Avanza Awards 2023

The AVANZA awards were created with the purpose of recognising the work and effort made by the company's staff, who helps to improve the company's competitiveness, achieve social integration within the company, enhance the quality of our processes, respect the environment and develop and apply innovative solutions and practices in the company's day-to-day operations. All of this within the scope of our organisation's on-going commitment to sustainable development, the promotion of occupational well-being and research, development and innovation. These awards are given every two years and the scope covers all business units that are part of the Environmental Services area. The first awards were given in 2017.

With these awards, FCC Medio Ambiente aims to:

• Recognise the work of the different business units and people of the company, rewarding projects and initiatives associated with the activities and themes set forth.
• Promote a voluntary and proactive approach in the business units and people of the area, beyond the mere fulfilment of their labour and legal obligations, so their activities are carried out in such a way that they fall within the concept of Corporate Social Responsibility.
• Raise the awareness of society in general and of all FCC Environment staff on the importance of incorporating these aspects into the ordinary and common management processes of the company, as a distinguishing factor of excellence in business management.
• Show the tangible results of best practices, which can serve as a guide, set the example and stimulate the generation of new and better practices across the organisation.
• Disseminate the best practices carried out in the business units of the company, among the public in general, and the Company's stakeholders in particular, as well as its commitment to Corporate Social Responsibility.

Awarded Projects 2023

Social Initiatives

Awards for social initiatives: The purpose is to recognise the active participation and the involvement of employees with social action initiatives, in the different aspects that make up Corporate Social Responsibility, especially in its social-labour environment, such as the social integration of disadvantaged groups, the promotion of occupational well-being, the collaboration with local communities and/or entities in the development of social and educational projects or projects for the improvement of living conditions and quality of life.:

• Project "Programme for the labour market integration of groups at risk of exclusion" - Madrid branch

The implementation of this project materialises the commitment that the Madrid branch of FCC Medio Ambiente has with society through the integration of vulnerable groups and/or those at risk of exclusion into the labour market.  The "labour Integration Programme for Groups at Risk of Exclusion" is structured in phases in which different stages have been defined and where a clear road map to follow is established. It also allows for detailed monitoring and analysis of recruitment processes.

- Initial study and assessment phase

- Selection and recruitment phase

- Follow-up phase

The coordination of the different departments involved is essential for greater involvement and performance, achieving greater efficiency and obtaining better results. It is also essential to work on the change of mentality and attitude, and different mechanisms have been used to contribute to this change and to disseminate social initiatives. Furthermore, it is necessary to have the consultation/participation of trade union organisations and representatives, family members, middle management and managers and collaborating entities.

As an overall result of the implementation of the programme, for the period from 1 January 2021 to 31 December 2022, the number of contracts made to groups at risk of exclusion totalled 256.

Quality

Quality Award: its purpose is to recognise the projects developed and implemented and which are distinguished by the increase in the quality of the services provided and/or influence in improving how the internal processes of the company are managed, for example: new service provision models, use of new technologies in the delivery of services, development of methodologies for the inspection and monitoring of services, methodology followed to improve maintenance of equipment or facilities, methods to evaluate the satisfaction of our customers or users of our services, systems to improve communication between our customers or users and the company, incident management methodologies, etc.

• Project "Use of new technology for 100% control of the weighing of litter bins on the Arenal in the cleaning of the beaches of San Sebastián" - Gipuzkoa-Navarra branch

Development of a computer application to control 100% of the weighing of the litter bins on the beaches San Sebastian-Donostia, with two main objectives:

1. Creation of an inventory of litter bins, classified by waste fractions, in the contracted monitoring area of the VISION computer tool.
2. Implementation of a system so that, in situ, in person, employees can use an app that has been created ad-hoc by the company itself to record the performance of the litter bin emptying service, indicating the results of this activity (fill level of each bag removed) and the litter bin on which it is carried out, which will enable the control of litter bin emptying and transfer the weights to the IT tool environment in a quick and automatic manner.

The app can also record images obtained from mobile devices at the time of emptying, as well as record other elements such as bin fill level, inspection of the bin's condition, etc. This provides complete traceability of the entire litter bin emptying process. It will also allow the client to receive a report containing the total amount of waste removed from each of the beaches, differentiating between the waste collected in the selective collection bins and any other variant or collection system, and thus justifying the control and monitoring of the management of all waste and providing documentation from the transfer centre / authorised manager where it is deposited.

Environment

Environmental award: aimed at recognising the projects developed and implemented and with a special contribution to minimising environmental impacts derived from the development of the activities of the company, for example: increase in energy efficiency, both in the provision of services and in facilities and machinery, use of renewable energies, improvements in waste management, decrease in water consumption, improvements in leachate and wastewater management, minimisation of atmospheric emissions, etc.

Innovation

Innovation Awards: they have been designed to recognise and reward internal talent of the organisation, materialised through innovative ideas, which should be the basis of a business project developed in the medium term, for example: innovative practices in the provision of services, in citizen, customers or other stakeholder relationship systems, in the improvement of environmental behaviour, which contribute to the sustainable economic development of the company, initiatives that result in an organisational improvement or the management processes of the company, etc.

• Project "Zero Waste and Circular Economy in the Refrigerator Recycling Plant" - Eastern Industrial Waste - Neveras Centre area

This innovative Zero Waste and circular economy project is developed under the idea "Waste = Resource". The application is based on efficiency and aims to achieve an increase in recycling and recovery of the plant reaching an overall recovery rate of 93%.

This is achieved through the following innovations:

1. Recycling and recovery of the " refuse " stream from phase 2. This stream is made up of iron, polyurethane foam, plastic and aluminium waste.
2. Extraction and segregated storage of air-conditioning gases for reuse.

With this innovative project, the facility reaffirms its path towards a circular economy in line with the Sustainable Development Goals set by the United Nations General Assembly. It will prevent the refuse stream from going to a controlled deposit and the gases from being incinerated, introducing raw materials and gases into the system, thus reducing the carbon footprint.