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Secretary of State for Climate Change, Teresa Ribera, presides over the presentation of the 1st edition of the Focus-Abengoa Foundation Sustainable Business Award

June 27, 2011

  • The company Novozymes is the winner in the Large Company category, while Sulzer AG was the runner-up.
  • In the SME category, the company Aislamientos Desmontables was the runner-up.

Seville, 27 June 2011. The Secretary of State for Climate Change, Teresa Ribera, presided over the presentation ceremony of the 1st edition of the Focus-Abengoa Foundation Sustainable Business Award. Teresa Ribera was accompanied by José B. Terceiro, president of the Focus-Abengoa Foundation and vice-chairman of Abengoa; Carlos Mas, Chairman of PwC and Carlos Sebastián Gascón, independent director of Abengoa and representing the jury.

The event was also attended by members of the jury; representatives from the winning companies, and a large group of suppliers that participated in this first edition.

Novozymes won the award in the Large Company category for its project, “Life cycle studies”, which includes the supply of enzymes for the production of bioethanol, technical support for their application, as well as details about the carbon footprint of the enzymes supplied to Abengoa.

In the same category, the Focus-Abengoa Foundation awarded the runners-up prize to Sulzer AG for its initiative, “Energy and resource efficiency in proprietary production and products”.

The jury at this first edition also decided to award a runners-up prize to Aislamientos Desmontables S.L., which employs 14 people, in the Small and Medium Sized Enterprise (SME) category, for its initiative, “Environmental control, quality, health and safety at work”. First prize in the SME category was not awarded.

In his speech, José B. Terceiro, president of the Focus-Abengoa Foundation and vice-chairman of Abengoa, highlighted how important it is for large companies and public administrations to promote a sustainable procurement policy in order to, “incentivise other companies to improve their production processes and to actively contribute to the sustainable development required”.

José B. Terceiro pointed out that, “every company that supplies goods or services to the firm signs a code of social responsibility in which they agree to comply with all the social and environmental aspects contained in the United Nation’s Global Compact. Our work would not be possible without the active involvement of all of the companies in our supply chain, which have adopted this challenge and have promoted it in their respective organisations”.

Carlos Mas, Chairman of PwC, said in his speech that, “this initiative goes to show that large global companies can have a positive impact on society through the involvement of their supply chain".

In his speech, Lars Christian Hansen, Regional President Novozymes Europe, liked to thank the Focus-Abengoa Foundation for taking initiative to this award, “which we believe issues a strong statement to the global community that sustainability development is of essence to the business agenda globally”. “This award puts Novozymes one important step closer to realizing our ambition to change the world together with our customers”, added Hansen.

The Sustainable Business Awards, created in November 2010, aim to publicly recognise Abengoa's suppliers that are committed to sustainable development and combatting climate change. This award forms part of the activities of the Focus-Abengoa Forum on Energy and Climate Change.

In this first edition, the jury recognised the work of three of Abengoa’s suppliers whose actions to promote environmental benefits shone out thanks to their originality, innovation, projection and leadership. These suppliers are contributing to sustainable development and are an example to other organisations.

The event, which is open to all Abengoa suppliers, has two categories: one for small and medium size enterprises (less than 50 employees), and another for large companies (50 or more employees). PwC was responsible for providing technical advice for the awards.

The jury of the 1st edition of the Focus-Abengoa Foundation Sustainable Business Award comprised Matthew Bateson, managing director for energy and climate change at the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, WBCSD; Cristina García-Orocoyen, managing director of the Entorno Foundation; Carmen Gallastegui, executive president of the Ikerbasque Foundation for science and a professor at the University of the Basque Country; Lutz Guderjahn, vice-president of ePURE (European Producers’ Union of Renewable Ethanol) and vice-president of operations at CropEnergies AG; Carlos Sebastián Gascón, professor of economic analysis at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid and an independent director of Abengoa; and Jordi Sevilla, senior adviser at PwC and the former Spanish minister for public administrations.

The Focus-Abengoa Forum on Energy and Climate Change promotes, through public discussions, an open platform for the research, presentation and debate of ideas and results using the actions that it believes to be appropriate at any given time based on the nature of the issues to be analysed. The Focus-Abengoa Foundation seeks to contribute to the debate on changing the energy model and supports Abengoa’s business mission, which is to offer innovative solutions for sustainable development.

For more information about the award see the website of the event (sustainability.abengoa.com), and the websites of the Focus-Abengoa Foundation (www.focus.abengoa.es), Abengoa (www.abengoa.com) and the Focus-Abengoa Forum on Energy and Climate Change (www.energiaycambioclimatico.com).

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