Greenalia improves its ESG rating to place in the top 10 of energy producing companies

• The ESG rating agency, Morningstar Sustainalytics, which evaluates environmental, social and governance issues affecting investment performance, places Greenalia in the Low ESG Risk section (18.3)
• The improvement compared to 2022 is attributable to the implementation of control and quality systems (ISO 14001), the strengthening of governance and progress in compliance

Greenalia, an independent renewable energy producer, is rated as a low-risk company in its ESG rating by Morningstar Sustainalytics. These ranking measures a company’s exposure to the main material ESG risks in its industry and compares it with its ability to manage them. Greenalia, with a score of 18.3 – a low-risk rating – is in the Top 10 best companies in the sub-industry category, which includes independent energy production companies.

Greenalia achieved this result thanks to the consolidated management of all material issues, obtaining a score of 68.5 -strong- in risk management, more than 20 points above the industry average. A score that highlights the robustness of corporate policies such as those related to anti-corruption, or environmental management, with best practices as reflected in the ISO 14001 certification at our biomass plant in Curtis-Teixeiro (Galicia, Spain).

The analysis the company has undergone includes an in-depth examination of its exposure to sector-specific material risks (community relations, carbon emissions, governance, health and safety, human capital, business ethics, and land use and biodiversity) and how each company manages them.

The improvement compared to the result obtained in 2022 is mainly due to the lower risk exposure defined by Sustainalytics (8% reduction compared to 2022 of this exposure) and to the improvement in the management of these risks (38% increase on average) improving the score in the management of 8 of the 9 material issues evaluated.

With this rating, Greenalia improves its sustainable profile and endorses its commitment to sustainability, for a clean and respectful energy model with all the surrounding environments. These values are implicit in the DNA of the company, which understands dialogue and local development as a key axis in its growth, as well as the protection of the environment and biodiversity.

It also represents a further step in the consolidation of progress in sustainability, policies that have been reinforced in 2022. Thus, in terms of Governance, progress has been made in the compliance program with the approval of 6 new internal rules related to taxation; anti-corruption, contracting and subcontracting, collection, processing, and protection of personal data; as well as the information security and data protection manual and the use of social media.

In social matters, Greenalia increased by 40% the investment with social impact in the territory to reach 63 million of investment that mobilized 180 direct and indirect jobs. At this point, special mention should be made of the creation of the Greenalia Chair for Energy Transition with the UDC, whose objective is to promote research, dissemination, and knowledge transfer in the fight against climate change and decarbonization.

Finally, in environmental matters, Greenalia consumed 100% of electricity from renewable sources and reduced direct CO2 emissions by 56% in relation to EBITDA.

This year, 2022, has also laid the foundations for ambitious future goals, such as reducing total GHG emissions by 25% by 2030, a challenge taken on by the Board of Directors, which is completed with the goal of becoming Carbon Neutral by 2040, following the company’s adherence to The Climate Pledge initiative, which means reaching this neutrality a decade before the international target set by the Paris Agreement.

The company is currently working on the implementation of a new Sustainability Plan that sets the company’s roadmap for the coming years and that will add a fourth pillar to the three ESG pillars: Greenalia’s impact on the Prosperity of the environments in which it operates.