘It is a good and successful collaboration,’ Arie believes. ‘Our customers consistently subscribe quickly to campaigns, during which we naturally point out the potential risks of such investments. Often the target amount is raised within a week, which says something about the involvement of our customers and about how well the projects fit us and our sustainability criteria. Such as the regenerative farming business Schevichoven<\/a>. I looked around there with great admiration for their respectful approach to nature and am pleased that we and our customers have made a wonderful contribution to it.’ <\/p>\n

Strict criteria<\/strong><\/h6>\n

Not every project fits within this collaboration; Oneplanetcrowd’s projects must meet ASN Bank’s strict sustainability criteria. ‘Our sustainability policy rests on three pillars: climate, biodiversity, and human rights,’ Arie explains. ‘Our Sustainability Expertise Center continuously adapts our sustainability policy to current events. In addition, they regularly check whether the projects and also companies in the ASN Impact Investors funds still meet our criteria. In this regard, the environment, nature, and people are all equally important. Tesla, for example, makes a great contribution to the mobility transition, but is not as strict regarding human rights. For the funds, that is a reason to remove Tesla from the selection in which they can invest.’ <\/p>\n

A good match<\/strong><\/h6>\n

StartGreen finances in three impact domains: the energy transition, diversity & inclusivity, and circularity. How does Arie find ASN’s sustainability criteria match with StartGreen’s impact domains? ‘Very well. From the bank’s side, we have been financing sustainable projects that accelerate the energy transition with our customers’ savings for years. We have a great connection in that area. Regarding diversity & inclusivity, I think it is excellent that StartGreen pays attention to female entrepreneurs. We ourselves look very critically at human rights. For example, we try to achieve a “living wage” in the clothing industry: employees must be able to rely on a wage with which they can take good care of themselves and their families. In our eyes, that is an important human right.’ <\/p>\n

A push needed<\/strong><\/h6>\n

\u2018The earth is indicating its limits,\u2019 Arie continues. \u2018Stimulating circularity is “one” way to combat the depletion of the earth. Financing in circular projects fits seamlessly into our sustainability policy. We are therefore very pleased that Energiefonds Overijssel has expanded its scope to circular projects, so that we can potentially collaborate in that area as well. Personally, I also find it important that attention is paid to what happens to raw materials in the chain. Suppliers often have no idea. European legislation is coming that obliges companies to map out the risks for people, the environment, and the climate in the chain and to act if things are not going well there. Zeeman and Tony\u2019s Chocolonely are companies that are already doing this well. Many other companies still need a push.\u2019 <\/p>\n

Strong ties<\/h6>\n

Arie hopes that ASN Bank and StartGreen can continue the collaboration for a long time. ‘StartGreen is a very good partner; we have experienced that in our collaboration. The ties are strong, the lines of communication are short, and we are regularly in discussion about new opportunities and possibilities. That remains a bespoke process: we are always looking for the gems that fit our strict criteria. The number of projects we do together already demonstrates how much we value the collaboration and what we think of its quality.’ <\/p>\n

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June 22, 2023 Like StartGreen Capital, ASN Bank encourages sustainable progress. This makes the two parties ideal partners in project financing. In addition, ASN Bank brings a number of specially selected campaigns from Oneplanetcrowd, StartGreen’s crowdfunding platform, to the attention of its customers. ASN Bank Director Arie Koornneef explains how shared objectives lead to gems […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":15091,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[136,121,179,129],"tags":[175,130,126,138,211],"class_list":["post-15089","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-impact-financing","category-news","category-oneplanetcrowd","category-startgreen-capital","tag-entrepreneurship","tag-financing","tag-impact-investing","tag-impactful","tag-partners-2"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/startgreen.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15089","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/startgreen.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/startgreen.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/startgreen.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/startgreen.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15089"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/startgreen.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15089\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/startgreen.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15091"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/startgreen.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15089"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/startgreen.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15089"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/startgreen.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15089"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}