Cosentino celebrates “Environment Week”

Cosentino is currently running the second edition of its “Environment Week”, both an internal and external programme of activities for the celebration of World Environment Day on Friday 5 June.

Over 2019, Cosentino again enjoyed major achievements in this area – increasing its waste recycling rate by 33%, through a heightened production of surfaces made using salvaged materials to nearly 20% of total manufacturing, as well as avoiding emissions of 15,000 Tn of CO2.

Cosentino Group, a leading global company in the manufacture and distribution of innovative surfaces, has in recent years become a leader within its sector in sustainability issues, investing significantly in assets relating to the environment, as well as undertaking resource-management projects. For this multinational originating from Almería, sustainability is one of the foundations of its strategy and corporate model, always pursuing the goal of driving sustainability across its entire value chain.

In keeping with this commitment, Cosentino has organised a second chapter of its “Environment Week”, both an internal and external programme of activities to celebrate World Environment Day on Friday 5 June. Under the official slogan “Time for Nature”, initiatives especially worthy of mention are internal ideas competition “Zero Footprint”, to contribute to the company’s carbon footprint reduction strategy, and “Plant your own tree”, which aims to help consolidate the landscaping “Cinturón Verde” [Green Belt] project for its Industrial complex in Cantoria (Almería). Likewise, over the course of the coming days, all Cosentino’s offices will project sustainability messages and goals achieved thanks to the company’s staff.

2019, a new business year of important advances in environmental sustainability

Cosentino is continuing its journey of excellence, setting the highest standards in terms of quality and respect for the environment. Cosentino also seeks to go beyond, identifying and remedying the main direct and indirect impact had by its business. This has been another year where Cosentino has achieved optimal sustainability markers. For example, last year, Cosentino increased its waste recycling rate by 33% and produced 1.45 million m² of boards containing salvaged or recycled material, this making up around 20% of total manufacturing.

Moreover, it has attained an 8% decrease in its kWh energy consumption per m² mix manufactured, thus improving the energy efficiency of processes at Parque Industrial de Cantoria, and maintaining a consumption of electrical energy which is certified 100% renewable. Adding to this, at the level of water processes, is its fulfilment of the objective for “zero waste” of industrial water. Finally, in 2019 Cosentino avoided emissions of over 15,000 Tn of CO2, thanks to its mobility and energy efficiency initiatives, including new heat recovery systems and the improvement of factory machinery.

In fact, 2019 was a key business year in the initial calculation of the whole organisation’s carbon footprint and its value chain. The company identified points in processes where the generation of emissions, and their impact, is higher. For this current year, Cosentino has an operational tool in place to establish goals for reducing, compensating and neutralising GEI emissions, which will be shown in the group’s “Strategic plan for reduction, compensation and neutralisation of CO2 emissions”.

According to Antonio Urdiales, Environment Director for the Cosentino Group, “it is clear that the crisis generated by Covid-19 is causing as yet unquantified damage in terms of its magnitude, but it also opens up an unprecedented window of opportunity. There seems to be ever greater consensus around the idea that we not only need to re-activate the economy, but also use present circumstances to redesign the system and drive our activity with a fuller social and environmental conscience. At Cosentino we’ve been backing this vision for a long time, increasing our investments year upon year to establish the foundations for a company model that is truly sustainable over time. Part of this awareness, which is present in our DNA and our corporate goal, is grounded in the running of Environment Week, in which all workers get involved and also contribute with their ideas to improve our measures and our actions in this area”.