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In a context of change and global competition, Abengoa believes in the idea of an innovative company as an efficient and necessary instrument for progress towards a society of sustainable development. With this aim, we incorporate into our daily business Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) values which are integrated in a natural way in the strategy, culture and organization of the company. We try to contribute to improving not only the economic situation, but also social and environmental questions, and, thereby, the well-being of people in general.

With solar energy, biomass, waste, information technologies and engineering, Abengoa develops innovative technological solutions for sustainable development, while channeling its more socially-committed management through the Focus-Abengoa Foundation.

The Foundation, created in 1982, has the mission of putting Abengoa’s social action policy into practice. It works on a non-profit basis in the general interest and is focused on assistance, education, culture, science and technological research and development, with a special emphasis on handicapped people. Within the company, the Focus-Abengoa Foundation has become a valuable instrument which is strongly driven from its headquarters at the Hospital de los Venerables in Seville; it is a real cultural symbol.

This idea of social balance places a special emphasis on attention given to company employees in terms of their training and development, quality of life, social well-being and well-being at work, and their family lives. The company is also able to connect with new issues for society as a whole; in short, the Foundation manages intangible assets with an impact that is returned and multiplied in Abengoa’s values and business aims.

Our work is structured around two centers of attention: on the one hand, we develop the company’s own internal social action and, on the other hand, external, social action in favor of society. Significant among the internal social actions are flexi-time at work, social assistance for employees, the accumulation of maternity leaves, promotion of physical activity, and the installation of daycare centers. The multitude of external social actions include conservation and maintenance of the Hospital de los Venerables, the training program for disabled people, the Focus-Abengoa scholarship scheme, the Focus-Abengoa painting prize, the prize for the best doctoral thesis on a subject related to Seville, the Javier Benjumea Puigcerver Research Prize, the Javier Benjumea Economic and Business Ethics Chair, the grants and educational assistance for integration of disabled people in Latin America, and the Focus-Abengoa Collection art exhibitions. Many aid actions for disadvantaged groups have also been carried out in a wide range of countries worldwide.

These two pillars for action form an optimal instrument with which Abengoa can address economic, social and cultural diversity in all the countries where it is present, with the aim of growing alongside the different communities, creating new ties for achieving an ideal long-term relationship between social profitability and that of the company; what we refer to as sustainable development. In 2007 diverse activities were carried out involving Abengoa’s external social initiatives, among which the following hold a prominent place:

• The significant assistance provided by Abengoa in areas of Argentina, Peru and Mexico.
• Acquisition of Velázquez’s “La Santa Rufina” to enrich the artistic heritage of Seville.
• The inauguration of the Diego Velázquez Research Center
• The 2007 World Conference on Solar Energy.

Some examples of initiatives carried out by the Foundation Focus-Abengoa are:

Teyma Abengoa. Argentina. Congregación Hermanas de la Cruz

The Focus-Abengoa Foundation collaborates, through Abengoa y Teyma Abengoa, with the Congregación de las Hermanas de la Cruz, a religious body founded by Saint Angela of the Cross. The institution has been continuously involved in initiatives in Argentina for almost 38 years.

The social intervention of the congregation is aimed at those who live in vulnerable situations (poverty and indigence, inequality and gender or disability-based discrimination, dietary and sanitary insecurity, and school risk), that prevent them from progressing through the normal stages of development, and prohibit access to better conditions of well-being. These groups of people are comprised of:

• People with disabilities.
• Children and teenagers in situations of social risk.
• Young women with incomplete primary and secondary education.
• Poor or indigent families in situations of social risk.

These activities take place in three different centers: Quimilí and Monte Quemado in the province of Santiago del Estero, and Alderetes in the province of Tucumán.

Focus-Abengoa collaboration is materialized in building places that are accessible for everyone, implementing practices designed for these spaces, providing food to children who come to the dining rooms, supplying medicine for care centers, etc.

Musical activities 2006-2007

The different musical activities organized by the Focus-Abengoa Foundation revolve around the organ, the instrument installed by the Foundation in the chapel of the Hospital de los Venerables in 1991. Since then it has turned the headquarters into a center for promoting the organ and its music in Seville, a key city in the history of the instrument in Spain and its projection throughout Latin America. Focus-Abengoa carries out intense education work on different social groups using specifically designed actions to promote young musicians, increased training for organ teachers and students, and, in a special way, to stimulate the interest in music of secondary school and conservatory students. This teaching focus is materialized in the following ways:

• A series of recitals by new organists: this year it was held under the title “European organ music in the 1620-1630 decade".
• A series of teaching recitals for students, in 2007 geared toward more than 1,600 students in the second cycle of secondary education, as well as various elementary conservatories in Seville.
• A master organ course taught by international experts, held for the seventh consecutive year, this year titled "J.S. Bach and Jehan Alain. Similarities and Differences” and directed by Marie-Claire Alain. Over three consecutive days, organists and students from all over Spain attended the course, which is backed by the upper music conservatory in Seville. The class was a success in terms of interest level and professional enrichment.

At the same time, the demand by organ music aficionados is addressed through a series of magisterial concerts throughout the year by the best organists of today.

The Focus-Abengoa Foundation University Schools

In 2004 Focus-Abengoa and the Menéndez Pelayo International University (UIMP) signed a collaboration agreement for the creation of two university schools, one dedicated to technology and the other to the Baroque. These schools carried out their educational and academic activities at the site of the Hospital de los Venerables for three consecutive years.

The third edition of the School of Technology was held during the week of March 19-22, 2007 and entitled “The Future of Energy: New Models”. It was directed by professor Santiago Grisolía and coordinated together with José María O’Kean, professor at the Pablo de Olavide University in Seville. The objective was to gather a group of international and Spanish scientists and thinkers of renowned prestige in order to establish a hypothesis on the future of the energy sector: a strategic sector in today’s global society, one that may be subject to substantial changes due to technological advancements, geopolitical factors or the growing social awareness of climate change.

In the fall, during the week of November 29-23, 2007 the fourth edition of the Focus-Abengoa Foundation Baroque School, entitled “Artistic Despoilment in the West: The Unredeemed Heritage of Seville (1810- 1813)”. The course was led by Ignacio Cano Rivero, museum curator for the Andalusian Government, with coordinating assistance from Isabel Lobato Franco and José Ignacio Martínez Ruiz, professors at the University of Seville.

2007 World Conference on Solar Energy

The “Solar Power 2007” Conference took place on October 24th and 26th in 2007 at the Hospital de los Venerables, Seville, gathering together representatives from twenty-five countries from the committee of world experts on solar energy.

One of the main objectives of the conference was to spread medium- and hightemperature thermosolar concentration technologies, a field in which Abengoa enjoys a position of leadership thanks to its projects launched at the plants at the Casaquemada Solar Complex, located in Sanlucar la Mayor (Seville).

The event represents the first specific initiative with the “Focus-Abengoa Forum on Energy and Climate Change”, which seeks to contribute through the Foundation to the debate changing the energy model from a multi-disciplinary approach; aims to promote a true open forum for research, demonstration and contrasting of ideas and results through as many actions as suitable; with the ability to collect and contrast initiatives associated with renewable energy sources.

The Diego Velazquez Research Center

On July 4, 2007, through an auction in London, the Focus-Abengoa Foundation acquired Velazquez’s painting entitled “Santa Rufina” for the city of Seville. Its special interest is renowned for the city, as it represents a portrait of one of its patron saints, as well as due to the scarcity of Velazquez works in existence in the painter’s native city.

For this reason the City of Seville and the Focus-Abengoa Foundation partnered the creation of the Velazquez Center, devoted to the research, study and dissemination of the works of the Sevillian painter’s early period. Headquartered at the Hospital de los Venerables, current Focus-Abengoa headquarters, this center has on loan works of art which are owned by private and public institutions (Velazquez’s “La Imposición de la Casulla a San Ildefonso”, among others, and other oil paintings belonging to the City of Seville, as well as several sculptures by Martínez Montañés temporarily on loan by the city’s archbishopric). In short, its represents a cultural initiative with endorsement by Alfonso E. Pérez Sánchez, honorary director of the Prado Museum, and Benito Navarrete, professor at the University of Alcalá de Henares.

The effort in recovering Spanish artistic heritage in general, and the Andalusian in particular, is clearly manifested in this partnership model, contemplated over the long term, between public and private institution.

Since October of 2007, the Velázquez Center has a monitoring commission, composed of representatives from the Foundation and the Sevillian Consistory, who is responsible for tutelage and support of the cultural initiatives promoted by the center.

In December of 2007 the Velazquez Center opened its doors to the public with the arrival of the “Santa Rufina”. The temporary exhibition for the center’s inauguration was devoted exclusively to the painting of Velázquez. Beginning in March of 2008 a temporary exhibition will commence under the title “On Santa Rufina: Velázquez from the intimate to the courtesan”, in which people will be able to view the Santa Rufina as well as two of the artist’s important works on loan from the Prado Museum: “Sibila” and “The Infanta Marie, Queen of Hungary”, as well as “La imposición de la casulla a San Ildefonso,” the latter owned by the Sevillian Consistory, and which, according to the agreement with the Focus-Abengoa Foundation, will be added to the collection for exhibition at the Velázquez Center in Seville.

In May of 2008 the permanent room of the Diego Velázquez Research Center will be opened , with a selection that will provide in-depth analysis of the professional trajectory of Velázquez in Seville, reconstructing the city’s history, the atmosphere surrounding the painter, his friends, his cultural background and the advances that were offered in this city.