The Euskaltel Group joins Europe's Green Recovery Alliance
Bilbao, 24 June 2020. The Euskaltel Group has joined the Green Recovery Alliance for a more sustainable economic recovery in the European Union following the significant impact of the COVID-19 crisis.
José Miguel García, the Group's CEO, has signed the "Manifesto for a sustainable economic recovery". This European initiative asks governments from European countries to introduce measures and policies to mitigate the COVID-19 crisis that are aligned with sustainability and diversity.
This manifesto is based on the European Green Deal, a growth strategy centred on three pillars: digitisation, decarbonisation and resilience. It is understood that competitiveness and the environment go hand in hand, as without environmental sustainability there can be no economic or social sustainability.
All signatories, including companies, institutions, NGOs, individuals from the public and private sectors and anonymous citizens, support a more sustainable and robust economy and are calling on governments and European leaders in charge of policy design to enable this transition towards a healthier, greener, more prosperous and sustainable society in the long-term.
The Euskaltel Group sees an opportunity in this crisis to speed up significant change in our society. Digitisation and connectivity have been crucial during the health crisis and they will be a key driver in the move to decarbonise the economy and the transition to a healthier, fairer, more sustainable and resilient society.
Euskaltel's environmental strategy is aligned with the Basque Sustainable Development Environmental Strategy (2002-2020) and two of the United Nations' Global Compact SDGs: number 12, "Responsible consumption and production", and number 13 "Climate Action". The Group's commitment to environmental matters is also shown in its joining of the Global Compact's Climate Statement and the Comunidad#PorElClima initiative.
The Group's environmental management system is also in line with EMAS and ISO 14001:2015 and its energy management system and policy adhere to ISO 50001:2018.
With these foundations already in place, the Group is committed to the responsible management of resources and the circular economy as a key part of the Euskaltel Group's operational processes in this field, prioritising reuse over recycling and disposal. During 2019, over 217,000 pieces of equipment were reused, representing 56% of installed customer equipment. Every year plans to reduce CO2 emissions are drawn up to reduce energy and fuel consumption. In 2019 direct greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) decreased by 37.5% compared to the previous year.
Similarly, in 2019 and in light of the environmental impact that cloud services are having, a study was carried out (in collaboration with IHOBE-the Basque Government Environment Agency) to analyse the Euskaltel Virtual Data Center's (DCV) life cycle, with the main aim of identifying key environmental issues within the operation and useful life of the DCV so as to propose improvements.
This commitment to sustainability has been acknowledged by the Euskaltel Group's joining the FTSE4Good IBEX sustainability index, one of the most prestigious sustainability indexes in the world, which identifies leading Spanish companies demonstrating good corporate social responsibility practices and which provides investors with information on companies that meet best practice criteria in environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) issues on a global level.
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