ACCIONA plants trees to offset emissions by employee commutes3

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ACCIONA is helping to feed brown bears in their natural habitat by planting more than 3,000 fruit trees in the Cantabria mountain range (Northern Spain). The initiative comes as the final flourish to the Company's internal campaign to encourage sustainable mobility among its employees.

ACCIONA pledged to plant a tree for every employee who returned a companywide questionnaire on carbon emissions aimed at raising employee awareness on the greenhouse gases produced by daily commutes. One out of ten ACCIONA employees (more than 3,000 people in all) took part in the campaign, part of the Company's Sustainable Mobility Plan.

The campaign is now over and the Company, along with its partner in this initiative, Spain's Brown Bear Foundation, is fulfilling its commitment and is also extending it to help protect a threatened animal species.

The 3,000 fruit trees have been planted in the Fuentes Carrionas Natural Park and the Fuente Cobre-Palencia Mountains area, where the region of Cantabria and the province of Palencia meet (Northern Spain), and home to 30 brown bears. This will help provide vital nourishment for increasing the bears' chances of survival and breeding.

Cherry and apple trees and whitebeams were chosen for their good adaptation to the terrain and their high nutritional value.

The decision to plant 3,000 trees comes as acknowledgement of ACCIONA employees' commitment to sustainability; it also helps to offset the carbon emissions that they generate with their commutes, as well as contributing towards protecting biodiversity.

The project is part of ACCIONA's Sustainable Mobility Plan which meets several challenges posed in 2012, among them the need to measure the emissions generated by employees' daily commutes and business travel and the Company's haulage contractors. As part of its Sustainability Master Plan, ACCIONA takes on the responsibility of going further in adopting measures aimed at strengthening the Company's environmental commitment.