The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and the Environment has announced today the names of the award-winning companies in the 2015-2016 edition of the European Business Awards for the Environment, in its Spanish Section, a recognition granted by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and the Environment, 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.
The Minister of Agriculture, Food and the Environment, Isabel García Tejerina, congratulated the companies for promoting new business strategies and for committing to a new business approach where the environment plays a leading role, inviting them to play their role as ambassadors of the environment among the Spanish business fabric, being a reference and source of inspiration for many other companies in our country.
In this edition, 125 applications have been submitted, of which 48 correspond to large and medium-sized companies and 77 to small and micro enterprises. 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.
After its evaluation, 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 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 and small companies.
Likewise, this edition has had the special category ‘Business and biodiversity’, in which 59 applications have been submitted.
The results achieved in this call corroborate that Spanish companies continue to be committed to the environment and are part of a global market in which the environment has already begun to be integrated into business, understanding this commitment as an opportunity and source of employment and wealth.
PRIZES AND RUNNERS-UP
In the Management for Sustainable Development category, Mahou S.A. was awarded as a large company, for the implementation of an innovative project that makes use of life cycle analysis to calculate the environmental footprint of the entire value chain of its products, which has led to reductions of 38% in water consumption. 43% of energy expenditure and 40 thousand tons of emissions.
In the category of small and micro-enterprises, the award went to Ewaste Canarias S.L., for being the first plant for the treatment and conversion of refrigerant gases from waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) that uses biogas as an energy source, incorporating continuous improvement, the circular economy and the interaction of people at risk of social exclusion.
In the second category, Product/Service for Sustainable Development, the first IRIZAR Cooperative Society award has been awarded for its contribution to solving mobility problems in cities, creating and developing the world’s first 100% electric 12-metre urban bus with its own technology.
As a small and micro-company in this category, Energy Revival S.L. has been awarded for its specialization in the reconditioning and remanufacturing of batteries of all technologies, which allows the recovery of a component of vital importance present in most consumer goods, whose end of life is also highly polluting, extending its duration by up to 75%.
In this category, ONYX SOLAR ENERGY, S.L., an international pioneer company in the design and manufacture of photovoltaic materials for the construction and rehabilitation of buildings, which replace conventional materials, providing energy savings and generating clean energy, has received a second prize.
In the Process for Sustainable Development category, Gerdau Aceros Especiales Europa, S.L. (currently Sidenor Aceros Especiales S.L.) has been awarded as a large and medium-sized company for being an innovative initiative of high interest to the steel sector that allows the reuse of refractory waste to be optimised (94%) and involves the reduction of the use of critical materials. in line with EU priorities.
In the small and micro-enterprise section, ALGAENERGY, S.A. has been awarded for the development of an innovative technology, based on seven years of research, which, through the capture and biofixation of CO2 emissions from combined cycle plants, generates biomass and products derived from microalgae with multiple applications in various sectors such as food.
In this third category, two runners-up prizes have been awarded. As a large company, ENDESA, S.A., thanks to its commitment to turning the Island of El Hierro into a territory supplied only by renewable energies. The model allows an annual saving of 18,700 tonnes of CO2 emissions and €2 million due to fossil fuels that are no longer purchased.
The development of a fungus that increases the defenses of palm trees has earned GLEN BIOTECH S.L. the other runner-up prize in this category. It is an organic phytofortifier that is the first specific product effective against the red palm weevil, an invasive beetle native to tropical Asia. Its dry application, which generates water savings, and its non-toxicity, are other aspects valued by the jury.
In the fourth category, Business Cooperation for Sustainable Development, MADITER TRADE S.L. has been awarded as a small and micro-enterprise, a business model based on the export of ebony in Cameroon, with legal guarantees and social responsibility, establishing a sustainable supply of this wood for the music industry and contributing to the creation of wealth in that country.
In addition, in the special category of Business and Biodiversity, the first prize went to AGROTECHNNICAL SERVICES S.L., whose comprehensive management model of a farm in Extremadura is aimed at the conservation of an ecosystem as emblematic as it is necessary in European biodiversity such as the dehesa.
In this category, the company MAR CRISTAL MARILUM S.L. has obtained a second prize. The jury has valued the creation of new products for gastronomic use based on discarded fish, in addition to its effort to disseminate the richness of marine ecosystems, their biodiversity, the importance of their conservation and the recovery of degraded habitats.
TALLINN, 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 winners will be announced on 27 October in Tallinn, Estonia at the awards ceremony.
The European Business Awards for the Environment of the European Commission’s Directorate-General for the Environment have been awarded since 1987 to recognize companies that stand out for their environmental performance.
