Through this award the Company emphasises its aim to promote sustainable development, quality, respect for the environment and the occupational risk prevention in its suppliers’ management processes.

On 13 December IBERDROLA presented prizes for the fifth edition of its Supplier of the Year Award, for the 2006 financial year. The aim of this prize is to promote and recognise the work of the Company’s suppliers. The event, which was held in the El Cigarral de las Mercedes estate on the outskirts of Toledo, was closed by Francisco Martínez Córcoles, IBERDROLA’s Distribution Manager for Spain.

After congratulating the winning, finalist and participating companies, Martínez Córcoles informed the approximately 350 attendees of the importance that IBERDROLA places on promoting the use, on the part of its suppliers, of the most stringent standards in terms of quality, sustainable development, the environment and occupational health and safety, since these are key aspects of a company’s corporate social responsibility.

In his speech Mr Córcoles also stated that a company’s success depends on its ability to fulfil its commitments to society and its work ethic. It was for this reason then that IBERDROLA decided to adopt principles which, alongside many other aspects, include the introduction of a good practices code into the value chain, establishing, for example, clear, objective and unbiased processes with its suppliers and the promotion of socially responsible behaviour on the part of the suppliers.

The 2006 edition of IBERDROLA’s Supplier of the Year Award consisted of nine different categories, as opposed to six in 2005, these included the following: Equipment and Material Manufacturers (Large Companies and SMEs); Works and Services Suppliers (Large Companies and SMEs); Quality Management System, Environmental Management System; Risk Prevention; Social and International Responsibility.

Before the prize giving ceremony, members of IBERDROLA management team held a workshop for the suppliers, in which they presented the targets established in the Company’s 2007–2009 Strategic Plan. They also informed them of what the Company’s different business and corporate units expect from its suppliers.