The Chair of Gorona del Viento, Alpidio Armas, and its Chief Executive Officer, Santiago González, yesterday held a meeting with representatives from El Hierro’s town halls to introduce the new Sustainability and Environmental Innovation Bureau, set up by the company that runs the Wind-Pumped Hydro Power Station.
The meeting was attended by the Mayors of Valverde and La Frontera, Antonio Chinea and Miguel Angel Acosta, together with the First Deputy Mayor of El Pinar de El Hierro Town Hall. One of its main objectives was to present to them the proposal that the new Bureau carries out an energy assessment of local government agencies and their subsidiary bodies.
“We hope this study will produce results such as lower energy bills for these bodies, in addition to benefits to the environment and for the citizens of El Hierro, given that any saving achieved in energy costs increases our capacity to invest in other municipal policies”, stated Alpidio Armas.
The initiative was welcomed by the meeting, and is set to become one of the first projects completed by Gorona del Viento on this new path of collaboration with other institutions. The company’s technical staff will assess measures to improve energy efficiency in public buildings using various methods, including an analysis of energy bills, management of demand, and efficient use of electricity. Subsequently (based on the data shared between the Bureau for Innovation and the town halls), the Bureau will publish a report with recommendations which could lead to improvements in the use of technology (lighting, computers, etc.) and in the habits of staff employed at the bodies concerned.
The ultimate aim, which is enshrined in Gorona del Viento’s Corporate Social Responsibility, is to contribute to limiting the carbon footprint (by means of an environmental contribution based on energy saving), and thus to bring long-term benefits to the population of El Hierro, who will be the beneficiaries of the measures implemented by the Town Halls.
The work with the municipal bodies will start this very week, and will simultaneously be rolled out at El Hierro’s Island Council and subsidiaries such as Mercahierro and the Empresa Insular de Servicios El Meridiano [Meridian Island Services Company].
Mr Armas highlighted the valuable role performed by the current Chief Executive Officer, Santiago González, in the management of Gorona and its team, and by the Wind-Pumped Hydro Power Station itself. He went on to say that the Sustainability and Environmental Innovation Bureau will benefit the island’s population through other activities, such as offering energy efficiency advice in homes and in private businesses, and by publicising funding schemes to increase sustainability to individuals, businesses and other organisations.
