Iberdrola reforests towns in Spain most committed to sustainability with more than 270,000 trees; renewable energy leader will plant 230 hectares with seedlings, drones and smart seeds through its international startup program Perseo

August 30, 2022 (press release) –

Iberdrola will plant 230 hectares with seedlings, drones and smart seeds through its international startup program, Perseo.

• The municipalities chosen in the initiative Forest seeks people to grow launched by the energy company are Cerdedo-Cotobade in Pontevedra, Liérganes in Cantabria and Muelas del Pan and San Cebrián de Castro in Zamora.
• The electricity company will plant more than 270,000 trees with native species, which will absorb more than 175,000 tons of CO2 from the atmosphere.
   

Four municipalities have won the project Bosque busca pueblo en el que crecer launched by Iberdrola. Muelas del Pan, San Cebrián de Castro (both in Zamora), Cerdedo-Cotobade (Pontevedra) and Liérganes (Cantabria) are the winners and the electricity company will be responsible for promoting the recovery of natural areas through the conversion of burnt or wasteland into forests, the development of employment and the development of the region. 

Iberdrola will plant seedlings, drones and smart seeds through its international startup program, Perseo, together with CO2 Revolution, a company specialized in measuring the carbon footprint and helping to offset it through reforestation projects. 

The winning municipalities will have Iberdrola as an ally, which will plant more than 270,000 trees of native species and ensure the creation of entire ecosystems that promote biodiversity; shrubs, aromatic and flowering plants of all strata of the vegetation layer will also be planted. 

Iberdrola's objective with these actions is to recover land degraded by fires or unsustainable uses, reduce erosion, improve the landscape and recover biological and forestry activity with the introduction of various species. The electricity company will bear the costs and thus promote the reforestation of municipal public land, promote the generation of local employment, and increase the natural capital of the municipality. Iberdrola will work with the municipalities to define the scope and viability of the reforestations to be carried out in each of them. 

Thanks to these projects, more than 175,000 tons of CO2 will be absorbed over the next 35 years.

COMMITMENT WITH THE EMPTIED SPAIN

The project is part of the Iberdrola - PERSEO international start-up program, which is supported by the European Commission and its strategic plan 'A long-term vision for EU's rural areas', through the REInA platform (European Rural Innovation Area). This platform, promoted by the University of Salamanca and managed by the start-up Olé, aims to attract investment, create jobs and generate projects in rural areas that ensure a better quality of life and services for the inhabitants of these areas. 

Muelas del Pan, San Cebrián de Castro, Cerdedo-Cotobade and Liérganes will also be able to implement other sustainable initiatives by Iberdrola with Smart solutions. From the towns, the public representatives have been enthusiastic about their choice and willing to implement the projects, foreseeably from September.  

The selection has taken into account the strategy and planning in sustainability, entrepreneurship and innovation, with special attention to the promotion of renewable energies, the electrification of demand and the decarbonization of its economic activity. 

With this initiative, Iberdrola contributes to the creation of new opportunities in rural areas and to promote the offsetting of CO2 emissions. The project will allow the recovery of natural spaces and their revitalization, since the development of various forest environments will promote their recreational and tourist use and will contribute to the fight against depopulation by generating local employment. 

PLANTING 20 MILLION TREES

As part of Iberdrola's commitment to the environment, the company has set itself the target of promoting the planting of 20 million trees during this decade, which will capture approximately 6 million tons of CO2 in 30 years. This CO2 absorption would neutralize the emissions of a car driving 116 times around the Earth. 

Thanks to the technology, developed by CO2 Revolution, it is possible to repopulate large areas of land with high efficiency and respect for the environment. It combines state-of-the-art forestry biotechnology with robotics and the improvement of mechanized land-based methods used in the sector. To date, 2,500 hectares of land have already been reforested with this system, equivalent to avoiding the emission of 500,000 tons of CO2 into the atmosphere.

In addition, the company is committed to the rural world as a fundamental lever for activity and economic recovery throughout the country. In the last two years, Iberdrola has promoted the installation of twenty new wind and solar facilities in rural areas of eleven autonomous communities, with a combined capacity of 2,000 MW.

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