Spain’s Interior Minister opens the country’s first sustainable Social Integration Centre, built by ACCIONA

The Centre is located in Alcalá de Henares (Madrid) and has a capacity for more than 400 inmates.

Spain’s Interior Minister, Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba, yesterday opened the "Melchor Rodríguez García" Social Integration Centre (CIS), in Alcalá de Henares, Madrid. The 9,310-metre centre has a capacity for more than 400 inmates. The 16.5 million euro CIS was built by ACCIONA Infrastructure applying the Company’s hallmark sustainable architecture model.

The Company implemented an Environmental Vigilance Plan for controlling and monitoring a range of activities with a potentially negative environmental impact. The Plan controls dust and particle emissions, noise and vibration levels, ground conservation, topsoil recovery and waste generation, among other activities.

The CIS at Alcalá de Henares also features an external covering that limits energy demand efficiently while allowing for comfortable temperatures in the interior; a noise abatement system, an energy-saving efficient lighting system, and flat solar panels located on the rooftop of the main building.

Social Integration Centres are a type of correctional institution for low security offenders and offenders serving week-end prison terms. Activities at these centres are aimed at fostering the inmates’ potential for returning to society. The “Melchor Rodríguez García” Social Integration Centre (CIS), in Alcalá de Henares, is one of the 32 such centres envisaged in the Extension of the Creation and Amortisation of Penitentiary Centres Plan 2005-2012.

ACCIONA is one of Spain’s leading business corporations. The Company operates in infrastructure, energy, water and services in more than thirty countries. Its corporate motto, “Pioneers in Sustainable Development”, reflects the Company’s commitment to contributing to economic growth, social progress and environmental balance. ACCIONA is sector leader in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index, and posted revenues of €12.67 billion in 2008.