ACCIONA and its over 4,000 volunteers on International Volunteer Day 2017

With over 4,000 participants in its Corporate Volunteer Programme in recent years, ACCIONA took the occasion to pay homage to everybody who is working for a better world and in favour of sustainable development by supporting this year's message: "Volunteers Act First."

ACCIONA's Volunteer Programme, whose initiatives are aligned with the company's Social Action Plan and are within the framework of the Sustainability Master Plan, is focused on promoting a culture of cooperation and solidarity so as to raise employees' awareness of the needs of other members of society. They are also aligned with achieving the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) that were adopted in 2015 at the United Nations Sustainable Development Summit, in which the role of volunteers in achieving the goals is recognised specifically.

ACCIONA volunteers have clocked up over 36,900 hours of community service, and employee participation has increased by 118% in the last six years.

ACCIONA's corporate volunteer projects include notably “Luz en Casa”, organized by the ACCIONA Microenergy Foundation, which installs solar home systems to provide electricity in isolated rural communities in Cajamarca (Peru) and Oaxaca (Mexico) which cannot connect to the grid using traditional methods. A total of 160 employees have participated as volunteers in recent years.

This is the sixth time that ACCIONA has celebrated Volunteer Day; to date, more than 2,660 volunteers have taught sustainability workshops to over 50,000 schoolchildren aged 7 to 11 in 18 countries, with the goal of giving them an entertaining insight into climate change, efficient use of water and energy, etc.

Another annual event in which ACCIONA's corporate volunteers participate is Shall we donate?, a campaign to collect food and toys for the Food Bank and the Spanish Red Cross.

Another notable initiative, proposed by the Princess of Girona Foundation and Exit Foundation, seeks to improve the employability of young people from difficult environments; more than 200 volunteers from the Company have participated to date.

New initiatives launched in 2017 include volunteer work at Foundation Integra's Strengthening School to teach workshops to improve job prospects for people at risk of social exclusion, and the "Inspiring Girls" programme, in which women visit schools to talk to girls aged 12 to 14 about their careers.

ACCIONA volunteers have also participated in actions in other countries such as Canada, Chile, Colombia, Brazil, Peru and Poland.