EIB lends €120 million to Cosentino Group to support its sustainability and circular economy strategy

The EIB will provide a €120m (£106m) loan to Cosentino Group, a designer and manufacturer of stone surfaces. With the support of the EU bank, the manufacturer will finance its innovation and sustainability strategy, focusing on areas including circular economy, decarbonisation, energy efficiency and the use of renewable energy. These investments are said to be in line with the EIB’s objectives of supporting innovation, climate action and environmental sustainability.

The agreement is aimed to help Cosentino to step up its research, development and innovation activities in technologies designed to increase production efficiency through the automation and digitalisation of processes. This will open the way for technology to recycle waste from production materials and for new renewable energy generation capacity for its own use. The company will also use the funds to increase its use of cleaner alternative fuels in the future.

The investments will be made in the facilities in Cantoria, a municipality of Almería where the Spanish multinational began and still operates, and will run until 2025. This is also where the company’s headquarters are based, as well as eight production facilities and its RDI centre.

EIB Vice-President Ricardo Mourinho Félix said that “As the EU climate bank, we are pleased to be supporting Cosentino Group’s investment in new technologies to improve the sustainability of its products and processes. This project will help to decarbonise its activities and improve circularity, and is thus fully in line with the objectives set by the EIB’s Climate Bank Roadmap. This agreement not only represents an investment in an EIB priority area such as innovation and digital and human capital, but also demonstrates our continued support for economic growth and employment in a cohesion region.”
www.cosentino.com