Delivering memorable experiences to future generations: Sustainability at Parques Reunidos

At Parques Reunidos, we work as a team to provide authentic memorable experiences and happiness to our guests across generations, contributing to the growth of our communities and partners.

Achieving this goal means that we are committed to actively protecting the planet so as to make today’s memorable experiences possible tomorrow; we also care for people by supporting the teams we work with and strengthening the communities we are part of every day.

To ensure sustainability is integrated into our business model, we have defined a set of independent policies, standards, and procedures and we are committed to following the best practices in the countries we operate in.

In this blog entry, we’ll share some recent examples of our Spanish Parks, following the sustainability policy and its three main objectives:

• To make our commitment to sustainability a reality, minimizing risks and addressing the opportunities related to social, environmental, and economic impacts.
• To facilitate the integration of sustainability into the business model and strategy.
• To promote practices that meet the key standards regarding human rights, labor, the environment, animal welfare, as well as anti-bribery and corruption.

Our three-pillar strategy

Our sustainability strategy is based on three pillars: Planet, People and Good Governance. Each one has specific action areas on which we are focusing our efforts.

We are conscious of the importance of fighting against climate change, so the first of our pillars, Planet, is about intensifying our commitment to the environment, with actions focused on climate change itself, biodiversity, water, energy, and the circular economy.

As a result, we have put in place a number of measures aimed at reducing water consumption and responsible energy use. This will help minimize our carbon footprint, waste management and promote biodiversity and heritage protection.

In terms of energy, we are looking to evolve towards a sustainable economy, where responsible energy consumption helps to reduce our carbon footprint. This model allows us to deliver an environmental benefit by reducing air pollution and protecting biodiversity.

We believe in strategically changing our waste management model to move towards the circular economy by implementing new internal processes. We are looking to minimize the amount of waste generated and to implement proper waste separation, as well as eliminating single-use plastics. Our collaboration with Ecovidrio (installing glass recycling bins in strategic places) and the progressive implementation of the Too Good to Go program have been fundamental in supporting these initiatives.

The “Planet” pillar also focuses on public awareness and protecting biodiversity. Therefore, we have started a variety of engagement activities and types of training with various stakeholders, such as, for example, school visits. In this way, we can work with our employees, suppliers and visitors alike.

The main actions already underway include:

• Joining a water management project with Canal Isabel II.
• Using 0% drinking water in the sprinkler system.
• Centralized electricity and natural gas purchasing.
• Using reusable cups.
• Complementing conservation and research projects with educational activities such as Physics Week, short courses, camps, and family workshops.

The second pillar, “People”, aims to ensure the health and safety of our employees, their training and development and the positive social impact of our parks. Our health and safety policy is based on a preventive culture focused on creating a safe and healthy environment.  The professional and personal growth of everyone in our team makes our company even stronger.

As part of our social commitment, we support initiatives that promote accessibility, diversity, and inclusion; we believe in promoting inclusive and accessible leisure time, including particular sections of the population which are socially excluded.

The main actions already underway in this second pillar include:

• Identifying and responding to health and safety risks in the work environment.
• Giving our employees access to physiotherapy, osteopathy, podiatry, and nutrition under specific circumstances.
• Creating a corporate online training portal (Seeding), which offers the training needed for work and so as to develop our understanding of the field.
• Launching action plans derived from our Equality Plans, agreed with our social partners.
• Awareness campaigns, such as World Autism Awareness Day, World Breast Cancer Awareness Day, which inform and teach young people about the risks of substance abuse (CAM classroom-bus).

Through the third pillar, “Good Governance”, we coordinate the issues of ethics and transparency. Moral behavior not only prompts us to comply with relevant national and local regulations, but also to voluntarily follow standards, and work towards rolling out a global supply chain risk management model.

Our objectives for this are:

• To teach and raise awareness on compliance, human rights, safety, and environment.
• To roll out a global supply chain risk management model.

The main actions already underway include:

• Digitizing processes by using Workday, Quinyx, Quentic and Worldlex.
• Working on a sustainability evaluation and training for our suppliers.
• Annually publicizing, by publishing the group’s non-financial report, the achievement of our objectives and our course of action.

Keeping our team and customers safe, as well as conducting our business with integrity, remains at the heart of how we work. In addition to this, we are increasingly finding ways to protect the environment, including energy and water conservation measures, as well as initiatives to encourage the responsible use of resources and ways to reduce food waste.