In all its activities, ACCIONA uses resources, principally construction materials, water and energy. Last year, on the whole, the efficiency ratios of economic value/consumption of principal materials evolved favourably.

Summer Energy Savings

Last summer, ACCIONA decided to increase the temperature of the air conditioning in its offices by between 1º C and 2º C, between 25 June and 15 September, with the aim of reducing the seasonal energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions associated with the use of air conditioning and refrigeration systems.

According to the Institute for Energy Diversification and Savings (IDAE), an increase of two degrees in the temperature of summer cooling systems produces energy savings of between 5% and 10%. Maintenance services in ACCIONA buildings have confirmed that an increase of 2º C in the air conditioning temperatures during the three summer months produced savings of 10% in energy consumption.

Water

The water consumed by ACCIONA comes from aquifers, surface waterways and connection to municipal supplies. The diversity of origin has been one of the principal managerial challenges in the design of a system to improve the efficiency of use of this precarious resource..

In recent years, major effort has been applied to the compilation of an inventory of sources and the performance of the first consumption analysis for the different business lines. This task has allowed us to find out about consumption trends and to establish objectives.

Waste generation

ACCIONA’s waste management systems promote improvements which reduce the generation of dumps, waste and emissions, fostering the recycling and in particular, the reuse of materials after first use.

The waste generated by ACCIONA’s activities is of a very varied nature according to the type of activity. For each activity, a system of differential treatment has been designed which enables the minimisation of the impact of the waste produced.

It is worth noting that in 2006, on ACCIONA’s own sites, 10.45% of earth initially destined for the dump was reused. This percentage, which may still appear small, is significant, considering that not all excess earth from excavation is reusable given the need to comply with technical requirements for reuse.

Emissions

A control has been made of all the activities carried out by ACCIONA producing emissions at fixed sources, to ensure that the substances emitted are within the parameters required in applicable legislation and by the corresponding authorisations.

It should be noted that NO2 emissions are measured for all ACCIONA installations affected by Council Directive 96/61/EC dated 24 September 1996 (IPPC) concerning integrated pollution prevention and control. Total quantities are published through the EPER declaration concerning the setting up of a European inventory of polluting emissions included in the above Directive.

Mitigation of environmental impacts on wind farms

The environmental impact produced during the construction and operation of wind farms is of constant concern. Environmental technicians at ACCIONA Energy use plans to reduce the impact and increase the efficiency of the restoration measures taken.

Visits are made to the wind farms where we operate to monitor the diversity and abundance of birds, using censuses carried out by specialist biologists. The results of this monitoring are documented in regular reports.

At ACCIONA we wish to continue as pioneers in sustainable growth and we continue to seek solutions and introduce initiatives that enable us to do so.