Canal Actualidad

The Portuguese firm Natural Business Intelligence (NBI) has won the eleventh edition of the Sacyr Foundation Innovation Awards. 

The Sacyr Foundation has awarded the solution presented by this firm, which acts on the valuation and management of the natural capital of projects. Out of the 245 submissions, NBI's proposal is the one that adapts best to one of the four challenges issued by Sacyr in the framework of its open innovation program, Sacyr iChallenges. 

In addition, the Sacyr Foundation has awarded a second price to the German firm Heliatek for its organic photovoltaic solutions technology.

NBI's solution is a tool to valuate the natural capital and the impacts of Sacyr's projects on ecosystem services. Together with NBI, Sacyr will carry out a pilot project in La Palma (Canary Islands), where, for the last three months, there has been an active volcano that is changing the physiognomy of the island. 

The solution provided by NBI responds to the challenge issued through Sacyr iChallenges regarding the measurement of the ecological impact of the company's activities. The finalists for this challenge were BC3 Research Basque Centre for Climate Change (Spain) and Creando Redes (Spain).

Manuel Manrique, Chairman of Sacyr, stressed that the company has extended innovation to the entire workforce and the different external innovation agents. “The great reception of the challenges that we issue in Sacyr iChallenges and the high regard of these Innovation Awards, which are already on their 11th edition, are proof of the success of this strategy”, Manrique pointed out.