FF. AA. HR The Prince and Princess of Asturias today presided over the presentation ceremony of the European Business Awards for the Environment, in its Spanish Section, which in this 2013/2014 edition is awarded by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Environment (MAGRAMA), through the Biodiversity Foundation.
 
In this edition, the awards have gone to 12 Spanish companies that have demonstrated a firm commitment to sustainable development and stand out for their environmental performance.
 
In front of more than 200 attendees, the Minister of Agriculture, Food and the Environment, Isabel García Tejerina, expressed her satisfaction with the results achieved in this call, which corroborate that “Spanish companies remain firm in their commitment to the environment”.
 
García Tejerina also pointed out that Spanish companies are part of a global market in which “the green race has already begun”, which is why he encouraged them to integrate the environment into their businesses and understand it as “an opportunity and a source of employment and wealth”.
 
For its part, SS. AA. HR the Prince of Asturias congratulated the companies for “promoting new business strategies and for committing to a new business approach where the environment plays a leading role”. To all of them, he added, “I invite them to play their role as ambassadors of the environment among the Spanish business community, being a reference and source of inspiration for many other companies in our environment”.
 
FF. AA. HR the Prince and Princess of Asturias were accompanied by Minister Isabel García Tejerina, the Secretary of State for the Environment, Federico Ramos, and the Director of the Biodiversity Foundation, Sonia Castañeda, who chaired the jury for the awards, made up of 10 experts in sustainability and business.
 
In this edition, 99 applications have been submitted, of which 38 correspond to large companies and 61 to SMEs. All of them represent a wide range of sectors of activity in the Spanish economy, such as textiles, industry, hotels, distribution and mass consumption, among others.
 
The winners in this edition were NH Hoteles, A&B Laboratorios de Biotecnología S.A.U., Acciona Ingeniería, Ecoalf; Font Vella y Lanjarón, Leroy Merlin, AFESA, Red Eléctrica de España. In addition, second prizes have been awarded to the Galdakano Usansolo Hospital, Agua de Niebla de Canaria and Futureco Bioscience and the Port Authority of Cartagena.
 
The jury has valued the high level of innovation and technological development of the initiatives presented in the four categories of the competition, which allow to recognize business management initiatives for sustainable development, innovative products and services, as well as business processes and projects of international cooperation that promote sustainable development. For each of the categories, a distinction has been made between large companies and SMEs.

Likewise, this edition has had the special category ‘Business and biodiversity’, which has reached 41 applications received and whose winners have been selected from among all the companies submitted to the competition.

Lyon, scene of the European final

The award-winning companies in the Spanish Section will enter the European final, competing with the rest of the winning companies in other EU member states and candidate countries. The European jury will meet in September in Rome and the winners will be announced on 1 December in Lyon at the awards ceremony.

The European Business Awards for the Environment of the Directorate-General for the Environment of the European Commission have been held since 1987 in order to recognise those companies that stand out for their environmental performance.