Patricia Muñoz Pequeño
Sustainability Manager
Strategy, Innovation and Sustainability Division

In hindsight, sustainability reporting has undergone significant changes in recent years. Gone are the days when companies like Sacyr, with unwavering commitment and sensitivity to these issues, voluntarily provide information relevant to their ESG strategies and performance using internationally recognised frameworks, with GRI at the forefront.

With the adoption of the Non-Financial Reporting Directive (NRFD) in 2014, and its Spanish transposition in Law 11/2018, sustainability reporting became a legal obligation and, since that time, the importance of these reports has only grown.  

In 2023, with the goal of defining a clear framework for sustainability reporting that would ensure the quality of the information published, data comparability, and the consistency of the information shared by companies, the European Union approved a new Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) with common reporting standards known as the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS).

But misgivings and opposition to this new regulation soon arose from the private sector; first, due to the technical complexity and breadth of its requirements and the difficulty of implementing them, highlighting the need for further clarification in certain areas, as well as greater flexibility in their application. 

Secondly, the smaller companies affected expressed doubts about their capacity to comply with this new regulation using their own resources and the potential damage that would be caused by the additional costs required for this purpose. 

The foregoing is paired with a deeper reflection on the part of the European Union; in a complex international environment facing major global changes, ensuring the autonomy, competitiveness, and resilience of the European economy without abandoning the sustainability commitments it has made, has become more crucial than ever.  

This has prompted the EU to redefine its roadmap, while keeping its ambition intact, as demonstrated by i) the strategy of the Green Industrial Deal, designed to strengthen the competitiveness of European industry while accelerating decarbonisation, and ii) the Omnibus Package, the main objective of which is to reduce the administrative burden on companies when reviewing various sustainability regulations, without renouncing the principles of the European Green Deal. 

From a reporting perspective, the Omnibus Package affects CSRD requirements as follows: 

-    Simplification of standards, reducing the number of requirements and providing greater technical clarity in their application. These texts are expected to be available in Q4 of 2025. 
-    Two-year postponement of entry into force for companies, allowing more time to adapt. 
-    Redefinition of application thresholds, excluding listed SMEs and modifying the ranges for the rest. 
-    Maintenance of limited assurance, eliminating the possibility of reasonable assurance in the future.  

In short, 2025 marks a turning point in this area, reflecting the European Union’s commitment to moving toward a more sustainable economy without jeopardising business competitiveness.  

ISABEL RUBIO ARROYO | Tungsteno

The lost city of Atlantis has captured the collective imagination for centuries. According to ancient myths and tales, this enigmatic land vanished mysteriously beneath the waves. Despite the fascination it generates and the countless theories and searches for its supposed underwater ruins, science has found no conclusive evidence of its actual existence. However, history does offer us real examples of cities that have truly been claimed by the sea.

A window into the Bronze Age under the sea

In 1967, British oceanographer Nicholas C. Flemming discovered the remains of an ancient city under the sea, near the island of Elafonisos in southern Greece. The site was identified as Pavlopetri, a settlement that is thought to date back to the Bronze Age. The following year, a team from the University of Cambridge organised an expedition to study the site. Around 5,000 years old, Pavlopetri is one of the oldest known submerged cities, with streets, buildings and tombs still preserved beneath the sea.

The prehistoric city covered 90,000 square metres and featured a complex water management system—with canals and drains, as well as a cemetery. “This neglected place in prehistoric times had occurred to be a thriving port with intense social stratification, and a lifestyle that made the Head of Investigation John Henderson to talk about the Greek Pompeii,” note the authors of a 2016 study. Several studies suggest that the city may have been submerged around 1000 BCE. Three theories attempt to explain how this happened: one suggests a gradual rise in the sea level, another a sinking of the land, and a third that a combination of earthquake and tsunami caused the city’s disappearance.

Digital reconstruction of Pavlopetri. Credit: University of Nottingham

Temples, jewels and sunken ships

In the year 2000, underwater archaeologist Franck Goddio discovered the ancient city of Thonis-Heracleion, located seven kilometres off the Egyptian coast in the Nile Delta. Founded in all likelihood in the 8th century BCE, this port city served for centuries as the main gateway to Egypt for ships arriving from the Greek world, and it was renowned for its commercial and religious significance.

The city suffered several natural disasters, and it is believed that an earthquake eventually caused it to sink beneath the sea. The European Institute for Underwater Archaeology has studied the submerged site and uncovered more than 60 shipwrecks near its ruins, reflecting the area’s intense marine activity. During excavations in 2023, researchers discovered the remains of a sanctuary dedicated to the Greek goddess Aphrodite, as well as a temple to the god Amun. They also found gold jewellery, silver artefacts, ceramics, and bronzes imported from Greece. Well-preserved wooden structures were also found, as well as ritual and funerary items, such as silver libation dishes (used for offerings poured in honour of a deity) and alabaster vessels for perfumes and ointments.

Heracleion, the ancient Egyptian port city that collapsed beneath the sea.

The "wickedest" city of the New World

Port Royal, in Jamaica, was once the most important commercial center in the New World. The town, “commonly referred to as "the wickedest city on earth", conjures images of marauding pirates, daring naval conquests, looting, riches, destruction and devastation,” according to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

It began as a strategic cay used for cleaning and refitting ships when the Spanish arrived in the 16th century. Following the English conquest in 1655, it quickly developed into a fortified city and flourished as the principal commercial and naval port of the English Caribbean. Its economy thrived on the slave trade, sugar, and privateering—and it gained notoriety as a lawless paradise of alcohol, money, and sex, where one in four buildings was reportedly either a bar or a brothel.

Old map of Port Royal. Credit: The Gentleman’s Magazine / Wikimedia Commons

Excavations have revealed that beyond its many taverns, Port Royal also featured workshops, homes, and warehouses. The city stood out for its wealth and its prominence as a key center of trade and piracy in the Caribbean. In 1692, a devastating earthquake caused two-thirds of the city to sink into the sea. Subsequent fires and hurricanes thwarted any attempts at full recovery. Although Port Royal persisted as a British naval base and secondary port, it never regained its former status as a thriving hub of commerce and piracy. Today, it survives as a small fishing village in Jamaica.

At Sacyr Agua, we’re pushing the boundaries of sustainability and innovation by detecting and removing microplastics in our wastewater treatment plants (WWTP). By joining forces with Captoplastic, we are working together to make this possible.  

Although microplastic pollution (plastic particles smaller than 5 mm) occurs throughout the whole water cycle, reducing them in the treated water leaving our WWTP is a significant step in protecting the environment.

These plants are designed to remove organic matter and conventional pollutants from wastewater, but they do not normally include specific processes to deal with the wide variety of microplastics that reach them. 

“As well as becoming their preferred partner for projects in Spain, this partnership also allows us to use Captoplastic’s technology and references exclusively in markets such as Australia, Peru and Colombia,” says Eduardo Campos, Managing Director of Sacyr Agua.

An agreement built on innovation

The collaboration with Captoplastic began following a successful pilot project at the Yecla WWTP (Murcia), managed by Sacyr Agua, as part of our open innovation programme, Sacyr iChallenges. 

It was there that we discovered Captoplastic’s pioneering solution, which continuously detects and removes microplastics. This fits perfectly with our commitment to sustainability and our drive to bring advanced technologies into our business.

Pilot project success

To test and validate the technology, Captoplastic moved a demonstration pilot plant from the Cantoblanco campus of the Autonomous University of Madrid to the Yecla WWTP, where the trials were carried out.

Beforehand, a detailed study of the microplastics present in the different stages of the plant was completed, both in the water line and the sludge line. Several types of microplastics were identified, including polypropylene (PP), polyethylene (PE), polycaprolactone (PCL), poly(ethyl acrylate) (PEA), acrylic, polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) and polyurethane (PU). 

These microplastics were found in different forms, such as pellets, fibres and fragments, with the highest concentration in the sludge line.

The results of this first pilot trial were very positive, showing a 76% reduction in the initial concentration of microplastics. This proves the effectiveness of the solution and its potential to be scaled up.

Captoplastic Technology

Captoplastic is a Madrid-based small business dedicated to developing innovative solutions for detecting and removing microplastics. Established in 2020, the company has been recognised as a Knowledge-Based Company and works with strategic partners such as the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid and the BeAble Innvierte Kets Fund.

Its technology uses an agglomeration technique, adding an inorganic agent to the water stream so that it binds with microplastics and forms larger aggregates that can then be removed. 

Thanks to the magnetic properties of the agent, the aggregates can be easily separated and removed from the water stream. The process can handle large volumes of water efficiently. The captured microplastics can be recycled, making this a zero-waste technology that is environmentally friendly throughout its entire cycle.

In early 2024, the Community of Madrid approved the Cognitive Hospital project, a comprehensive management platform for hospital infrastructure. 
The project is based at the Hospital del Henares (Madrid) and is being developed by a consortium led by Sacyr, with participation from companies like Sener, Cuatro Digital, Aptica, Fracttal, and Open Ingenius. It is a three-year project with a €6.1 million budget, funded by the Community of Madrid through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).

As a result of this project, the hospital will benefit from continuous connectivity, sensors measuring air quality with virus-capturing nanofibers, devices improving energy efficiency, virtual reality technologies simulating evacuations, geolocation of equipment, and modules measuring the hospital's overall environmental impact.

After a year of work, Sacyr has developed the core of the cognitive platform. This platform will connect all existing management software systems at the Hospital del Henares, alongside the innovative solutions, technologies, and sensors developed and implemented within the project.

The platform developed by Sacyr integrates all innovative elements of the Cognitive Hospital project by creating an intelligent software platform that facilitates the digitalization of the hospital. This improves the experience for both patients and staff while promoting the sustainability of the facility's operations.

This is creating a smart hospital capable of autonomously managing its operations more efficiently, using real-time data generated during the infrastructure's operation.

"The new software platform is already operational and already receiving data from systems currently in place at the Hospital del Henares, as well as from the new sensors, LiDAR systems, and other devices being installed," explains Alba Rocío Pérez, Innovation Manager with Sacyr's Strategy, Innovation and Sustainability Department.

During the project's first year, the partners conducted an in-depth study of the hospital's physical and digital structure, using the Smart Readiness Indicator (SRI) methodology to objectively assess the building's "intelligence" level. This helped identify potential improvements and address deficiencies more efficiently than current methods allow.


 

Furthermore, Sacyr has advanced the implementation of a space management system using LiDAR technology. Its primary function is to identify and prevent overcrowding or queuing in customer service areas. "We aim to enhance patient comfort and reduce waiting times through innovative data collection," Alba Rocío explains.

Through the creation of a point cloud with LiDAR technology, Sacyr has also successfully obtained a BIM (Building Information Modeling) model of the hospital building. Thanks to the technology developed within the Cognitive Platform and the BIM model, a digital twin of the Hospital del Henares has been created, providing updated information on the building, systems, and equipment.

Sacyr Engineering contributed to the project in its first year by streamlining the BIM model. This allows for more efficient work with the building model, both during the construction and maintenance phases.

The second year will focus on completing a comprehensive analysis of the hospital, including impacts related to the use and maintenance of its facilities (consumption, waste generation, and maintenance activities).

PTEC Award

The Cognitive Hospital project recently received the Spanish Construction Technology Platform (PTEC) Award for the Best R&D&I Project in the construction sector.

ISABEL RUBIO ARROYO | Tungsteno

Before any woman in the United States earned an engineering degree, Emily Warren Roebling was already leading the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge. After the death of her father-in-law and the illness of her husband, she stepped in to take charge of the project, becoming the first female field engineer and overseeing every detail of its completion. Her life and legacy secured her place as a key figure in the history of engineering.

The tragedy that led her to lead the Brooklyn Bridge project

Warren was born in 1843 in Cold Spring, New York, into an upper-middle-class family. She attended the Georgetown Visitation Convent, a prestigious girls-only school, where she studied mathematics and science despite prevailing beliefs that higher education was unnecessary for women. Later in life, at the age of 56, she earned a women’s law course certificate from New York University and won a $50 prize for her essay "A Wife's Disabilities," in which she criticised the legal restrictions on women's financial independence.

Warren met Washington Roebling, a young officer, while visiting her brother at an army camp during the Civil War. They fell in love and soon married. In 1867, before construction of the Brooklyn Bridge began, the coupled travelled to Europe on a belated honeymoon to research technical innovations for the project that her father-in-law, John A. Roebling, had designed. There they studied the use of caissons—pressurised watertight chambers used to build underwater foundations for bridges—as well as other advanced bridge-building techniques.

Tragedy propelled Emily Warren Roebling to the forefront of engineering. In 1869, her father-in-law died of tetanus after an accident on the construction site. Her husband, Washington Roebling, assumed the role of chief engineer, but became gravely ill. Exposed to the dangers of the newly introduced pneumatic caissons used to construct the bridge’s foundations, he developed severe decompression sickness and was confined to bed.

Warren took the lead in building the Brooklyn Bridge. Credit: Intrigued Mind

From self-taught engineer to women's rights activist

With Washington unable to work, Warren assumed a crucial role: she managed her husband's communications, studied his plans, copied his specifications, and relayed instructions to assistant engineers. Washington described her as his "wisest counsellor" and "a woman of infinite tact." She visited the construction site daily, attended board meetings, and oversaw the project, all the while carefully concealing the extent of her involvement in order to protect her husband's reputation. Along the way, she learned about material strength, stress analysis, cable construction and the mathematics of the catenary curve.

Shortly before the bridge's inauguration, she drove a carriage across it to test its vibrations, carrying a rooster as a symbol of victory. On 24 May 1883, she became the first person to cross the Brooklyn Bridge in a carriage during its official opening, and later that day she hosted a reception at her home for US President Chester A. Arthur.

After the bridge’s completion, she travelled alone to Europe, where she met Queen Victoria in London and attended the coronation of Tsar Nicholas II in Moscow. Upon her return, she gave lectures about her experiences in Russia for the Federation of Women's Clubs, becoming increasingly active in the fight for gender equality. She toured the country, speaking in defence of women's suffrage and social services for the poor, and urged women to study law.

The Brooklyn Bridge was the longest suspension bridge in the world when it opened on 24 May 1883. Credit: Jf Szekely / Wikimedia Commons

An "everlasting monument" to sacrifice

In 2024, an average of 103,051 vehicles, 28,845 pedestrians and 5,504 cyclists crossed the Brooklyn Bridge every day. This infrastructure has become a living legacy of Warren's vision, effort and determination. "Wife, mother, lecturer, student, world traveller and clubwoman, this multi-faceted Victorian woman was a pioneering example of independence," says the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE).

As New York Congressman Abram Hewitt said during the opening ceremony, the bridge represents "an everlasting monument" to Warren's dedication and personal sacrifice. "The name of Emily Warren Roebling will...be inseparably associated with all that is admirable in human nature and all that is wonderful in the constructive world of art," he said.

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

They say words are carried on the wind. Perhaps that’s why we created the “Strategic Plan: Carrying the Word” communication series, in which Sacyr professionals explain the main concepts of our new strategic cycle in their own words.

The terms chosen are Rating, Water, AI, Transport, Sustainability, P3, Security, Diversity, X3, and Social.

Over the course of 10 months, we travelled to 10 locations with 10 different teams in order to determine the ambitions and ideas that will guide our strategy in the coming years.

Since the launch of our Strategic Plan in May 2024, we have continued to grow and consolidate our position as a leader in the development of greenfield infrastructure transport, social and water projects. 

We will discuss the journey of the “Strategic Plan: Carrying the Word” throughout Sacyr.

Rating

Our investment team is working to obtain an investment-grade rating. This goal will consolidate our global growth as a concessionaire, allowing us to accelerate our development in international markets.

Water 

We provide our experience, technology, and innovation in end-to-end water cycle management to ensure water quality and access. In early 2025, we secured our first major concession contract in this strategic cycle with the wastewater treatment, reuse, and subsequent sale project in Antofagasta (Chile).

AI

Because technology is crucial to achieving our strategic objectives, our ICT team works to ensure the optimisation and automation of processes, while predictive analysis allows our professionals to focus on more strategic tasks.

Transport

We “teleport” to the recently opened Belfast Transport Hub for the first international chapter of our “Strategic Plan: Carrying the Word”. By developing transport infrastructure, we drive connectivity, improving the links between people and communities.

Sustainability

Colombia’s Canal del Dique demonstrates our work toward a better world. Ensuring our projects have a positive impact on the surrounding communities is the foundation of the 24-27 Sustainable Sacyr Route, which is based on four pillars: the planet, people, prosperity, and governance.

P3

Public-Private partnerships (P3 or PPP) are essential to the advancement of society. Infrastructure development through P3 projects facilitates their maintenance, operation, and improvement under optimal conditions. Chile is one of our main concession markets.

Safety

In every project we undertake, we implement strict health and safety protocols that allow us to meet our objectives while protecting our teams. Our preventive culture and the commitment of our senior and middle managers are the driving forces that help us minimise accidents and increase safety training. 

Diversity

We will only achieve the ambitious goal of becoming the world’s largest greenfield infrastructure developer by 2033 with diverse and inclusive teams. Our Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Policy and Plan guide us in our commitment to gender, functional, cultural, demographic, generational, experiential, and cognitive diversity and establish concrete objectives, measures, and indicators through 2027. 

X3

In this strategic cycle, we will triple the invested equity and our P3 asset valuation. Translated into figures, we aim to achieve an invested equity total of 4.5 to 5 billion euros and an asset value of between 9 and 10 billion euros. Italy is one of our most important concession markets, where we will continue to grow in the coming years through the SIS consortium.  

Social

The Sacyr Foundation serves as a conduit for the positive impact of our professionals. More than 1,000 employees participate in volunteer programmes related to the Sacyr Foundation’s primary focus areas: early childhood development, environment, inclusion, emergencies, disabilities, and healthcare.