Combating climate change is one of the cornerstones of Abengoa’s commitment to sustainable development. However, there are other aspects that are not directly associated with greenhouse gas emissions but which nevertheless are part of the concept of sustainable development.

For this reason, Abengoa has drawn up an Environmental Sustainability Indicator (ESI) system that will be implemented during the first quarter of 2011 in order to contribute to enhanced business management, enabling the company to quantify and compare the sustainability of its activities and to establish future improvement targets..

This system covers the following indicator categories:

• Biodiversity: environmental project installation response according to the sensitivity of the surroundings of the site location.
• Odors: emission of bothersome odors beyond project sites or areas of operation.
• Noise: level of environmental noise produced by project installations and areas of operation.
• Water discharges: discharge management related to the environmental quality of the receiving medium, reduction thereof, lowering resulting impact, and control of administrative requirements.
• Soil and aquifers: degree of soil contamination of the site and potential impact on nearby aquifers.
• Products and services: production recyclability; that is, making use of materials consumed; adapting products for reuse depending on their structure; raw material inputs applied more than once in the production process, and reutilization of means of production and transportation.
• Water consumption: sustainable project installation performance in terms of water consumption.
•  Energy consumption: sustainable project installation performance in terms of energy consumption.
• Atmospheric emissions: sustainable project installation performance with respect to air quality, with the exception of CO₂ and other GHG emissions that are treated as part of the GHG reporting system.

The primary objectives of the system are as follows:

• Ensure Abengoa’s business by ascertaining and quantifying associated environmental risks and setting reduction targets.
• Guarantee that the company is recognized as a business that strives to achieve sustainability, operating in a way that is sustainable.
• Enable persons in charge of the different Abengoa companies to measure and compare the sustainability of their activities.
• Establish future improvement targets.

The indicator system will facilitate environmental risk detection and coverage by determining aspects which have or could have a significant impact on the environment. It also enables planning of environmental issues required under the ISO 14001 in Section 4.3.1. “The organization should plan to establish, implement and maintain one or more procedures for identifying the environmental aspects of its activities, products and services that can be controlled and on which it may have an influence”.