Our mission

Why we exist

Fundajca Pozytywni CO₂ was founded in 2022 in Rzeszów, the capital of the Subcarpathian region in south-eastern Poland. We did not start this foundation because the market needed another energy company – it does not. We started it because of what we saw around us every day: villages wrapped in smog on winter mornings, families heating old houses with whatever fuel they could afford, and good people who wanted to change something but had no idea where to begin.

The Subcarpathian region is one of the areas of Poland most affected by low emission. Thousands of homes still burn coal, wet wood and sometimes outright waste in boilers that are decades old. At the same time, the region is full of forests, sunshine and motivated people. The problem was never a lack of solutions – it was a lack of honest, independent guidance and money to pay for the change. That is the gap our foundation was created to fill.

Our team brings together advisors with over twelve years of experience in writing and winning EU and national funding applications, certified energy auditors, and engineers who design heating and renewable installations. We decided to put that experience to work not for profit, but for the region we live in.

What does “CO₂-positive” actually mean?

Most environmental talk is about being “less negative”: emitting less, wasting less, polluting less. We chose a more demanding name. To be CO₂-positive means to give back more to the atmosphere than you take from it – to leave the air cleaner than you found it. A household becomes CO₂-positive when it heats without burning fossil fuels, produces its own clean electricity, and compensates for what remains by planting trees that absorb carbon for decades.

That is why our work has two halves that belong together. First, we help people reduce their emissions through thermomodernization, heat pumps, photovoltaics and better insulation. Second, we neutralize what cannot be reduced through our Oxygen Trees planting project. Reduction without compensation is incomplete – and compensation without reduction is an excuse. We practice both.

Our mission

We know how ambitious that sounds. But every one of the hundreds of families we have already guided through an energy audit, a subsidy application or a complete heating replacement was, at the start, just one household that did not know where to begin. Multiply that by a region, then by a country, and “impossible” becomes a schedule.

Our goals in detail

1. Help every household and institution that asks us

Regardless of income, location or the size of the project, anyone who contacts us receives an honest explanation of their real energy options. We examine the building, calculate what an upgrade would actually save, and say clearly when an investment does not make sense. A pensioner with a small house deserves the same quality of advice as a municipality with a large budget – and at our foundation, they get it.

2. Fight energy poverty

Energy poverty means spending an unaffordable share of your income just to stay warm. It forces people into the cheapest and dirtiest fuels, which then poison the air their children breathe. The cruel irony is that Poland has generous subsidy programmes – such as Clean Air, which can cover up to 100% of eligible costs for lower-income households – but the paperwork stops exactly the people who need it most. We guide people to the money they are legally entitled to, and we prepare the entire application for them.

3. Reduce smog and CO₂ emissions in the Subcarpathian region

We work building by building and boiler by boiler. Every old coal boiler we help replace, every roof we insulate and every heat pump we commission is a measurable reduction in local smog and national CO₂ emissions. Since 2022 our advisors have completed over 800 energy audits and guided more than 300 thermomodernization and renewable energy investments to completion.

4. Educate children, students and adults

Long-term change is impossible without understanding. We run educational activities about energy saving, renewable technologies and air quality for schools, students and adult audiences. We explain in plain language how a heat pump works, why insulating the attic pays for itself, and how to read – and question – an offer from an installation company. An informed customer is our best ally against dishonest sales practices.

5. Plant and care for trees – the Oxygen Trees project

Technology reduces emissions; trees remove them. Through our signature Oxygen Trees project we plant and care for trees that absorb CO₂ and produce oxygen, involving families, school classes and company teams. Every tree we plant is a small, permanent power station of the cleanest kind – and a lesson for the children who plant it.

The 3E principle – how we make every decision

Every project we take on, and every recommendation we give, must pass three tests. If a solution fails even one of them, we do not propose it – no matter how profitable it would be to sell.

E-thical – solutions and conduct

We tell the truth, even when it costs us a sale. If your boiler has five good years left, we will say so. If a subsidy does not apply to you, we will not bend the facts to squeeze an application through. Our advisors do not work on sales commission, so nobody here profits from selling you something you do not need.

E-cological – solutions without eco-terrorism

Real ecology is measured in tonnes of CO₂ avoided, not in slogans. We are against radicalism that destroys heating systems in the middle of winter and leaves families with nothing. We believe in a just transition: replacing old heat sources with modern, clean ones in a planned, financed and humane way. The planet does not need gestures – it needs completed projects.

E-conomical – solutions that pay off

An ecological investment that bankrupts a household helps nobody. We calculate the real payback time of every project – including available subsidies – and recommend the variant with the best balance of cost, comfort and emissions. Often the cheapest ecological step is also the most boring one: insulating the attic before buying anything else.

Our vision

We imagine a region where no one burns rubbish or coal out of ignorance or lack of money. Where every roof can produce clean energy, every wall keeps the warmth inside, and the winter sky over Rzeszów is clear because there is nothing left to smoke. Where being “positive” means giving back more to the planet than we take from it – in CO₂, in energy, and in attitude.

We believe that the impossible will become possible, and soon we will inspire you to be POSITIVE – not only in CO₂ emissions.

What we have already achieved

Since the foundation began its work in 2022, we have opened a thermomodernization and renewable energy showroom in Rzeszów – the only place in the region where heat pumps, boilers, windows and insulation can be compared side by side. We run an official advisory point for the Clean Air and My Electricity programmes, as well as for subsidies for companies and the public sector.

Our work has been recognised at the national level: we were distinguished by the National Fund for Environmental Protection and Water Management, and we became a mobile operator of the Clean Air project in the Małopolska region – taking advice directly to municipalities where people cannot easily travel to an office.

How we are funded – full transparency

Fundacja Pozytywni CO₂ is a foundation. We finance our work from three sources: fees for delivered projects (energy audits, installation supervision and documentation), public and EU grants, and voluntary donations and sponsorships. Basic advice about subsidy programmes is always free of charge. As a foundation, we have no shareholders and pay no dividends – any surplus is reinvested in our statutory goals: more free advice, more education, more trees.