Are social responsibility and sustainability fundamental elements for recovery or have they been relieved by the pandemic? This question has been at the center of the debate at the conference "Sustainable companies, profitable companies" organized by the Excecyl Foundation, in which Aquona has participated together with other companies and entities in Castilla y León.
“Our answer is that we must bet on the contribution to the SDGs now more than ever; not only as an exercise in social responsibility but also as an opportunity for companies ”, said Laura de Vega, Aquona's Director of Sustainable Development.
Aquona, a company that offers water supply, sanitation and purification services to more than 1 million people residing in 130 municipalities in Castilla-La Mancha and Castilla y León, has for years been promoting a strategy aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals and the Agenda 2030 and based on digitization, innovation and social commitment.
"The pandemic has forced us to innovate and adapt our way of operating to continue operating with a double objective: to ensure the safety and health of employees and to guarantee an essential service such as water," said Laura de Vega.
For this, anticipation was key with the implementation of the adapted operation model, with actions such as the creation of independent work teams or the 'permanent presence' at the Palencia, Ponferrada or León plants with workers confined in the facilities to shifts, living in motorhomes, to minimize the risk of contagion during the hardest days of the state of alarm. In the offices, we opted for teleworking and the acceleration of the customer service digitization process that we had already started.
In the field of social innovation, being next to the most vulnerable has been a priority, with projects such as joining the Red Cross Respond Program, the social fund with the Red Cross or the corporate volunteer program to accompany lonely people from the hand foundation Friends of the Elders. In addition, it has continued to bet on equity and equality, as indicated by SDG 5 and 10, with the AQUAE STEM program in schools in Zamora, Palencia and León to promote scientific vocations in girls or by advancing universal accessibility in our Offices.
Nor has the fight against climate change been left behind with the installation of photovoltaic solar panels in the WWTP of Palencia de Palencia and an investment of 3 million euros in 25 initiatives to double our energy self-sufficiency. "With these initiatives we will avoid the emission of 2,000 tons of CO2", indicates the Director of Sustainable Development of Aquona. The Life Nexus energy generation and storage project and the Interreg ECOVAL circular economy project to generate high value-added products from the waste generated in the Palencia WWTP, stand out in the field of environmental innovation promoted by Aquona.
A social pact under the umbrella of the SDGs
“We have learned two lessons from this pandemic; the first is that people's health is associated with the health of the planet; the second is that we can only come out of the pandemic together, ”said Aquona's Director of Sustainable Development.
For this reason, Aquona proposes a great social pact between companies, administrations and entities of the sector that, under the umbrella of the SDGs and the 2030 Agenda, will be the engine of economic and sustainable recovery.
The axes of this social pact are solidarity, protecting the most vulnerable; green infrastructures, promoting the generation of hydraulic infrastructures capable of mitigating the effects of climate change and, finally, employment. A stable, inclusive and diverse job that sets the population in Castilla y León.