The registration of its Ajalvir plant with EMAS (Eco-Management and Audit Scheme) confirms the position of the ITP Group within the area of environmental management as the foremost Spanish business group in the aeronautics sector for number of registered centres in accordance with this model. EMAS represents the highest level of environmental management currently in existence in Europe.

The Industria de Turbo Propulsores plant in Ajalvir (Madrid) has been registered with EMAS through the Madrid Community Council for the Environment and Land Management. In obtaining this certification, ITP has completed the inscription into the EMAS register of its two main industrial (ITP Zamudio, Bizkaia and ITP Ajalvir) to which can be added the ITP affiliate PCB in Barakaldo, Bizkaia.

This regional system of environmental management and auditing is a voluntary mechanism aimed at companies and organisations who wish to evaluate, manage and improve their performance in environmental matters. EMAS aims to improve the environment and provides an instrument for the evaluation and management of an organisation's environmental impact.

Public Commitment

This commitment takes the form of the Environmental Declaration, which is made on an annual basis and undergoes exhaustive verification by an accredited external body. Once its accuracy has been checked, it is placed at public disposal. The Environmental Declarations made by the ITP centres that belong to EMAS are available to the public and can be found at the websites of the different companies within the group.

In Ajalvir, ITP carries out the maintenance, repair, assembly, trials and testing of engines, modules and gas turbines, with a maintenance capacity of more than 300 engines a year, along with all their accessories, and increasingly, the assembly and modules for new engines. It represents the start of the aeronautics industry in Spain, having been in existence for thirty years. Today, thanks to an ambitious investment plan, ITP Ajalvir has high technology installations and processes at its disposal which lead the sector and which have criteria for the prevention and control of contamination in all their activities.

This ITP plant, the first from the Spanish aeronautics sector to be awarded Integrated Environmental Authorisation, has been following a system of environmental management in accordance with the ISO 14001 standard since the year 2000. Since that time, the system has been adapted to the more demanding EMAS model.

Environmental Improvements

Following the consolidation of the system of environmental management, which has been absorbed and integrated in all areas, recent years have seen major improvements to the organisation's environmental aspects. The result has been the development of processes that are more efficient, more conscious of worker safety and of the environment, and that extend to cover future requirements. Examples of improvements include:

• Total elimination of the use of halogen solvents such as trichloroethylene or dichloromethane, meaning that emissions of volatile chemical compounds are cut by 845kg a year.

• Exploitation of 65% of non-hazardous waste which will thus be available for future use. (2003-2006).

• Reduction in hazardous waste of 45%, where the high point was the generation of zero waste with hexavelent chrome (2003-2006).

• Reduction in consumption of natural gas of 13% (2003-2006).

• Reduction in specific water consumption of 70%, during the 2002-2006 period.

• Recovery of de-mineralised water for industrial use, which currently reaches a level of 100 m3 a day.

• Elimination of 100% of dangerous water waste generated in some processes. This was achieved through the optimisation of the water waste purification process.