About Foundation
The Abertis Foundation was founded in 1999 as a non-profit entity, with the mission of contributing to the sustainable development of the regions and countries where the Abertis Group operates. The Foundation has always prioritised activities associated with road safety, the environment, social and cultural action. This is its role in the company’s sustainability strategy, the basis for the value placed on the intangible assets of the Abertis Group.
Road Safety
The Foundation carries out initiatives intended to improve road safety and reduce the number and severity of the accidents that occur. Its activities are intended to raise awareness about and enhance road safety education, focusing on three primary groups of people: minors, young people and elderly drivers.
It also promotes social activities intended for the most disadvantaged collectives in territories where the Group operates. Notable among these is the agreement with UNICEF, which has been focused since 2017 on boosting sustainable, mobility and road safety in Brazil, India and Mexico.
Abertis is a strategic partner of UNICEF and is committed to the struggle against one of the leading causes of death among schoolchildren: traffic accidents. This alliance is centred on remediating the lack of safe infrastructures in school zones, improving the conduct of both drivers and passengers, promoting safe and sustainable mobility for young children in cities and improving the available resources and road safety legislation in high-risk countries, while increasing their dissemination and compliance.
The commitment, knowledge and contributions of the Abertis Foundation regarding road safety has generated sufficient evidence to promote a Road Safety program as a work priority in UNICEF in its Strategic Plan 2022-2025.
Cultural Action
The Abertis Foundation also reflects the Group’s sensitivity toward historical and artistic heritages and the cultural values of the countries where it is present.
This is why it places historical heritage sites of exceptional interest at the disposal of the public, such as the Castellet Castle. The Castle is not only the headquarters of the Abertis Foundation, but also the office of the UNESCO International Centre on Mediterranean Biosphere Reserves (UNESCOMED).
The Abertis Foundation also collaborates with renowned cultural institutions to promote art and culture, hand-in-hand with the regional and national governments in the countries where it carries out its activities. In recent years it has sponsored many exhibits of well-known artists, such as Dalí, Velázquez, Miró, Picasso and Gaudí, among others, to ensure that their work is known beyond our frontiers.
Social Action
The Abertis Foundation channels the commitment of the Abertis Group with society through collaboration agreements with the main actors in the tertiary sector, both domestic and international. Their goal is to assist in improving society and dedicate special attention to work intended to promote social initiatives in the fields of health and education.
Moreover, the continuous bond with the regional and national governments in the countries where the Abertis Group carries out its activities allows it to react and collaborate immediately in the event of a specific social or health emergency.
Environmental Action
The headquarters of the Foundation Abertis, Castellet's castle, is the International Centre UNESCO for the Reservations of the Mediterranean Biosphere. His labor centres at the creation of the Mesh of Reservations of Mediterranean Biosphere, promoting and developing destined activities at improving the program MaB and the World Mesh of Reservations of Biosphere. It represents an only opportunity to foster the survey and the conservation of the Mediterranean area, establishing bridges of collaboration at matter of management of the biodiversity and of the natural resources among the two ribas of the Mediterranean.
Castellet's the castle possesses the environmental certification ISO 14001. Besides, recently the Global Sustainable Tourism Council, only world organism acreditador at Sustainable Tourism and linked at the Organisation of the Nations Joined, has conceded at the headquarters of the Foundation Abertis the certification at Responsible Tourism Biosphere Responsible Tourism.At the environmental sphere, since the Foundation Abertis also work to reduce the print of carbon that generates our economic activity and, of accord with the aims of the Group Abertis, optimise the management of the waste and favour the conservation of the biodiversity of the natural rooms where are present
UNESCOMED
The Abertis Foundation wishes to promote and disseminate studies on the repercussion of large infrastructures on the territory, the economy, demographics and the environment. In line with these intentions, the office of the Abertis Foundation houses a Category 2 Centre (CCS) sponsored by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) since 2014.
Thanks to an international agreement between Spain and the UNESCO, the Abertis Foundation was included to provide the resources needed by the centre through what was a unique partnership in the world at that time and which combined public commitment and private financial support. As a result, it offered its premises in the Castellet Castle, in addition to the equipment, staff, maintenance and management necessary to operate a centre of those characteristics.
The agreement signed with UNESCO has enabled a thorough study of the Mediterranean region and made this centre a strategic point in today’s worldwide network of Biosphere Reserves.
It is undoubtedly an agreement that reflects the significant results that can be achieved in the relations between companies and public institutions. This centre has witnessed work in favour of the north-south and east-west dialogues and to preserve the natural and cultural heritage of the Mediterranean region.
Abertis Chairs
The Abertis Chairs International Network is present in seven countries and responsible for complementing the activities of the Abertis Group and finding innovative solutions to face the mobility challenges of the future, thereby forging a strong bond between universities and the company.
The first Abertis Chair was founded in 2003 and they are now present in most of the countries where the company has business activities, forming what is now known as the Abertis Chairs International Network, which is the jury for the Abertis Chairs International Network Awards.
Thanks to all these research and development activities, the Abertis Chairs International Network and universities work to enhance the growth of intellectual capital. It also contributes to place all the breakthroughs made within its field of activity at the disposal of society in general and the community of experts in particular, with the clear purpose of improving mobility and quality of life for people.
A university and its specialised faculty are at the core of this network, particularly from a technological viewpoint. They comprise an observatory whose goal it is to procure evidently sustainable mobility solutions for the future. The platform also includes other institutions, social and economic think tanks, both public and private, that contribute to this multidisciplinary approach.
