Australia’s top science agency, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) has just published a timely report on the Acceptance of rural wind farms in Australia.
Its publication is a powerful boost to morale for the renewable energy industry, which has been battling a well-organised and very vocal anti-wind lobby in Australia, and hostile regulation in key states such as Victoria.
The report establishes that wind farms have broad social acceptance in rural communities, and that the media has played a distorting role in the debate, by amplifying the voice of wind energy opponents. The CSIRO also finds there is no scientific evidence linking wind farms to adverse health effects.
Posts Tagged ‘Acciona’
No scientific evidence linking wind farms to adverse health effects
2 February 2012Letter to the President of the European Commission
28 December 2011On December 15, ACCIONA and other members of The Prince of Wales’s EU Corporate Leaders Group on Climate Change sent a letter to EU decision makers, including President Barroso, Commissioners, Ministers and MEPs. The document is an urgent call for re-calibration of Phase III of the Emissions Trading Scheme EU (ETS, for its acronym in English) and a withholding of allowances, in order to bring stability to carbon markets.
The business leaders point out that the economic crisis has significantly impacted the effectiveness of the EU ETS, as demonstrated by today’s limited levels of trading and low carbon price, we ask European policymakers to adopt near- and mid-term measures both to take into consideration future economic instability and to ensure that new policy proposals do not negatively impact the trading scheme.
The world’s first zero-emissions ocean-going racing yacht
26 October 2011Under the Global Clean Energy Forum, held today in Barcelona, we have presented: ACCIONA 100% EcoPowered, the world’s first ocean-going racing yacht powered exclusively by renewable energies.
With this initiative, we aim to go further along the road towards showing how clean and renewable energies can be a real alternative to fossil fuels and to show that innovation is the best way to come up with solutions capable of meeting society’s needs.
To do so, ACCIONA has opted for a highly demanding sporting challenge: the Vendée Globe, an epic, top-flight yacht-racing competition in which a lone yachtsman sails non-stop and unassisted around the world.
We encourage you to visit the official website.
10 reasons to support renewable energy
20 September 2011Debate over the energy model can constantly be heard on the street: advantages and disadvantages of gas, coal and oil, the nuclear controversy, the viability of renewables… Among the torrents of arguments, here are 10 to that explain the vital role of clean energies within a sustainable economic model.
What can companies do to aid the advance of sustainability?
3 May 20111. They need to take action ―right now. The world is undergoing a transition towards sustainability. ACCIONA has been fostering sustainability since 2005 ―and we’re making more and more progress by the day. In the early stages, thanks to a raft of initiatives; and currently thanks to ACCIONA’s Sustainability Master Plan (SMP) which encompasses the entire range of this kind of initiatives, plans them in a structured way and applies them horizontally and with a medium-to-long term vision.
2. They need to balance ongoing initiatives. Companies need to balance measures such as the Energy Efficiency Plan, by bringing disabled workers in to the workforce or through a Corporate Volunteer Plan with medium- and long-term projects such as linking variable remuneration to competencies in sustainability or emissions control-linked compensation. In this sense, companies need to get into the habit of carrying out their activities in parallel and horizontally across their organizations.
3. Companies have to integrate the concept of multilaterality at all levels. Sustainability has to be driven both top-down and bottom-up. At ACCIONA we do it through our Sustainability Master Plan―driven by the Sustainability Committee and the Sustainability Area’s management team―and through a broad set of measures involving innovation or limiting the environmental footprint of our projects before finally integrating them in our corporate strategy.
4. Interweave practices, initiatives and plans structurally across the organization. ACCIONA’s Sustainability General Area uses the SMP to work directly with the Corporate Governance team, the Financial team, the HR team, Purchases, Environment, Quality and Processes, and other areas, towards the implementation of horizontal measures and initiatives (e.g. training and the Social Action Plan) and vertical ones (e.g. requirements for providers or the inclusion of sustainability criteria in the Corporate Risk Map. Companies must avoid turning sustainability into a silo and avoid linking it to any particular area other than Sustainability itself.
5. Everything must be measured: if specific business metrics do not exist, invent them. ACCIONA’s SMP includes a range of verifiable indicators for each of the commitments and objectives laid down in the Plan’s nine areas of action, and our aim is to submit them to external verification in the course of 2011.
6. Intangibles must be taken seriously. ACCIONA works daily to promote sustainability practices worldwide, institutionally and across its businesses. We see sustainability as something that contributes to not only to our reputation but also the ability to generate the business conditions needed for the success of our sustainable business model.
7. Internal and external transparency is the basis of authenticity, which is necessary for success. Let’s get real: sustainability needs to help mitigate risks and discover and generate business opportunities. That’s why we’ve modified our management style and our corporate risk map to face the long-term challenges of sustainability, which has marked the way in which we train our personnel in sustainability practices. There is a clear need to move beyond the short-term and to understand opportunities that involve another way of doing business. Those business opportunities require a new organizational and entrepreneurial model. Here at ACCIONA we believe that we embody this new model.
Donation Trees and Reforestation Program
25 March 2011Last December was the starting point of our Donation Trees and Reforestation Program developed in the community of La Venta (Oaxaca, Mexico). With this initiative, and thanks to the involvement of the community and volunteers from ACCIONA, 10,000 plants were replanted. Besides regenerate the area, environmental stewardship was promoted. You can view this project in this video:
World Water Day 2011
22 March 2011What do they do with the brine after water is desalinated? Or what happens with the effluent from a plant?
To mark World Water Day (DMA 2011), held today with the theme “Water for cities: responding to the urban challenge”, we have organized an online meeting in Facebook: “Encuentro con ACCIONA Agua“, where you can ask these and other questions on water treatment activity.
This meeting will take place today from 12:00 h. to 13:00, online, and you can join through this link. If you’d like to join in, you can voice your concerns on the wall of the event and our ACCIONA Agua team will get back to you as soon as possible. I hope you’ll find it interesting.
Madrid by bike
22 February 2011It is quiet, it does not pollute and those who use it for transportation claim to be happier since they got on it. It is the bike, that means of transport that was born in early S. XIX and a fashion that seems to return with those that are more aware of change climate. In Madrid, where pollution levels have risen alarms these days in Europe, there is increasing interest in the promotion of cycling.
Madrid’s green belt was created a few years ago, around 2007: A way for cycling around the city that gave ACCIONA the chance of being part of the construction of some bridges, as you can see in this video. Have you ever done this route? What do you think about it?
At the gates of COP16
23 November 2010The date is approaching. In less than a week’s time UN summit Climate Change, COP16, will get under way in Cancun, Mexico (29 November to 10 December).
And ACCIONA, true to its commitment to sustainable development and the fight against climate change, will be there. In particular, we will be participating actively in side events from December 5th-9th in the Green Solutions group of events.
In addition, as a member of the Corporate Leaders Group for Climate Change, and prior to this summit, we presented the Cancun Communiqué to the European Commission, promoting the signing of a global ambitious, robust and equitable whose key points you will find detailed this document.
ACCIONA and wind energy
12 November 2010Wind power is today the most mature and efficient of all renewable energies. It does not pollute, it is inexhaustible and it reduces the use of fossil fuels, helping to curb global warming. According to the Impact of Wind Energy Sector in Spain Macroeconomic Study (by Deloitte for the Spanish Wind Energy Association and presented last Wednesday), the wind industry in Spain is “a highly competitive industry with companies that are a reference worldwide, with a relevant position to major markets and highly qualified professionals”.
At ACCIONA we are leaders in the development and construction of wind farms, and we are present across the value chain, from design to sales of wind energy.
ACCIONA and wind energy video
