ACCIONA Real Estate takes CSR awards for developments in Poland and Mexico

The Company is distinguished with the European Medal for its Lesne (Warsaw) development in Poland, and takes the Empresa Socialmente Responsable (Socially Responsible Company) award for its activity in Mexico.

The European Medal recognizes Polish products or companies that comply to European standards.

The Empresa Socialmente Responsable award goes to companies whose activity serves as an example of CSR in Latin America.

ACCIONA Real Estate has been distinguished in Poland with the European Medal for the way the Company’s residential development in Lesne (Warsaw) has been integrated in the natural surroundings and for applying eco-efficient construction criteria. Similarly, ACCIONA Real Estate’s wholly-owned Mexican subsidiary, Parque Reforma Inmobiliaria, has received the Empresa Socialmente Responsible (ESR) award, a distinction given to companies whose CSR policies set an example for others in Latin America. Both awards give recognition to companies who take on a commitment to society and the environment in all of the markets in which they operate.

The European Medal - which according to its motto gives recognition to "Poles in the world" - is awarded by Poland’s Business Center Club and is sponsored jointly by The European Economic and Social Committee and the Office of the Polish Committee for European Integration. The Lesne residential development, located adjacent to Warsaw’s Fort Bemowo Park, has received the Medal for the way in which its architecture is perfectly integrated in the development’s natural surroundings, and also for the eco-efficient criteria with which the homes have been built.

The Lesne development comprises 247 apartments (1-5 bedrooms), with balcony-terrace and a small garden (in the case of the ground floor apartments), all in a gated precinct with round the clock security surveillance. Work on the Lesne development began in 2007 and comprises five phases, four of which have already been handed over. The fifth phase is scheduled for completion in the second half of this year. Thanks to the application of eco-efficient construction criteria, the apartments allow considerable energy- and water savings, are respectful with the environment and have relatively low running costs.

Mexico’s Empresa Socialmente Responsable award, for its part, is promoted jointly by the Centro Mexicano para la Filantropía(Mexican Centre for Philanthropy) and the Alianza para la Responsabilidad Empresarial en México (Alliance for Corporate Responsibility in Mexico). This annual award, which in 2009 has gone to Parque Reforma Inmobiliaria for the eighth year running, gives recognition to companies whose activity stands as an example of sound social and environmental management in Latin America.

Parque Reforma Inmobiliaria specializes in developing buildings for corporate, residential and tourist use in Mexico and in other international markets, and to the highest standards of quality. With thirty years’ experience under its belt, Parque Reforma leads the Mexican real estate market thanks to its cutting-edge vision and the application of a winning combination of latest-generation technologies and eco-efficient construction criteria.

ACCIONA Nieruchomosci

ACCIONA Real estate first made inroads into the Polish market in 2004 and has its own branch in Warsaw. In 2005, the Company acquired Mostostal, a Polish developer with a solid position in the country’s real estate market. Today, with more than three thousand homes at varying stages of development, ACCIONA Real Estate stands as the premier developer in the Polish residential market. The Company has been operating since 2006 under the name ACCIONA Nieruchomosci.

It boasts an important and diversified portfolio of real estate projects. As well as carrying considerable weight within the residential sector, the Company has placed a firm bet on Office and Industrial Space.

With regard to office space, the Company is currently developing the "ACCIONA Business Center" in Wola, one of Warsaw’s major business districts. The almost 43,000 square metre complex has parking facilities for nearly 600 vehicles. This year, ACCIONA Nieruchomosci also plans to commence construction work on a second office complex in the Polish capital’s Konstruktorska Street, covering 43,277 square metres (10,000 metres of which have already been pre-let), and with a car park with 1,084 spaces.

As regards industrial space, in 2007 ACCIONA Nieruchomosci acquired land with 18,209 square metres of industrial space (ranging from 300 to 500 square metres), 11,535 square metres of office space and parking facilities for 319 cars. The land is located in Krakowiakow Street, in the vicinity of Warsaw Airport’s cargo terminal.

ACCIONA Real Estate in Mexico

Outside of Europe, ACCIONA Real Estate has an important presence in Mexico, where it first arrived in 2005, and where it has three important residential developments: Playamar Tres Cantos, in Acapulco, and Cumbres de Santa Fe and Citera Polanco, in Mexico City.

In April 2008, the Company took a 50% stake in Inmobiliaria Parque Reforma, which gave ACCIONA Real Estate full ownership of a specialist firm with three residential developments – the abovementioned Playamar Tres Cantos, Cumbres de Santa Fe and Citera Polanco – and land earmarked for a 446-home development in Mexico City and a 390-home development in Acapulco, making a total 1,300 homes at varying stages of development.

Pioneers in eco-efficient homes

ACCIONA Real Estate applies sustainability criteria in all of its developments, and one of the Company’s main objectives is to develop projects that help not only to care for the environment but also to keep down running costs for home-owners. Of all the innovative features that ACCIONA Real Estate brings to each of its projects, the most noteworthy have to do with saving energy, the rational use of water and “clean” construction.

ACCIONA Real Estate helps to save energy in a number of ways: homes are equipped with a range of energy efficiency solutions, such as solar panels for domestic hot water; cross ventilation, high-quality materials and insulation; thermal break window- and door frames for improved insulation; light- and solar energy control glass; and movement detectors and timing devices in common spaces.

In addition, the Company promotes the rational use of water by installing separate down pipes, double-flushing cisterns, faucet aerators, and cut-off valves in rooms with plumbing.

All construction materials used by ACCIONA Real Estate are environmentally certified -they are not toxic, they do not pollute and they help to reduce waste. Examples include plasterboard, lead-free materials and PVC-free pipes. The Company uses domotics - technological applications that enable efficient management of energy, comfort and safety in the home - to achieve eco-efficiency.

ACCIONA, a leading player in infrastructure, services and renewable energies

ACCIONA is one of Spain’s leading corporations, with activities in infrastructure, energy, water and services in more than thirty countries on five continents.

ACCIONA Real Estate is an industry benchmark, with more than twenty years’ experience in two business areas: residential housing and real estate asset management. In the residential market, the company develops and markets over 9,000 homes, spread across Spain, Portugal, Poland, Mexico and Brazil; and in real estate asset management, ACCIONA Real Estate develops and manages other types of buildings, such as offices, hotels, student apartments, shopping malls and rental homes .