Madrid, 27 March 2023

Laboratorios Farmacéuticos ROVI and ReTree are collaborating to plant ROVI’s Forest in the Madrid Sierra. It is an initiative that forms part of ROVI’s carbon footprint reduction strategy and group employees have participated by activating the 2,000 specimens that make up ROVI’s Forest using a QR code.

The space is in the Valle de los Sueños, an area of the Sierra del Rincón (Madrid), which is characterised by its exceptional forest ecosystems, among which its groves of native oak and pine trees stand out. With this reforestation project, ROVI and ReTree are partnering to recover an area that has been degraded through agriculture and livestock farming, as well as excessive felling. The Pyrenean oak (Quercus pyrenaica), the holm oak (Quercus ilex) and the stone pine (Pinus pinea) are the three native species chosen to reforest this space with which ROVI hopes to help slow down desertification and create employment in a rural environment, as well as to offset part of the CO2 emissions generated as a consequence of its production activity.

REAL TIME DATA

From the web (Bosque ROVI), information on the Forest’s evolution may be consulted thanks to artificial intelligence monitoring and satellite technology. Furthermore, real time data on the evolution of the tonnes of CO2 absorbed by the forest since its creation, the surface area regenerated and the benefits to water resources, among other items, may also be seen.

In its first few weeks, ROVI’s Forest has been capable of regenerating a space equivalent to 77 padel courts (15,380 m2),  providing a benefit of 3,208.13 litres to water resources, and absorbing the emission of 3,171.82 kg of CO2.

EMPLOYEE INVOLVEMENT

ROVI’s employees have been essential to making this project materialise. Through a simple game, scanning a QR code, each employee has chosen which of the three available species they would like to plant, up to a total of 2,000 specimens (one employee, one tree). The tree activation campaign by ROVI workers ended in December 2022 and the planting of the Forest has now been completed.

“For ROVI, it is a very exciting project. We have significant industrial activity and, for many years, we have been working with the commitment to offset the CO2 emissions we generate because we are aware of the impact they may have on the environment. This forest brings us much closer to this goal. It is only a few kilometres from our production plants in the Madrid Community and it is a tangible project that we can visit and help to keep growing through awareness and volunteering activities in the future”, explained Ana Fernández Lobato, Safety and Environment Manager of Laboratorios Farmacéuticos ROVI.

Pedro Pérez de Ayala, CEO of ReTree, added that, “For Retree this is a project that gives us leverage, since it shows the involvement of one of the largest groups in the Spanish pharmaceutical industry in the local environment. The planet belongs to all of us and we need many more companies to join the movement to restore the key ecosystems, which, furthermore, play a vital role in our health. Forests are the most important ecosystem of the peninsular environment and we must look after those that exist and recover those that have been lost, beginning with those closest to us.