The winner for the Best Environmental Statement was El Tinter, Arts Gràfiques, Edicions i Produccions, SAL, a company that masterfully combined the mandatory contents of the environmental statement with formal and graphic embellishments, obtaining an original result from the viewpoint of environmental communications. The environmental statements that El Tinter has created over the years can be viewed on its website at www.eltinter.com
A special mention by the jury in this same category was awarded to the company SECE SA (Sociedad Española de Construcciones Eléctricas), which presented a concise and easy-to–understand environmental statement that can be viewed on paper, USB or at its website www.sece.com/DeclaracioAmbiental2007/
Environmental statements from all types of organisations and sectors were evaluated, each of them featuring different items and ways of presenting contents. You can see the environmental statements of the remaining candidates at the EMAS website of the Ministry of the Environmental and Housing,
http://mediambient.gencat.cat/cat/empreses/sgma/inici.jsp and also on the individual websites of each company.
Besides the winners, the proposals presented were: Càmping Valldaro, Conca de Barberà District Council, the Vic Hospital Consortium, Delta Tecnic SA, EMCOFA SA (Empresa Constructora Familiar SA), Catalan Foundation for Recreation, GIRBAU SA, Grupo General Cable Sistemas SA, Hispano Mecano Eléctrica SAU (Himmel), Laboratorios Menarini SA, Port Aventura and Port de Roses.
The prize for the Best Initiative to Involve Personnel and/or Interact with External Interested Parties was awarded to the company URBASER SA for its open-doors day at its central business park in Barcelona. The event, designed for employees and their families, had different educational and leisure initiatives, many for the youngest visitors. These included the ‘Put on PPE’ workshop, a plant workshop and water workshop (Make a Water Purifier), waste workshop, 'We are the Missing Piece' (giant puzzle), a concert and many others. Over 800 people showed up for the event, where several prizes were also distributed, including pencil holders, tickets for the Tibidabo Fun Park, the Zoo, the Olympic Museum, 10 weekends for 4 people in a rural inn. A symbolic character was created, the sweeper, which was a common motif featured on the different materials, signs, labels and gifts.The proposal wanted to value the role of the workers in this sector, to explain the company’s business in the area of waste management and sustainability, make the general public aware of the importance of managing them, both at corporate and individual levels, and convey messages about workplace risk prevention and the quality of service the company provides.
A special mention was also awarded in this category to the Blaumar Hotel in Salou. It used leftover vegetable oils from the hotel's kitchen to handcraft 1500 bars of soap, which were then offered to guests as a welcome gift in their rooms. During the summer, they also held workshops for hotel guests on how to make soap from the remains of oil. Over 90 people attended. The initiative’s educational focus, explaining how to use a waste that we all generate at home and the way they did it, was valued very positively by jury members.Besides the winners, other candidatures in this same category were: Laboratorios Menarini SA, Solvay (complex in Martorell) and the Metropolitan Entity of Hydraulic Services and Waste Management (EMSHTR), with two proposals.
Laboratorios Menarini presented the creation of an informative brochure for workers and outsourced personnel about quality, the environment and workplace risks. Meriting mention is the fact that over 1200 external personnel and workers from external companies were personally sent this brochure, in order to assure that it was properly received and understood.
Conversely, Solvay presented its system of ideas, a mechanism to encourage and provide incentive to continuous improvement by acknowledging and awarding ideas provided by its employees. These ideas may be awarded in cash or in other ways, even including a 4-day fully-paid holiday.
The Metropolitan Entity of Hydraulic Services and Waste Management (EMSHTR) submitted two different projects, one on greening the contractor chain and another on training and raising awareness as tools for involving personnel. The initiative it created for World Environment Day of that year was highly original, to explain the progressive decrease in the quantity of paper consumed by employees.
Pinsos Sant Antoni S.A., presented two candidatures and obtained the prize for Best Environmental Implementation for a project related to reducing the load of contaminants from pork purines through their foods. This initiative highlights the importance of considering indirect environmental issues when running businesses and shows how they can have a positive impact on clients' environmental results. In this concrete case, the new features provided in creating and preparing animal feed lets farms obtain a reduction percentage in nitrogen production, which ranged from 20.90% in breeding sows to 26.20% in food pigs, with respect to the standard values given by the Catalan Ministry of the Environment and Housing.
The company Envases Plásticos del Ter SA (ENPLATER) was another candidate in this category that, anticipating the entry into force of regulations on the emission of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), installed a solvent recovery plant. This initiative reduced atmospheric emissions, the consumption of ethyl acetate, a raw material classified as a dangerous product (with a reduction of 20.7% in 2006 with respect to 2005 and 60.1% in 2007), reduced the generation of solvent wastes and recovered more than 812 tonnes of ethyl acetate in 2007. This in turn led to a reduction of some 26 annual trips in transporting tanks containing this flammable product from Tarragona to Torroella de Montgrí, where the company’s headquarters are located.
El Tinter, Arts gràfiques, Edicions i Produccions SAL also participated in the category for the Best Environmental Implementation, presenting a proposal for introducing eco-design in its products, prioritising the reduction of dangerous wastes and minimising energy consumption.
During the same ceremony, special recognition was given to the four companies in Catalonia holding EMAS registration for more than 10 years. This recognition was not only due to their pioneering nature in adopting an EMAS, but also due to their constancy in keeping their registration valid over the course of these years.
These companies were: SHARP Electrónica España S.A., Klüber Lubrication Gmbh Ibérica SC, BASF Española S.L. i Croda Ibérica S.A.-Mevisa Site.
