Hidralia contributes to the Suez Spain biodiversity project, awarded at the European Business Awards for the Environment

The group of companies, SUEZ Spain, to which the Andalusian company Hidralia of water management belongs, has been awarded at the European Business Awards for the Environment (EBAE), organized by the European Commission, in the category of business and biodiversity, by the project "From Water Treatment Plants To Biodiversity Reserves". Dulcinea Meijide, Director of Sustainable Development of SUEZ Spain, was commissioned to receive this award at a gala held at the NIEDERÖSTERREICH Palace in Vienna this month.

The award-winning initiative represents a progressive and innovative change in the management model of water treatment plants - both water treatment plants and wastewater treatment plants - based on the naturalization of the facilities, which are transformed and managed as green infrastructures. The naturalization project for water facilities and infrastructures is included in the Hidralia Strategic Plan and its affiliated companies -Aguas de Benahavís and Aguas de Torremolinos, in Malaga; Aguas de Montilla, in Cordova; Emasagra and Aguasvira, in Granada, and Aguas de Huelva- and includes diverse actions such as diagnosis and biodiversity action plans in all the facilities located in sensitive spaces, the progressive elimination of the use of phytosanitary and herbicides, as well as the control of invasive species in 100% of facilities, among others.

This naturalization of the facilities goes hand-in-hand with one of the unique Hidralia projects for wastewater treatment plants (WWTP), which is the gradual conversion of these WWTPs into biofactories. In this way they will have facilities that go from being exclusively consumers of resources to producers of them, thus being virtuous examples of the circular economy model, as is the case of the Biofactoría Sur.

This biofactory, managed by Emasagra, is a model of innovation and showcase of the fight against climate change, where it has practically managed not to consume external energy - it feeds on that generated in its own processes- and does not carry out discharges.

These awards, organized since 1987 by the European Commission, recognize and reward those companies that successfully combine the viability of their activities with the protection of the environment, and do so by introducing eco-innovations in management, processes, products or services that offer, in business cooperation or combining business and biodiversity. In Spain, these awards have been held since 1997.