We launched RevelaVerde to mark World Environment Day, inviting employees to take part in an environmental photography competition.

The idea was simple: to capture images that show how our teams live and work alongside nature, helping to protect and transform the places where we operate.

More than 100 photographs from 30 projects across eight countries were submitted.

Together, they reveal the biodiversity that surrounds our worksites, creative ways of giving resources a second life, landscapes shaped by water and small details that often go unnoticed but speak volumes about why environmental care matters.

The winning and finalist entries, featured here, capture that commitment from different perspectives.

From a small lizard hidden in the vegetation in Colombia to water-purifying microorganisms in Spain and material reuse initiatives in Brazil, these images invite us to look more closely at the world around us.

More than a competition, RevelaVerde is a reminder of the value of stopping to observe: to recognize the environmental richness around us and celebrate the people working every day to deliver projects that are more respectful of natural spaces.
 

Water

First prize

Elena Ferrer

Second prize (left)
Carlos Vallejo

Third prize (right)
Steffanie Grace Espinosa

Circular economy

First prize

Aline Silva Nobre

Second prize (left)
Tamara Cardoso

Third prize (right)
Evelyn Cárdenas

Flora and fauna

First prize

Andrés Mauricio Forero

Second prize (left)
Giamarco Dariva

Third prize (right)
Yasmin Cuarta Burgos

MARÍA GÓMEZ BRAVO | Tungsteno

On November 4, 1966, the acqua alta in Venice reached 1.94 meters, the highest level recorded in the city since systematic measurements began. The rising tide inundated streets, homes, shops, and historic buildings. That flood marked a turning point in the protection of the Venice Lagoon and set in motion a process that, decades later, led to the MOSE system: 78 movable floodgates designed to temporarily isolate Venice from the Adriatic Sea when exceptionally high tides threaten to overwhelm the city.

Venice is not an isolated case. More and more cities are turning to infrastructure that is activated only when the risk exceeds certain thresholds. Many of these systems were developed using historical records that made it possible to estimate the probability of floods, storms, or exceptionally high water levels with reasonable accuracy. Rising sea levels and the increasing intensity of some extreme weather events are now altering those reference points. The latest IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) report warns that the risk of coastal and river flooding will increase during this century—a trend that calls for a reassessment of both existing infrastructure and the criteria used to design new urban flood defense systems.

Barriers Lying in Wait Beneath the Sea

St. Mark’s Square submerged under water will remain a familiar sight in Venice. For now, however, the MOSE system remains inactive most of the time. The flood-control system is activated only when forecasts predict an exceptionally high tide capable of flooding the city. When that happens, the barriers rise from the bottom of the lagoon to block the sea from entering. Once the danger has passed, they sink back beneath the water.

The MOSE system’s movable gates temporarily isolate the Venice Lagoon from the Adriatic Sea when the tide rises to approximately one meter. Credit: VINCENZO PINTO/AFP via Getty Images

Since becoming operational in 2020, the system has protected Venice from several episodes of acqua alta that would otherwise have flooded much of the historic center. Yet its implementation has not put an end to the debate over the lagoon’s future. In fact, a study published last year by researchers at Italy’s Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV) suggests that rising sea levels, combined with the gradual subsidence of the land on which the lagoon sits, will likely require the MOSE system to be activated more frequently over the course of this century.

Protecting Venice is no longer simply a matter of keeping the water out. The challenge extends beyond raising the barriers when floodwaters threaten the city. It is about doing so in a way that preserves the lagoon that has shaped Venice’s identity for centuries.

London: Learning to Adapt Infrastructure

The 1953 North Sea storm surge changed the way the United Kingdom understood flood risk. The storm and the resulting flooding claimed the lives of hundreds of people along England’s east coast and exposed London’s vulnerability to extreme weather events. Three decades later, the Thames Barrier became operational.

The Thames Barrier is one of the key components of the Thames Estuary Plan 2100, the strategy to adapt the estuary to rising sea levels and reduce the risk of flooding. Credit: Tim Motion/Construction Photography/Avalon/Getty Images

Today, the Thames Barrier remains the cornerstone of London’s flood protection system, but the challenge is no longer simply to operate the barrier—it is to determine when it will no longer be sufficient. The Thames Estuary 2100 project, led by the UK Environment Agency, reassesses the estuary’s evolution and climate projections every five years to determine when to reinforce dikes, raise flood walls, or adapt existing defenses. Rather than a completed project, protecting the estuary has become an ongoing process of adaptation, driven by changes in both the climate and the infrastructure itself.

Rotterdam: Protection Without Halting Activity

While the United Kingdom responded to the 1953 storm surge disaster by building the Thames Barrier, the same storm also caused catastrophic flooding in the Netherlands, prompting the creation of the National Delta Program, one of the world’s largest hydraulic engineering initiatives. The Maeslantkering (Maeslant Barrier), inaugurated in 1997 at the entrance to the Port of Rotterdam, was the final major component of that program. It was designed to solve a problem that the massive dikes built decades earlier could not: protecting the coastline without blocking access to Europe’s largest port.

Its two steel arms, each 237 meters long, remain open to allow ships to pass and close only when hydrological and meteorological models predict sea levels high enough to threaten the safety of the estuary. The decision is made automatically, although it remains under the supervision of Rijkswaterstaat, the Dutch agency responsible for water management and national infrastructure. To make that decision, the system relies on a network of sensors, measuring stations, and numerical models that integrate data on sea level, wind, waves, and river flow to anticipate the progression of each storm.

The Maeslant Barrier’s closure system is fully automated and controlled by a centralized decision-support system called Beheerscentrale (BOS). Source: Rijkswaterstaat7u

The barrier was designed to be activated only a few times each year. The rest of the time, it remains open and the port operates normally. This approach reflects a broader shift in hydraulic engineering: infrastructure is no longer kept active at all times but is instead activated only when the level of risk demands it.

Diverting Water Beneath the City

Containing the sea is only part of the challenge. Extreme rainfall can cause rivers to overflow and overwhelm urban drainage systems in a matter of hours. Tokyo chose to tackle this risk underground. Recurring floods caused by typhoons and torrential rains in the Tokyo metropolitan area led Japan to develop the G-Cans system, an underground complex designed to divert excess water.

At a depth of about 50 meters, a 6.3-kilometer network of tunnels connects several waterways, diverting excess water into the Edo River. The system began operating in 2002 and has since become one of the primary defenses for northern Tokyo, as well as an unexpected tourist attraction. During Typhoon Hagibis in 2019, it diverted more than 12 million cubic meters of water and reduced the number of flooded homes in the Nakagawa and Ayase river basins by about 90 percent, according to Japan’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport, and Tourism. Unlike coastal barriers, it does not prevent water from entering the system; instead, it redirects and channels the water along a controlled route.

G-Cans, the world’s largest underground flood control system, diverts excess water into the Edo River to protect the Tokyo metropolitan area. Credit: John S Lander/LightRocket via Getty Images

Kuala Lumpur took the concept a step further. The SMART Tunnel, which opened in 2007, combines two types of infrastructure into a single structure: an urban highway and a flood-drainage tunnel. When heavy rainfall threatens to cause the rivers in the Malaysian capital to overflow, traffic is halted, the tunnel is closed to vehicles, and it becomes part of the city’s flood-control system. Once the floodwaters recede, the tunnel is cleaned and reopened to traffic. Rather than trying to hold back water at all costs, modern engineering increasingly seeks to redirect its flow, minimizing its impact on the city.

From Containing the River to Giving It Space

Sometimes, the most effective engineering solution is not to contain a river, but to give it back some of the space it once occupied. The Dutch Room for the River program was developed around this principle. The Rhine and Meuse floods of 1993 and 1995, which forced the evacuation of some 250,000 people, exposed the limitations of continually raising river defenses while the space available to the rivers continued to shrink.

The program transformed more than 30 river sections by moving dikes inland, creating secondary channels, and restoring areas that can temporarily store floodwaters. According to a study published in the journal Geosciences, this approach reduces pressure on the dikes and mitigates the impacts of flooding. Rather than replacing existing flood defenses, it complements them by making the river itself part of the solution.

None of these interventions completely eliminates flood risk. Instead, they are based on the recognition that flooding will continue to occur and that the most effective protection comes from systems capable of adapting to changing conditions. The rigid concrete solutions and static calculations of the past have given way to infrastructure designed to manage uncertainty. The paradox of these systems is that their greatest success is measured by what does not happen: an extreme weather event passes without disrupting the city’s daily life, becoming just another entry in the hydrological record.

Tungsteno is a journalistic laboratory that explores the essence of innovation.

At the Southern Seawater Desalination Plant in Binningup, Western Australia, critical offshore infrastructure plays a key role in ensuring a reliable supply of drinking water for the region, while supporting the protection of the surrounding marine environment.

One key component of the seawater intake system is the Stage 1 Transition Box, a buried concrete structure that connects two 1.6 m HDPE intake pipelines to the plant’s intake tunnel. Operating beneath the seabed in a challenging marine environment, this structure plays an important role in maintaining the integrity and reliability of the plant’s seawater intake system.

Following the identification of progressive structural degradation and sand ingress, Sacyr Agua worked closely with Water Corporation and specialist delivery partners to develop a low-impact remediation solution. The objective was clear: restore functionality and extend asset life without requiring full replacement of the structure.

Developed in collaboration with SEA Global, SF Design and Fremantle Commercial Diving, the solution involved the installation of a precision-machined modular HDPE lining system. Reinforced in key locations and grouted in place, it created a sealed, load-bearing internal flow path. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) modelling, structural verification and full-scale dry and wet testing were used to validate the design ahead of offshore installation.

The project was delivered under demanding offshore conditions, including subsea construction, restricted access, limited weather windows and stringent environmental controls. Specialist diving teams installed more than 75 custom-machined HDPE components within the existing structure, restoring intake integrity while minimising disturbance to the surrounding marine environment.

“This was more than a repair – it was a coordinated effort across design, fabrication and marine execution,” said Paul Oosthuizen, Maintenance Manager at the Southern Seawater Alliance.

By rehabilitating the existing structure rather than replacing it, the project reduced seabed disturbance, minimised operational impacts and extended the service life of a critical element within the plant’s intake infrastructure.

Australian Water Award

In 2025, the Transition Box Remediation project received industry recognition through an Australian water sector award for innovation in marine infrastructure delivery.

Shotcrete is essential in tunnel construction: it stabilizes excavations and helps ensure safe working conditions. 

However, not all material adheres to tunnel surfaces. Some falls to the ground, creating waste and material losses, increasing cleanup work and adding to environmental impact. Under normal conditions, waste can exceed 15% of concrete used in the process. 

At Sacyr Engineering and Infrastructure, we have launched ECO-Shot, a pilot project during construction of Line 5 of Bilbao Metro to address this issue. The project assessed performance of MC-Montan Shotsol, an additive designed to improve concrete cohesion and significantly reduce rebound. We had previously used this additive on a project in Colombia. 

“The trial was carried out under real site conditions, comparing two identical mixes that differed only in the additive used,” explains Pablo García del Campo, technical director at Cavosa. “To ensure reliable results, all application factors were kept constant: same spraying robot, same operator, same working environment and same sprayed volume,” he adds. 

In trials, rebound material fell from 12.5% to 7.6%, a reduction of nearly 40%. 

“During tests, the mix showed more stable behavior and more continuous pumping, reducing adjustments needed during application. This led to a smoother process, less equipment wear and improved productivity,” says García del Campo. 

The most significant impact is environmental. Because less concrete is needed to achieve the same result, cement consumption falls. Cement is one of construction’s highest-carbon materials. 

According to our estimates, this improvement could avoid around 253 metric tons of CO₂ equivalent on the metro works, thanks to lower material consumption and fewer transport movements linked to the project. 

Initiatives like this help us keep moving toward more efficient, competitive and sustainable construction. They also show that innovation applied on site can deliver economic, operational and environmental benefits. 

Domingo Zarzo Martínez

Sacyr Water Director of Strategic Projects, Communications, and Institutional Relations 

Sacyr Agua

Directive (EU) 2024/3019 on urban wastewater treatment was published in the Official Journal of the European Union on December 12, 2024. It requires Member States to transpose the new rules into national legislation within 30 months, by July 2027. In Spain, the first steps are already underway through a draft law submitted for consultation in June 2026.

The Directive marks a major shift for wastewater treatment. It promotes water reuse, sets a 2045 decarbonization target for the sector, and expands the requirements of the previous 1991 directive, both in terms of the size of municipalities covered (>1,000 inhabitants) and the quality standards they must meet. It also introduces advanced treatment processes, known as quaternary treatment, to remove contaminants of emerging concern (CECs), including pharmaceutical residues, personal care products, drugs and other substances, with part of the cost to be covered by the producers of those products.

This is where the Directive introduces the concept of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR). Under this approach, the pharmaceutical and personal care product industries will be required to finance at least 80% of the cost of implementing treatments designed to remove CECs, in line with the “polluter pays” principle.

Each EU Member State will have to design and implement its own EPR scheme for this purpose. In practice, this means there will not be a single Europe-wide model; each country will adapt the system to its own legal and administrative framework.

The funds collected will be earmarked to cover the capital and operating costs associated with installing and maintaining quaternary treatment systems at wastewater treatment plants. The Directive also encourages these fees to be “modulated,” meaning they may vary according to the hazard, persistence or volume of micropollutants contained in each product. This should encourage producers to design and market products with a lower environmental impact.

Several pharmaceutical companies have challenged the EPR regime, arguing that it unfairly penalizes the sector and lacks sufficient empirical rigor and proportionality. Over the coming months and years, we will see how these responsibilities are defined in practice and how Spain shapes and implements its own EPR framework. It is also likely that industry will pass part of these costs on to the final price of products, although the EU’s objective is for any impact to be proportionate and to encourage innovation toward more sustainable products.

A similar concept, although in a different area of water management, can be found in Spain’s new Royal Decree 1085/2024 on water reuse. For the first time, it opens the legal door for industries and private companies in Spain to finance water treatment or reuse infrastructure to offset their water footprint and move toward the concept of being Water Positive. It could also create new opportunities for public-private partnership models in water infrastructure, which, unlike in other countries, remain relatively uncommon in Spain.

Water Positive

Many of the world’s largest corporations—including Amazon, Microsoft, Google, Coca-Cola and Tesla—have committed to becoming Water Positive by 2030. Technology companies, among the largest consumers of water because of their data centers, are already making significant investments in this area.

For example, Amazon Web Services has committed €17 million to the Government of Aragon to offset the water footprint of its new data centers under construction, while Microsoft is also financing irrigation improvements for farmers in Spain and projects to reduce losses in municipal drinking water networks.

Sacyr Group is already Water Positive. Since 2022, our water footprint has been measured and certified under ISO 14046. Thanks to our production of desalinated and reused water, we have a positive net water balance across the Group, in every country where we operate and across all our activities: we produce more water than we consume.

Together, these new regulations open up significant investment and business opportunities for Sacyr in Spain and across Europe. In Spain alone, the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the sector’s main associations estimate that €24.5 billion in investment will be needed to comply with the new Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive.

Sacyr is well positioned to take on these challenges and investments. As early as 2015, Sacyr Agua built the advanced treatment system at the La Gavia wastewater treatment plant in Madrid, which we also operate today. With a capacity of 1 m³ per second, it is one of the largest facilities of its kind in Spain. We have also carried out numerous innovation projects, including pilot tests of different technologies to remove emerging contaminants and microplastics.

In the same way, Sacyr Agua has promoted the Water Positive approach from the outset and has defined a strategy to address this emerging market, identifying potential internal offset projects that can be offered to companies and industrial clients.

From optimizing road maintenance to the smart management of urban spaces, including energy efficiency in large-scale infrastructure and the improvement of bidding and procurement processes, Sacyr is driving solutions based on data, machine learning, predictive models, and generative artificial intelligence that enable the company to anticipate issues, make better decisions, and generate a positive and measurable impact on society.

Here are some of the most significant projects in which the company is applying artificial intelligence in a tangible way.

1.    APROMAC: Artificial Intelligence to Anticipate Pavement Deterioration

Sacyr Concesiones is developing APROMAC, an advanced predictive analytics module designed to transform pavement management and maintenance through machine learning and deep learning techniques. The project’s main objective is to anticipate changes in key indicators of pavement condition—such as ruts, macrotexture, and the transverse friction coefficient (TFC)—based on real-world operational and road inspection data.

APROMAC was developed in response to the limitations of traditional prediction models, which are based on empirical formulations that struggle to represent nonlinear behavior and the simultaneous interaction of multiple factors. To address this, the project systematically investigates the construction, climatic, and traffic variables that influence pavement deterioration, applying big data and artificial intelligence technologies to real historical data from roads managed by Sacyr.

Following a rigorous data cleaning and standardization phase, new predictive models have been trained and validated that are capable of significantly improving accuracy compared to current approaches. The result is a tool that enables long-term prediction of pavement behavior and supports more efficient maintenance planning.

The project also relies on a digital platform designed for infrastructure managers, which facilitates the visualization of projected trends by homogeneous sections and the analysis of different maintenance scenarios, promoting proactive, data-driven decision-making. APROMAC is co-funded by the European Union, the Ministry of Finance, and the CDTI, through the Ministry of Science, Innovation, and Universities.

2.    SUSTAIN: Digital Twins for Smarter, More Human-Centered Urban Management. The Example of “Las Setas de Sevilla”

The SUSTAIN project explores the potential of digital twins and artificial intelligence in the smart management of unique urban spaces. Within this framework, Sacyr has developed an advanced digital twin of Las Setas de Sevilla, an iconic landmark that combines a public square, a market, a viewpoint, and access to an archaeological site.

The solution combines real-time data from IoT sensors, computer vision systems, and mobility data to create a dynamic digital representation of the site and how users interact with the space. Thanks to this information, the digital twin provides insights into usage patterns, environmental conditions, and visitor volumes, as well as the ability to simulate different event scenarios and configurations of the public space.

Using predictive models based on artificial intelligence, SUSTAIN is able to anticipate peaks in demand, visitor behavior, and operational needs, tangibly improving the efficiency of management, planning, and the citizen experience. The project also incorporates indicators related to the condition and maintenance of the infrastructure and is designed as a tool for designing and evaluating urban improvement strategies with a comprehensive approach.

Universal accessibility, inclusion, quality of life, and integration into the urban fabric are cross-cutting themes of the project, aligned with Sacyr’s vision of developing infrastructure with a positive social impact. The initiative, funded by the CDTI with Next Generation funds from the European Union, lays the groundwork for scaling these solutions to other concession assets such as transit hubs, airports, hospitals, and large public spaces.

3.    Artificial Intelligence to Optimize Energy Efficiency at Madrid’s Transit Interchanges

Sacyr Concesiones has implemented an advanced energy optimization solution based on artificial intelligence at the Moncloa and Plaza Elíptica transit interchanges, high-traffic infrastructure facilities that together serve more than 260,000 users daily.

Both transit hubs feature complex HVAC and ventilation systems, managed through building management systems (BMS), and are subject to a highly demanding concession framework, with requirements for thermal comfort and environmental quality throughout their operation. To optimize their operation, Sacyr has integrated the Respira solution, developed by Sener, which acts as an autonomous virtual operator supported by advanced analytics and AI.

The system continuously analyzes variables such as indoor and outdoor temperatures, the building’s thermal inertia, occupancy, weather conditions, and historical equipment performance. Unlike traditional models based on rules and reactive responses, the solution introduces predictive control capable of anticipating temperature changes in the spaces and activating the HVAC systems more efficiently.

Thanks to this approach, it is possible to take advantage of favorable environmental conditions, optimize the use of thermal inertia, or adapt climate control to anticipated changes in occupancy, thereby reducing energy consumption without compromising user comfort. The result is a more sustainable and efficient operation that is aligned with infrastructure decarbonization goals.

4.    AI Agents to Transform Bidding and Procurement Processes

Beyond physical assets, Sacyr is applying artificial intelligence to its corporate processes, with a special focus on bidding and procurement—highly complex and document-intensive areas. The company is working on the development of a suite of AI agents that comprehensively cover the entire process cycle.

In the area of bidding, the approach is based on an ecosystem of specialized agents capable of automatically analyzing bid documents, detecting changes and addenda, structuring requirements, supporting strategic go/no-go decisions, generating technical documentation, and strengthening quality controls prior to the submission of bids. The goal is to move toward more standardized, traceable, and robust decision-making processes.

In the area of purchasing and procurement, AI agents enable the standardization of tender documents and requests for proposals, the analysis of suppliers, the objective comparison of proposals, the detection of contractual deviations, and support for negotiations. The process is rounded out by the generation of clear executive summaries that can be defended in the face of audits and before management.

These solutions are designed to act as co-pilots that enhance the work of teams by eliminating repetitive tasks and reducing ambiguity, allowing professionals to focus on strategic analysis and value creation.

This is an example of how we promote circular economy solutions, while also generating social benefits in the regions where we operate.

With a circular approach, Sacyr Agua has been promoting the reuse of desalination membranes for years, transforming the end of their useful life into a new opportunity. This practice extends the useful life of a key technical material in desalination plants, preventing its premature disposal as waste and promoting a more efficient use of resources.

 

Dozens of membranes from desalination plants await a second life thanks to reuse and recycling technologies.

New Applications for a Valuable Resource

Membranes that have reached the end of their useful life in the seawater desalination process can have a second life. At Sacyr, we reuse them for new applications that enhance their value:

•    Treatment of reclaimed water for agricultural use, where quality requirements are less stringent. This initiative is already underway at EDAM Skikda O&M and the Honaine Desalination Plant (Algeria), Sohar Operation Services (Oman), and Southern Seawater (Australia).
•    Reuse at other company facilities, where the membranes are utilized as filters for various water treatment processes. For example, membranes from IDAM Torrevieja UTE have been transferred to IDAM Alicante to continue serving in new applications.
•    Wastewater treatment, where they are used as part of tertiary treatment processes or MBR (Membrane Bioreactor) systems.
•    Creation of recreational spaces and landscaping features at the desalination plants themselves, transforming them into planters, as has already been done at Sohar Operation Services (Oman).

Through this initiative, at Sacyr Agua we give the membranes a second life, reducing waste and preventing their disposal in landfills. This action is part of our Zero Waste Plan and contributes to advancing the company’s circular economy objectives. It aligns with our strategies focused on preventing the generation of non-hazardous waste and fostering partnerships that avoid its disposal, while promoting sustainable solutions across all our operations.
 

Technical staff perform monitoring and commissioning tasks on a membrane filtration system.

More Than 10,000 Reused Membranes

Between 2023 and 2025, more than 10,000 desalination membranes have been reused.

This initiative is already being implemented in various Sacyr Agua projects, both in Spain and in other countries, promoting a more circular approach to materials management by extending their useful life and encouraging new uses before disposal. Additionally, it has a positive impact on the communities where we operate by supporting solutions related to water treatment for agricultural and productive activities.

P&IDs are piping and instrumentation diagrams that schematically represent all the equipment, pipes, associated components, instrumentation and controls in an industrial plant. These are highly complex drawings due to the vast amount of information they contain.

To make them easier to read and work with, Sacyr Proyecta, together with the ICT team, has created the P&IDs AI Project. The aim is to significantly improve the productivity of the engineering teams by extracting the lists associated with these documents – a task that used to take our specialists a great deal of time due to the high complexity of the drawings.

“This tool represents a significant step forward in the digitalisation of engineering processes. It enables us to transform static drawings into sources of structured data that are reusable and can be linked to other corporate systems,” emphasises Raúl López Perdiguero, director of Sacyr Proyecta.

Combination of advanced techniques

The technological solution combines advanced computer vision, optical character recognition (OCR) and machine learning techniques to process P&IDs in digital format and generate a structured file containing the detected elements.

This file is then refined using post-processing algorithms that eliminate false detections and improve recognition accuracy.

The tool features an interactive graphical interface that allows the user to review, edit and validate the results generated by the AI before exporting them to the final lists. 

“To deliver real value in engineering, it is not enough simply to recognise symbols and carry out a basic count. It is essential to link each symbol to the line on which it appears in order to obtain key information, such as its size, material, etc.,” explains Ana Silva Balaguera, a mechanical engineer at Sacyr Proyecta.

Transforming traditional processes

“The smart P&ID digitisation project is a strong example of how technological innovation can transform traditional processes and have a direct impact on productivity,” says López Perdiguero.

The project’s architecture has been designed from the outset with scalability in mind, with the aim of extending the solution to other Sacyr business units, such as Water, Engineering and Infrastructure.