Polish environment fund joins forces with Microsoft to help citizens save energy and reduce air pollution

The Polish National Fund for Environmental Protection and Water Management (NFEP&WM) is a public institution in charge of financing pro-environmental initiatives. Its countrywide programs for renewable energy include "Mój Prąd" (My Electricity) and "Czyste Powietrze" (Clean Air). “We started the Clean Air program in September 2018, to help Polish citizens reduce air pollution through subsidies to modernize heating and insulation in their homes, says Piotr Woźny, the former Head of the Fund. “My Electricity, which launched a year later, provides Polish households with grant support for the purchase and installation of photovoltaic panels,” he explains.

Before launching the programs, NFEP&WM wanted to make grant submission and verification more efficient. Supported by Microsoft partner, Laboratorium EE, it moved application processing to the Azure cloud. This was a part of a broader digitization plan adopted by the national fund to improve citizen participation in environmental protection.

Powering a greener future with Azure

In the past, application forms for the fund’s chief environmental grants were filled out and submitted by hand. To eliminate lengthy and error-prone manual data handling, the organization built dedicated websites offering detailed information about its key programs. A digital platform was launched for My Electricity, enabling online application submission, processing, and verification. The websites and platform were set up Azure cloud services, and they were written in Django.

Through digitization, the fund has expedited and facilitated grant allocation, making it possible to process more applications in shorter time. "Standard procedures based on manual application forms were too time-consuming," explains Jakub Dąbrowski, IT Deputy Director at NFEP&WM. "When documents are submitted and reviewed digitally, we can simplify procedures and eliminate recurring errors," he affirms. Citizens have welcomed the transition. During the first two years of the My Electricity program, they completed more than 260,000 digital request forms via online portal. The Clean Air website has been visited over 4 million times, translating into grant support for more than 215,000 Polish households so far.

Digitization aligned with sustainable goals

Streamlining citizen-facing processes entailed modernization of internal processes. "Initially, we used the cloud for services dedicated to our external users, applicants, and beneficiaries," says Artur Kucharski, IT Director at NFEP&WM. "Later, we understood that our internal systems could also work in the cloud." To facilitate access to essential documents and tools, his team moved document processing to cloud-based systems. The SAP system supporting accounting, human resources, payroll, and grant management processes, has been also migrated to the Azure cloud.

Additionally, Virtual Desktop Infrastructure was adopted to ensure continuous public service delivery. "When the pandemic started, we faced a pressing need to evolve our way of working," reveals Kucharski. "By providing employees with remote access to grant management tools, we preserve business continuity and keep workflows uninterrupted."

Through streamlining internal processes and widening the access to key services in the cloud, the fund now empowers citizens to support environmental action effectively, in line with its guiding vision.