In 2012, the Coastal Conservation Action Programme was launched, coordinated by the Biodiversity Foundation, within the framework of which the “Responsible Beach Bars” project was launched, linked to the Foundation’s own Environmental Volunteering Programme , and the Responsible Beach Bars Awards, awards that were created to promote and recognise sustainable economic activities that were carried out in coastal areas.

The project has come to an end after having promoted different actions throughout its seven years, with the aim of helping beach hospitality establishments reduce their environmental impact, improve their reputation among users and customers and advance in sustainable management.

With the aim of improving the activity of the beach bars, within the framework of the initiative a Decalogue of Good Environmental Practices was created, which included management aspects so that these establishments could be managed in a more environmentally friendly way.

The axes of this decalogue were:

• Resource management: energy, water, product consumption
• Pollution and waste management
• Occupied space management
• Environmental education and awareness
• Corporate social responsibility

With the signing of this decalogue, the beach bar acquired a series of commitments and was renamed ‘Responsible Chiringuito’.

To support compliance with the Decalogue, the ‘Responsible Beach Bar Awards’ were created, whose main objective during the consecutive editions of 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015, was to reward the work that the beach bars themselves carried out to improve their sustainability and their relationship with the environment. Throughout these four editions, a total of 263 beach bars participated, launching more than 500 initiatives to protect our coastline. In addition, €62,500 in prizes were distributed among the 24 winners.

In 2016 the award was replaced by a non-economic recognition of the best environmental initiatives, a recognition that would be held every two years.

Within the “Responsible Beach Bars” project and in collaboration with Unilever Spain, the Biodiversity Foundation launched in 2016, a pilot project in Responsible Beach Bars on the beaches of Orihuela, the “Clean Beaches” initiative. Within the framework of the same, five responsible beach bars hired five clean beach agents, whose mission was to raise environmental awareness among the users of the beaches and their environment. The good results of the pilot led the Foundation and Unilever to sign, in November 2016, an agreement to develop it also in 2017 and enhance the results achieved to date.

In 2017, the objective of the project focused on getting more beach bars to join the Decalogue of Good Environmental Practices and implementing the “Clean Beaches” program in 100 beach bars by hiring 100 clean beach agents. These agents received training as coordinators that the Association of Environmental and Consumer Education (ADEAC) made available to the program. A total of 53 clean beach agents were trained and 34 of them were hired to carry out this work.

It is from 2017 when the project is disassociated from the volunteer program of the Biodiversity Foundation and is formally called “Responsible Chiringuitos”, to end in 2018. During its seven years of existence, this initiative has promoted through different actions the implementation of responsible and sustainable actions in the beach bars that have participated in it, thus contributing to the conservation and protection of the coast.