At Sacyr, environmental protection is a priority for us at every project we develop.
Our Quality, Environment and Energy Department, in collaboration with business and ecology consultancy firm Natural Business Intelligence (NBI) -winner of Sacyr iChallenges 2021-, we have developed a platform that allows us to understand the impact caused by our projects on the different ecosystems where they are carried out, through a geopositioned file.
Thanks to this platform, we can optimize carbon offsetting measures based on the impacts caused by our activity, which was previously calculated manually. All this will allow us to achieve an estimate net debt with nature in an automated, scalable, and efficient way.
This platform uses satellite imaging to analyze how we have affected the project environs and to understand whether the balance is positive or negative to adjust our measures accordingly.
To do this, we collect the necessary free-access satellite images to calculate the indicators of ecosystem services before and after construction. This calculation is currently applied to our P3 projects in all countries.
'Different actions are reflected in each country’s environmental management plans adapted to the regulations and specifics of each region. Through the tool, we can identify those measures that have greater benefits on the environment, contributing to a positive or net balance. Thanks to these advances, we develop measures adapted to the specifics of the environments and the present ecosystem services,' explains Claudia Pérez, environmental sustainability analyst at the Quality, Environment and Energy Department.
'At Sacyr, we take on the challenge, and we move forward with our commitment, reducing and avoiding the loss of nature, restoring, regenerating, and transforming current systems to stop the agents that negatively impact biodiversity,' says Claudia.
Natural Capital Strategy
In 2020, we started designing our natural capital strategy, which uses the mitigation hierarchy as a management approach. This consists of implementing good practices that reduce or mitigate impacts caused by activities, works, and development projects in a given space.
In 2021, we launched a project to understand the potential impacts of our activity. Thanks to this initiative, we identified the ecosystem services included in the CICES (Common International Classification of Ecosystem Services) classification that are relevant to the company. These services are essential for reporting the environmental evolution of our projects.
Once we had identified the material ecosystem services, we defined a robust methodology to calculate the natural capital. Additionally, in 2022, we created a Biodiversity and Natural Capital Committee to reinforce our commitment to the environment. This body's main objective is to establish initiatives and review results related to biodiversity projects."
