The CLH Group has invested over 50 million euros in environmental projects during the last five years

• The actions implemented by the Company comprise areas as diverse as environmental management, climate change and biodiversity protection

The CLH Group invested over 50 million euros between 2009 and 2013 for the development of environmental protection and safety projects, thus improving the sustainability of its operations, using technology in a more environment-friendly manner and reducing emissions to the atmosphere.

Among the main activities of this period, last year the Company completed a research project in cooperation with the association for the study and defence of Nature, GREFA (Grupo de Rehabilitación de la Fauna Autóctona y su Hábitat), which verified the sustainability and integration of CLH’s pipelines in protected areas in Madrid, Castilla-La Mancha and Andalusia. This project was extended to additional areas in other Autonomous Communities with the aim of analysing the company’s whole pipeline network and, where applicable, performing actions for improvement.

Likewise, CLH completed a demanding research project to identify new techniques for soil recovery. The study, performed at a specially-built experimental plant, concluded that the most beneficial clean-up process is bioremediation, as it uses less energy, has a reduced acoustic impact and generates fewer emissions. The company used this system to recover the site of the old facility at Cala Figuera (Menorca).

This action adds to the work performed by CLH on the sites of other facilities that have been moved, such as Santurce and Muskiz, in Biscay, where the company performed landscaping activities enabling the recovery of part of the marsh at the Barbadún river mouth, close to the Arena beach, where several pathways were built as well as a viewing platform for bird watching.

CLH has other environmental research and development projects under way, such as the study of wastewater treatment through microbiology techniques, in cooperation with the University of Granada, or the project to calculate risk levels and bioremediation of bioethanol in the form of ETBE in groundwater, with the University of Malaga.

Over the last few years the Company has carried out several plantations to increase the number of trees in its facilities, like those performed in Burgos, Almodóvar del Campo (Ciudad Real) and Motril (Granada), where vegetation screens have been erected in order to improve their integration with the environment. Last year, CLH published its first tree inventory, aimed at improving care and conservation.

Another target of the CLH Group for the near future is to obtain the demanding EMAS environmental certification for all of its facilities. The company has earned this mark for the facilities at Huelva, Tarragona, Santurce (Biscay) and Bilbao airport, and is planning to certify four additional plants before 2016.

CLH also computed and verified the carbon footprint resulting from its activities in 2012, with the aim of controlling emissions and developing improvement initiatives to reduce them. A new software tool was implemented for the integrated environmental management of the company, which improves the environmental data collection procedures.

The company has also commissioned a new environmental analysis laboratory within the central laboratory building located in San Fernando de Henares-Torrejón de Ardoz, where precise monitoring of activities is performed in order to strengthen sustainability.