ECODES () is an independent non-profit organization that works towards sustainable and environmentally friendly development, founded on 10 March 1992.
The organization's main areas of focus are social responsibility, climate change resulting from global warming, water management, reducing consumption and development cooperation. Besides their various projects they publish an online magazine, esPosible.
History
ECODES was established on 10 March 1992 in Zaragoza, Spain, with the intent to find solutions to shared problems and bring about social change. Since then the foundation has gained in significance, winning various awards for their plans, programs and actions.
Ideology
ECODES is not associated with any political party. Their aim is to bring about social change by moving society in a more socially just and ecologically sustainable direction.
Areas of work
ECODES analyzes the causes and consequences of major socio-environmental challenges and prescribes solutions.
Geographically they are active in Spain and Latin America. In the Northern Hemisphere they concentrate their work on transforming existing economic and social structures and in the Southern Hemisphere, especially Latin America, they offer expertise and assistance in technical matters and funding.
Areas of work, often overlapping, are amongst others:
Water: sustainable use of water resources;http://www.adn.es/local/zaragoza/20100321/NWS-0171-Organizan-potable-acceso-larga-agua.htmlhttp://portal.aragon.es/portal/page/portal/IAA/USO/ZARAGOZA spearheaded the creation and management of "Alianza por el Agua". Corporate social responsibility: this includes analyzing companies social responsibility record and initiate campaigns against Corruption Climate change: campaigns of alert about global warming Responsible Consumption: denouncing the waste caused by a productivist economy, promoting Fair trade and responsible consumption International development cooperation: Since 1994 ECODES has been active in the field of development cooperation. They fund projects for demonstration purposes, offer expertise and technical knowledge and assists their overseas partners in matters of funding. (Also see Development Cooperation chapter below.)
Campaigns and Initiatives
ECODES gained significant notoriety due to their “Zaragoza, water-saving city” campaign. It started in 1997 and it aimed to promote a new water-saving consciousness through a more efficient management. It emphasized, above all, the importance of simple technological change to achieve a sustainable reduction in water consumption. The project was to issue a challenge to the city: to save 1,000 million liters of domestic water consumption in one year. The project has shown that it is possible to deal with the shortage of water in cities, using a cheap, ecological, fast and contentious-free approach, by increasing efficiency in consumption. For this campaign ECODES teamed up with local and regional governments as well as the European Union. (see press dossier and a summary of the campaign at the page provided here)
In 2005 ECODES entered into a partnership with Fundación Natura to develop the program CeroCO2. It is a comprehensive program that aims to promote action against global climate change amongst all relevant stakeholders in society, including individuals, businesses, NGOs and governmental entities. CeroCO2 offers tools to calculate reduce and offset greenhouse gas emissions in renewable energy, energy efficiency and reforestation projects in developing countries. It aims to ensure that improvements in living standards in these countries do not pose a further threat to the world's climate. The project features an interactive web platform and was designed and developed by the two non-profit organizations with the assistance of the INCAE Business School.
In 2008 ECODES spearheaded the project "Piensaenclima" with support from the Spanish Ministry of Environment. ECODES started a pilot project to test methodologies for analyzing the climate change policies of enterprises. They compared different commonly used methodologies for the analysis of climate change policies, mostly aimed at providing information to the financial markets (Carbon Disclosure Project, GHG Protocol, etc.). ECODES then contacted the US, not-for-profit organization Climate Counts and became their Spanish partner because of the convincing methodology in rating companies developed by Climate Counts. The project "Piensaenclima" also features a free mobile phone application for consumers, who wish to be informed about the climate and social responsibility practices of many of Spain's biggest companies.
For the Expo 2008 in Zaragoza, Spain, ECODES was tasked with organizing and managing the citizens' initiative pavilion called “the beacon” (). They helped bring together various non-governmental organizations and organized the various shows and discussions about water and sustainable development. ECODES (Fundación Ecología y Desarrollo) was also a member of the permanent commission of all the participating groups. The permanent commission included: Cruz Roja Española Ecología y Desarrollo Fundación Nueva Cultura del Agua Ingeniería sin Fronteras Intermon Oxfam Sustainlabour WWF/Adena
In January 2010 ECODES launched a free, online magazine called esPosible. It features stories about climate change and sustainable development and offers the reader chances to get involved in particular projects. Furthermore, it highlights exemplary (“best practice”) programs across the world in order to promote their adaptation in Spain. Titles have included (originally in Spanish):
(January 2010 issue) Business and climate change (February 2010 issue) Green employment (March 2010 issue) Water and cooperation (April 2010 issue) A responsible shopping basket (May 2010 issue) Tourism without a trace (June 2010 issue) Cities and energy
Partnerships and cooperation ECODES has partnerships and joined networks with many other environmental or social organizations and is a member of numerous coalitions like the "Coalición Clima".Coalición Clima wwf.es ECODES is also a member of the Spanish Association of Foundations ().
In 2002 ECODES joined the not-for-profit organization EIRIS (Ethical Investment Research Services) as an analyst partner. Having already branched out into ethical investment research since 1997 ECODES now shares the data it collects with EIRIS in order to contribute to this global database and help clients such as asset owners, asset managers, banks, stock brokers and governments around the world to invest responsibly. ECODES analyses the environmental and social governance policies and practices of listed companies from Spain, Portugal, Brazil and Mexico and supplies EIRIS with the collected data. Furthermore, ECODES is responsible for conducting the sustainability analysis for several stock indexes, including the FTSE4Good Index and the FTSE4Good IBEX indexes.
In 2005 ECODES and several partners joined to set up the Asociación del Sello de Productos de Comercio Justo (ASPCJ). The ASPCJ is the Spanish member of FLO International, which unites 23 Fairtrade producer and labelling initiatives across Europe, Asia, Latin America, North America, Africa, Australia and New Zealand.
Since 2008 ECODES is a partner of the non-governmental Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP). The CDP maintains the world's largest database of corporate information on climate change. Through an annual survey of the largest quoted companies, CDP collects information on identified risks and opportunities relating to climate change, emissions reduction plans and the transparency of corporate actions to mitigate climate change.
Development cooperation
ECODES is engaged in various projects overseas with a strong focus on Latin America. They fund projects for demonstration purposes and help overseas NGOs to secure funding from the local and national Spanish government as well as private donors and the European Union. They also offer expertise and technical knowledge to their overseas partners. Currently and in the past ECODES has been active in the following countries with the following partners (amongst others):
Algeria Association Chlorophylle pour la Protection de l'Environnement Argentina Fundación Vida Silvestre Argentina –FVSA & Inclusión Social Sustentable Bolivia Protección del Medio Ambiente Tarija – PROMETA Brazil Instituto Permacultura da Amazônia (IPA) Ecuador El Salvador Asociación Comunitaria Unida por el Agua y la Agricultura – ACUA & Asociación de Saneamiento Básico, Educación Sanitaria y Energías Alternativas – SABES Guatemala Asociación para la Promoción y el Desarrollo de la Comunidad – CEIBA Honduras Comunicación Comunitaria COMUN India Wind power generation in India, supporting the "Voluntary Carbon Standard" Madagascar Supporting the conservation of the rainforest in the Makira Natural Park, Madagascar. Mexico Fondo para la Paz Nicaragua Alcaldía Municipal de León & Asociación de Educación y Comunicación “La Cuculmeca” & Asociación Hermanamiento León (Nicaragua) – Zaragoza (España)& Asociación para el Desarrollo Municipal del Norte - ADEMNORTE & Cafenica *Centro de Información y Servicios de Asesoría en Salud –CISAS- & Centro de Promoción del Desarrollo Local – Ceprodel & Ciprés -Centro para la Promoción, la Investigación y el Desarrollo Rural y Social- & Cooperativa de Servicios de Exportación e Importación Nicaragüense “Del Campo” & Cooperativa Multisectorial “Juan Francisco Paz Silva” & Fundación Desarrollo Integral Asociado – DIA & Instituto Politécnico La Salle & MINSA & Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Nicaragua – UNAN-LeónUNAN León cisas.org.ni Peru Centro de Educación y Comunicación “Guaman Poma de Ayala” & IPES – Promoción del Desarrollo Sostenible
Transparency In order to promote transparency and good practices, ECODES joined the Fundación Lealtad, which analyzes and rates NGOs according to their “Standards of Transparency and Best Practices”. These standards are used to benchmark the transparency and best practices of non-profit organizations. Both the analysis and compliance are voluntary. According to Fundación Lealtad's report ECODES complies with all transparency and best practice principles. The report also shows that 90.2% of all available funds in 2007 went directly towards fulfilling the aims of ECODES. The full 2008 report on ECODES (in Spanish) including finances, donors, areas of work and internal policies can be downloaded from the website of Fundación Lealtad.http://www.fundacionlealtad.org (search for Fundación Ecología y Desarrollo)
Awards
The work of the foundation has been recognized on the local, national and international level. An incomplete selection of these recognitions and awards is listed below.
•2008. Awarded the “Consumer Research Award” of the Government of Aragon for the paper "Virtual water and food, Responsible Consumption in Aragon"
•2008. Ebrópolis 2008 Award for good citizenship practices granted to Ecology and Development Foundation for the proposal "Zaragoza, Water 100.000 saving compromise"
•2005. 21 Action Prize awarded by the City Council for the project CeroCO2 in recognition of individuals and institutions working in the field of sustainability.
•2005. The European Commission Vice President Margot Wallström, decided to donate to the Foundation Ecology and Development.
•2004. Awarded the “Félix de Azara Prize” in recognition of the contribution of the foundation to build a development-friendly environment.
•2003. The campaign "Zaragoza water saving city. 50 Good Practices "was awarded the "Juan de la Cosa of Environmental Engineering Award"
•2003. Ecology and Development Foundation received an award from ISR from the Institute for Sustainable Resources for their outstanding contribution to and compliance with the principles of sustainable development (May 2003)