2024 ACCIONA Open de España will be the first sporting event with positive water and carbon footprints

DESALINATION. The company will compensate the tournament’s water consumption with an extra 10% and pledges an additional contribution through the ‘ACCIONA Emissions Under Par Award’
Last year’s edition had a positive economic impact of €19.4 million in Madrid
LONG TERM. ACCIONA planted nearly 8,000 trees in the three previous editions and reduced CO2 emissions by 29%

The ACCIONA Open de España de Golf, to be held in Madrid from the 26th to the 29th of September, will be the first sporting event in the world with a positive water and carbon footprint. In its 2023 edition, the tournament had an economic impact of €19.4 million in Madrid, according to a study by Madrid’s European University. Since 2021, when ACCIONA began collaborating with its organization, the event has reduced CO2 emissions per attendee by 29% – with almost 46,000 spectators in total last year – and has left a regenerative legacy in the city of Madrid with 8,000 new trees, which this year will be expanded with new planting.

ACCIONA will contribute a positive water footprint, 10% higher than the tournament’s total water consumption, by generating clean water at one of the desalination plants operated by the company in the Júcar Basin, one of the areas of Spain that suffers the highest levels of water stress, thus avoiding the extraction of water from aquifers. This new desalination plant water will more than offset the direct and indirect consumption of the tournament.

In addition, for the fourth edition of the ‘ACCIONA Emissions Under Par Award’, the company will compensate tenfold in the same area the water footprint generated during a full season by the winner of the Open and his caddie.

For the same prize, it will also offset tenfold the winner and his caddie’s CO2 emissions during one year by planting new vegetation in the city of Madrid. This contribution will add to the offsetting of the tournament’s emissions, leaving a positive carbon footprint.

This year, urban reforestation will be carried out following the Miyawaki method, which imitates the natural way in which forests are born to accelerate their consolidation and make it easier for them to last autonomously.

2023 TRACK RECORD

The event’s legacy of regeneration is combined with its impact on Madrid’s economy every year. In the 2023 edition it totaled €19.4 million, according to the study titled ACCIONA Open de España: Analysis of the Economic and Social Impact in 2023 carried out by the European University of Madrid.

Of this figure, €10.3 million were generated directly by the event and €9.1 million by indirect and induced effects. On a social level, the tournament created the equivalent of 647 full-time jobs per year.

The 2023 ACCIONA Open de España was attended by 45,765 people (+6%), 28% of whom came from outside the Community of Madrid.

As part of its commitment to the ‘2023 ACCIONA Emissions Under Par Award’, the company planted 1,266 trees at the National Golf Center in Madrid, which will prevent the emission of 831 tonnes of CO2 per year. This will offset the estimated CO2 emissions of 2023 winner Matthieu Pavon and his caddie for ten seasons and will add to the offsets for the 438 tonnes of CO2 related to the tournament’s organization.

PURPOSE-DRIVEN TOURNAMENT

ACCIONA’s support for the Open de España de Golf began in 2021 in a new stage in which the tournament geared towards sustainability and environmental regeneration purposes. The event had a positive carbon footprint since its first edition.

Over the last three years, ACCIONA has implemented sustainability initiatives such as the installation of photovoltaic panels, which contributed 585kWh of renewable energy in 2023; the elimination of plastic containers; the 100% reuse of the tournament’s modular structures (stalls, stands, tents…), furniture, decoration and signage; and the prioritization of local suppliers to reduce transportation and promote economic activity in the surroundings.

Another key aspect has been the promotion of sustainable mobility through the use of electric vehicle fleets, the optimization of public transport in collaboration with the Madrid City Council and the discouragement of private vehicles’ use with free shuttles and informative awareness campaigns.

In all editions of the tournament, the organization provides training to suppliers and workers at the event to optimize sustainability measures and it intensifies information and signage on the golf course to encourage sustainable behavior among attendees. In the 2023 edition, 80% of visitors rated the event’s sustainability as “very satisfactory”, according to the European University study.