A total of 306 projects will benefit from the Ence Pontevedra Social Plan, an initiative to which the company allocates, in each edition, 3 million euros, aimed at the development and welfare of the society of Pontevedra and its surroundings.
The Environmental Pact Monitoring Committee, which includes the Xunta de Galicia and Ence, has concluded the evaluation and selection of the beneficiary projects. The evaluation process of the applications submitted to this edition of the Plan has been carried out by an external consultant, responsible for assessing in detail each of the projects, ensuring maximum rigour in the selection.
In this edition of the Plan, the area of action with the highest number of applications was Support for Grassroots Sport, with 138; followed by Recovery and Care of the Environment, with 52 projects awarded; thanks to the Social Plan it will also be possible to develop other initiatives, linked to the Fight against Social Exclusion (43 projects); Support and Aid for Education and Culture (29 projects); Promotion and Entrepreneurship and Innovation (27 projects); and various Neighbourhood Aids (17 projects).
Entities or individuals who have applied for aid from the Social Plan will begin to receive in the coming days the communication of Ence with the resolution of the call through their respective emails.
According to Antonio Casal, regional director of Ence in Galicia, “once again, the call for the Social Plan is once again a success. The number of applications, the quality of the projects submitted and their value to the community reflect the great reception of this initiative. Ence reiterates its commitment to the residents of Pontevedra, Poio and Marín and is confident that this programme will continue to contribute to generating sustainable wealth and improving the quality of life in the surrounding area”.
Ence’s commitment to its environment is also evident in the sustainability of Pontevedra and its estuary. The quality of the water and air in the Pontevedra estuary, backed up by government measurements, is better than that of other cities in northwest Spain. This is also demonstrated by the presence of important shellfish banks in front of the biofactory, as well as the 28 beaches awarded blue flags by the European Commission in the Ría de Pontevedra (6 of them in the vicinity of this facility).
Various awards also certify Ence’s firm commitment to environmental, social and governance sustainability. Thus, in recent weeks, the Ecovadis platform has awarded Ence its Platinum Medal, placing the company at the global forefront of the pulp sector in sustainability. Similarly, the ESG agency Sustainalytics has ranked Ence as the most sustainable company in its sector. In addition, the Pontevedra biofactory has other environmental awards, such as the Nordic Swan ecolabel, the European Commission’s Gold Medal for its environmental improvement and AENOR’s “Zero Waste” certificate; the biomass it uses also has the “Sure” certificate, which guarantees its sustainability.
