SUSTAINABLY MADE
The roofs of Martorell’s manufacturing and storage halls are covered in solar panels. Between them, the 53,000 photovoltaic panels cover a surface area of 276,000 square metres, making the facility’s solar field the biggest in the automotive industry. The solar panels generate 17 million kwhs of clean, sustainable energy each year and reduce C02 emissions by 7000 tonnes.
It’s all part of Seat’s ‘Ecomotive Factory Plan’, a now well-established commitment to manufacture its cars in an environmentally friendly way.
“We are very, very concerned about the environment here at Seat,” says Ramon Casas. “Along with the solar field we also have a water recycling plant in the factory. In each of the workshops there is a display where we aim to raise employees’ awareness about the environment and show them where they can place any waste for recycling. “Before 2011 we used to pay outside contractors to come in and pick up refuse; now we do it ourselves. We earn money per kilogram of waste, which means we earn money selling cars and money selling waste.” Since the plan was implemented in 2011 Martorell’s energy consumption has been reduced by 20%, water usage has fallen by 24% and carbon dioxide emissions have been lowered by some 64%. That means the original target for the Ecomotive Factory Plan — a 25% improvement in the plant’s environmental impact — have been comprehensively bettered. Now the new target is a 50% improvement by 2025.
The factory employs more than 8000 people and covers an area of a 2.8 million square metres, equivalent to 400 football pitches