We live in an increasingly globalized world, in which society is demanding more energy consumption. In fact, according to the International Energy Agency in its latest study, there’s expected to be a 30% increase in consumption by 2040. In other words, there’s going to be a pressing need to consume natural resources more intelligently, in a much more rational way. In fact, society is demanding it. People are becoming increasingly aware of the limitations of natural resources, they’re more informed and demanding rational use. From the standpoint of credit, banks are also asking us to draw up decarbonization plans aligned with the policies and agreements signed in Paris in 2015. We must have a decarbonization plan, an emissions reduction plan, and, not only those, policies on diversity and inclusion that will help to ensure that there really is equity, equality within companies and that meritocracy is rewarded. At Exolum we’re working on a sustainability plan, an IEG plan, which will be fundamentally based on the three usual pillars of such a plan, namely the environment, government and society. At Auara we regard the road to sustainability as an infinite path. There’s no beginning and no end, you aren’t going to get to a point, you aren’t going to have a goal, a destination. It’s like constant improvement. I think the idea is that every day you have to improve, because you’re never going to be 100% sustainable. You’re never going to be a sustainable company; it’s a path towards becoming more sustainable every day. In that respect, it’s not that we’re somewhere on a path with that destination, but that this is like a constant daily adventure, during which you try to find ways of improving every day, because every day you can improve something. We really believe in this idea of constant improvement, as well as compound interest, improving by 1% every day, and, in the end, over a long period, the growth and improvement are exponential. But the goal is always to constantly improve, because I believe that this is the way of addressing sustainability. There are no destinations, no ends, it isn’t a path that ends one day when you’ve reached a goal. The goal is to improve every day. Rather than being demanding, what we at Exolum need from an entity such as BBVA is for it to support us on this road, in this transition, which can’t happen overnight. We’re a company that provides an essential service in the country. In fact, we transport more than 80% of the liquid hydrocarbons handled on the mainland. And in Europe we’re also providing an essential service, such as in the United Kingdom, by transporting kerosene to the country’s main airports. Without a doubt, although our desire is to be aligned with the decarbonization policies that the governments and administrations are establishing, we can’t do it at the speed they’re asking us to do it at, we need more time. In fact, society, the citizen, is witnessing huge momentum towards transforming the country’s vehicle fleet into electric cars, which currently account for 4% of the total, but they’re really expensive cars, that are difficult to purchase unless you can obtain credit. In this regard, what we require from an entity such as BBVA are simply flexible and intelligent systems that allow both citizens and companies to continue to run their businesses, continue to add value and grow. At Auara, I think that what we try to convey to customers like BBVA is that what used to be an action of little consequence, like drinking water, buying a bottle of water, consuming water in the workplace, should become an extraordinary act. We always say that what we seek to do is to turn everyday acts into extraordinary ones. We’re a social enterprise and we invest 100% of the profit that we generate in projects for access to drinking water in developing countries. So, every time you buy a bottle of Auara you’re helping other people to have water in other parts of the world. And then, in addition, in terms of sustainability, the basic contribution is that we’ve been the first brand in Europe to manufacture bottles with fully recycled plastic. So, in a way, every time you buy a bottle of Auara you aren’t contributing to the generation of more plastic, instead, you’re recycling the plastic that already exists so that it doesn’t end up where it shouldn’t. With respect to climate action, we have a plan that’s based on four basic pillars, which are, firstly, which is perhaps the most important one, the gradual decarbonization of our operations; fundamentally, the reduction of our carbon footprint, based on much more efficient use of electrical energy, and even that energy, how we’re going to consume it using renewable sources. From the point of view of water, we also have a water footprint reduction plan. And, of course, what we maintain as a basic pillar within the company is preventing spills into the environment through the integrity policies and plans that we’ve been managing over the last few years. And, finally, the fourth pillar is the impact of our activity on the ecosystem. In addition to these four basic pillars, which are closely linked to the traditional business, of course, we have a diversification plan, which will mean that the services we offer to society will be much more neutral from the standpoint of greenhouse gas emissions. We’re mainly talking about the use of first-generation biofuels, which we’ve been handling and managing in our logistics network for many years. But, without a doubt, they also come from second and third-generation ones, the most advanced ones, which will ensure, in their life cycle, that our CO2 emissions will be much lower. From the point of view of diversity, the first thing we’ve done is to understand where we are. We’ve drawn up a diversity plan in which we’ve mapped our situation as a company, and what we’ve realized is that, to begin with, we’ve expanded so rapidly in recent years, we now operate in nine countries, that we have a cultural and geographic diversity that constitutes a challenge for the company. We have more than 31 nationalities working together right now. This, without a doubt, requires an analysis to understand where we are, developing actions and drawing up plans that we can measure. Along these lines, we’re also going to draw up a diversity plan that will enable us to follow up on the improvement measures for our workers, our employees, and evolve and measure how we’re doing from a social point of view, improving the lives of our employees on a daily basis. From a climate action standpoint, at Auara we focus mainly on the circular economy, and the goal is to attempt to stop manufacturing new plastic, recycling the plastic that already exists, which there’s a lot of, and turning it back into a raw material to put it back into the economy and turn it back into products. Instead of manufacturing new plastic, we’ll recycle the plastic that already exists so that it doesn’t end up in nature. That’s a bit of the focus, which has two impacts: one, the fact that we recycle existing plastic, and the other, reducing our CO2 footprint. Because, in the end, throughout the process, if you recycle a material that already exists, which is already close by, you significantly reduce the CO2 footprint of the entire manufacturing process. From the standpoint of inclusive growth, our work, basically, is with very remote and very rural communities in developing countries, in which we have a particular impact on the lives of women and children, who are usually in charge of fetching water every day. In addition, children are the population most vulnerable to diseases resulting from the consumption of contaminated water, and this has a clear impact on the health of these people, it has a clear impact on the time available, because they usually have to go and look for water for many hours a day. Women and children can’t go to school, they can’t have a job. You realize that the impact, in addition to being an impact on health, is an impact on equality and on education in many areas, and it’s also the basis for primary economic development in these communities.
