Introduction

Our Mission, Vision and Values

ES Strategy

Our Solutions for a Sustainable World

Abengoa’s Emissions Balance

Helping to build a Sustainable World

Focus-Abengoa Forum on Energy and Climate Change

News and Events of ES

The Stakeholder’s Mailbox

Environmental sustainability represents a challenge for the entire society, from world governments to companies and individuals. In this section, you will learn about your ecological footprint and find suggestions on how to reduce your impact on the environment.

Ecological Footprint

The ecological footprint measures the demand for resources that we impose on Nature. It compares human consumption of natural resources with the planet’s ecological capacity for regenerating them. It is an estimate of the biologically productive amount of land and sea needed in order to regenerate the resources consumed by the human population and to absorb wastes generated by current technology.

You can calculate your ecological footprint at www.myfootprint.org, according to the methodology defined by the Global Footprint Network, or help to compensate your emissions with the help of Zeroemissions (www.zeroemissions.com)

Socioeconomic behavior affects the environment in two ways: when society consumes Nature’s resources for its own use, and when it returns substances to Nature in the form of waste. A country’s technological efficiency is a very important factor when calculating its ecological footprint. For example, if a city has a good public transportation system, its citizens will not have to use so much petroleum through daily use of their cars.

We could summarize our impact on the environment by referring to four large categories: food, residence, mobility, and the goods and services we consume. When we eat an Australian apple, we are responsible for the proportion of petroleum needed for transporting it to our neighborhood grocer’s, the six months of cold storage, and its handling and packaging.

Tips for reducing your Impact on the Environment

There are many ways to reduce our impact on the environment, and all have the common denominator of optimizing our consumption, using only what we need to use. The following are some of the ways we can do this:

• Choose a quick shower instead of a bath, letting the water run only for rinsing purposes.
• Install a water-efficient toilet.
• Raise the thermostat 1°C in summer and lower it 1°C in winter.
• Replace incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs.
• Replace a conventional water heater with one that uses solar thermal energy.
• Recycle all household waste.
• Buy recycled paper products.
• Unplug electrical appliances when not in use.
• Insulate the walls of your home.
• Buy locally-produced products.
• Increase use of public transportation and bicycles for getting around.
• Opt for ride-sharing when there is no better alternative available.
• Buy a highly energy-efficient car that can take biofuel.
• Plant a tree.
• Help to spread these suggestions to colleagues, family members and friends.