REN renews commitment to biodiversity

REN - Redes Energéticas Nacionais has renewed its commitments to protect, promote, and restore biodiversity until 2025, as a signatory of act4nature Portugal. The company pledges to create a Strategy for Natural Capital Management, to strengthen investment in innovation, research, and development, to encourage corporate volunteering, and to involve local communities in new environmental initiatives.

REN will also develop various partnerships with communities to promote biodiversity or ecosystem services within its right-of-ways, and will also undertake conservation and restoration projects in nature. The company will further invest in new biodiversity promotion initiatives by supporting non-profit organisations, businesses, or associations.

On a daily basis, REN monitors the environmental impacts of its activities, seeking ways to minimize them. Among other actions, the company has been involved in reforestation using native species, adapted its infrastructure for avifauna, and joined the transnational strategy to combat the invasive exotic species Cortaderia selloana, known as pampas grass. Ecosystem restoration and prevention of rural fire risks are other projects that REN has prioritized.

Among the actions REN has taken for biodiversity protection, the Biodiversity Chair stands out, a research and knowledge transfer program established in 2015 as a result of a partnership with CIBIO (University of Porto) and the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT).

Companies that are signatories of act4nature, an initiative promoted by the Business Council for Sustainable Development (BCSD), not only fulfill ten common commitments but also strengthen their commitment by making individual commitments, which must be specific, measurable, realistic, and have concrete deadlines. The act4nature Portugal initiative, which currently has 46 signatory companies, was launched in 2020 and involved 15 pioneering companies, including REN. 87% of the commitments made by the original signatories showed positive performance.