30 November 2022 - Abertis has recently launched a new sustainability plan that affects all the Group's activities and the countries in which it operates. The company has updated its sustainability strategy and outlined an ambitious plan for 2022-2030. The plan's implementation is based on three-year plans with short- and medium-term objectives linked to meeting targets.
Mobility plays a critical role in the 2030 Agenda set by the United Nations, being present in several Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) related to energy, health, infrastructure and economic growth, of which we highlight Goals 3, 9, 11 and 13 that have an especially important link with transport. Abertis' Sustainability strategy is aligned with this roadmap, as well as with the 2016 Paris Agreements. To correctly implement the plan, Abertis has defined specific actions in each business unit and has drawn up a timetable for compliance.
Three strategic pillars: decarbonisation, road safety and corporate culture
The company has defined three strategic axes based on its sustainability plan: decarbonisation, road safety and corporate culture. Each of these pillars is associated with a set of quantifiable and measurable initiatives that apply to each of the company's business units worldwide.
Decarbonisation is one of the most critical challenges facing Abertis, whose business can actively contribute to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and decongesting transport. The Group has outlined some specific initiatives such as migration of fleets to less polluting vehicles, acquisition and generation of green energy, installation of electric charging stations for users, improvement in waste management, promotion of a circular economy linked to the territories in which it is present or use of materials with less environmental impact in their life cycle. All of them will actively contribute to achieving one of the most important objectives of the sustainability plan: reducing tonnes of CO2 equivalent emitted by 25% by 2024 and by 50% by 2030 compared to 2019.
One of the priorities of the action plan is ensuring road safety and occupational health and safety in all Group business units. As an expert in infrastructure management for more than 60 years, Abertis is committed to reducing the number of road deaths in line with the proposed objectives of the United Nations Second Decade of Action for Road Safety. In this regard, the Group reduced the number of deaths on its roads by 50% during the 2010-2020 period.
One of the most noteworthy initiatives in the area of Road Safety is the role of the strategic ally that Abertis has played with UNICEF since 2017, committed to the fight against one of the leading causes of death among schoolchildren: road traffic accidents. This partnership focuses on addressing the lack of safe infrastructure in school zones, promoting safe and sustainable mobility for children in cities, reinforcing available resources and legislation in high-risk countries in relation to road safety, and promoting its dissemination and enforcement.
Finally, continuing to promote the culture of sustainability within the organisation is of vital importance within the plan. The development of an organisational culture based on ethical principles, the rejection of all forms of corruption, the progressive inclusion of good governance practices, and the generation of positive synergies with local communities are initiatives to which special attention has been paid in order to become an international benchmark organisation.
To this end, specific training plans have been defined for the organisation’s members, such as the recently developed Equality Policy. At the same time, progress is being made in implementing the appropriate human rights procedures throughout the Group, and specific awareness-raising and sensitisation campaigns are being activated. Through these lines of action, it is planned that 100% of the Group will be covered by a Human Rights policy, as well as having received specific training in sustainability by the end of the first three-year period (2024).
Control and monitoring mechanisms
The company has created the Audit, Control and Sustainability Committee, formed by the Group's Board of Directors, which ensures compliance with this Sustainability roadmap and meets periodically to analyse the achievement of the objectives.
As the plan is based on three-year plans, the current period corresponds to performance during 2022, 2023 and 2024 financial years, in which special attention will be paid to initiatives related to eco-efficiency, good governance, transparency, safety and quality.
Georgina Flamme, Director of Institutional Relations, Communication and Sustainability at Abertis, emphasised, "We have an important responsibility in the transition towards sustainable mobility, and we are aware of our role. Therefore, working to ensure this new mobility in all the countries in which we operate is a priority. Our activity and our location give us an essential role in the development of the territories in which we operate, and we can improve society through the impact of our business. Therefore, this new sustainability plan sets out the principles on which the company operates, with the ambition of becoming a global benchmark in this sector".
19 September 2024
•The Group places a strong focus on waste management and revaluation and the use of new materials. Since 2022, it has been encouraging the use of plastic waste pavement on the service roads of some of its motorways, guaranteeing environmental sustainability and improving the durability, abrasion resistance and flexibility of the asphalt.
10 September 2024
•VíasChile, a Chile-based Abertis subsidiary, and the Chilean Ministry of Public Works have agreed to build two tunnels under Cerro Lo Ruiz to cut the traffic flow in one of the most congested areas of the city of Santiago de Chile by 25%.