After more than 80 years of history, we embarked on a new journey two decades ago: the ACCIONA brand was born, championing a visionary approach to sustainability long before it was a mainstream topic. Today, we continue to lead the charge towards a sustainable future, proving that business can be done differently.
In nature, sustainability is the balance of resources within an ecosystem. This fundamental truth predates us and gave us existence. Humans, however, need words to define concepts. Without the right words, we cannot think clearly, and without clear thinking, we cannot change our world. That’s why the inclusion of “sustainability” in the Real Academia Española (Spanish Royal Academy) dictionary in 2014, driven by ACCIONA, was a significant milestone. However, this term had already been part of our lexicon since it was first used at our Shareholders’ Meeting in 2005.
The generational transition, which occurred a year earlier, coincided almost exactly with the dawn of a new century, bringing new demands and uncertainties. Few could have predicted that the next twenty years would see rapid climate change, deep economic recessions, a global pandemic, and a war at Europe’s doorstep. During this time, another natural term became crucial: adaptability. This quality, fueled by continuous innovation, has positioned us as the world’s leading renewable energy company, among other sustainable development milestones.
Today, we are a global company with a social impact that extends beyond decarbonization, thanks to both the social dividends from our activities and initiatives like our acciona.org foundation, which brings renewable energy and water to the world’s most disadvantaged and remote regions.
Isaac Newton once said that if he saw further than others, it was because he stood on the shoulders of giants. This metaphor perfectly describes ACCIONA’s achievements and legacy over the nearly eighty years prior. In 2024, we celebrate twenty years of a new era and nearly a century of serving society.
At the start of the 21st century, the planet faced a crossroads. The Kyoto Protocol, the first serious commitment to reducing greenhouse gases, was approved in 1997 but hadn’t yet taken effect. The word “crisis” comes from the Greek “krisis,” meaning a decisive moment. In this sense, those years were truly critical. It was decision time. With the generational shift embodied by José Manuel Entrecanales, we believed the future had to be sustainable, or we would have no future as a species.
We not only planned to align our growth with sustainability but to build it upon that principle. Thus, it became the cornerstone of our strategy. This vision quickly turned into action. We unified our infrastructure, energy, and water sectors to serve this purpose. By 2007, we had already avoided emitting 4.77 million tons of CO2 in a single year. By 2008, we were applying this vision in over thirty countries. During this period, we also established the acciona.org foundation to bolster our efforts in areas where other companies didn’t reach.
Our sustainability roadmap faced a new crisis, this time economic rather than climatic. Here, adaptability—defined as the ability to adapt to changing and uncertain scenarios and emerge stronger—became crucial for companies in the new century. This difficult period reminded us of the positive social impact a company can and should have: being a key instrument of social and economic progress through business success.
In this context, as the Kyoto Protocol expired without substantial changes, doubling down on sustainability was particularly risky. When sustainability is just a buzzword, it’s the first to be sacrificed in tough times. At ACCIONA, we couldn’t abandon it because it was already our hallmark. Thus, in 2010, we created our first Sustainability Master Plan and dedicated more than a third of our profits to innovation, the only way to make sustainability viable over time.
After a five-year period that tested our vision and shook the foundations of the global economy, a moment of global awakening arrived. This refers to the economic recovery and, more importantly, the ambitious 2015 Paris Agreements that endorsed the path we had embarked on ten years earlier. During this cycle, a historic change occurred: renewable energy ceased to be alternative and became the mainstay of the energy system.
While we waited for governments to begin implementing decarbonization measures to realize the Paris Agreements, we took two crucial steps on our path: in that same year, we acquired a stake in Nordex, a leader in wind turbine manufacturing, and most importantly, in 2016, we achieved carbon neutrality as a company. Additionally, we adopted a new motto that encompassed economic growth, ecological balance, and social progress: Business as Unusual, which has guided us ever since.
Over the previous fifteen years, we had been realizing our vision of a sustainable future despite numerous obstacles, both from navigating uncharted territory and dealing with various crises and regulatory changes. Now it was time to advance the main lines we had drawn in the fields of infrastructure, water, energy, and culture.
This period had its challenges, such as the COVID crisis and the Ukraine war, but we applied the lessons learned and established ourselves as a global company with flagship projects worldwide: from the McIntyre Wind Farm to the Follo Line tunnel in Norway or the Cunningham megabattery park in the USA. Likewise, we began to explore other promising renewable energies like green hydrogen.
Find out how we transported a huge new mold, for manufacturing over-60-meter-long wind turbine blades, between Bilbao port and the ACCIONA Blades plant in Navarre
