Grupo Propagas and Fundacion Propagas

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Arturo Santana Reyes | President and CEO

website: www.grupopropagas.com

When did you join the CCI?

Grupo Propagas and Fundacion Propagas joined the Caribbean Challenge Initiative in May 2013.

Why did your company/organization join the CCI?

As a leading corporation, the Grupo Propagas and Fundación Propagas joined the Caribbean Challenge Initiative (CCI) in order to participate in the mission of protecting the vast marine and coastal resources across the Caribbean.We believe that the business and private sector can work together with governments to accelerate and expand efforts to safeguard the region's marine and coastal environment.The challenge of the Caribbean initiative has special importance for all the Caribbean islands because so many major issues provide cause for concern, such as: the erosion of our Caribbean beaches, indiscriminate and unsustainable commercial fishing, over-exploitation, environmental pollution, climate change, and others, which are an appeal to our awareness to take immediate action so that we may collectively contribute to achieving the goals of this Caribbean initiative and to preserve marine ecosystems in healthy conditions and achieve effective and sustainable management of marine coastal resources.

How is the CCI important to marine and coastal conservation in the Caribbean?

Tourism is the engine of the Caribbean economic structure and we must ensure that we keep it in good health and confront all the challenges along the way, combined with the conservation of our natural resources. In order to achieve this, all the government and business leaders, civil society and the citizens of our islands must jointly take on formal commitments to protect at least 20% of the Caribbean's coastal habitats and marine reserves by 2020.

What are your company's main conservation priority actions under the CCI?

GRUPO PROPAGAS CORPORATE COMPACT
Caribbean Challenge Initiative (CCI)
COMMITMENT SUMMARY:

At Grupo Propagas we are committed to carrying out all our activities safely, while preserving and protecting the air, water, land, animal and plant life and all natural resources. In order to achieve this, we will comply with the laws and regulations aimed at preserving the environment, health and safety while offering our products and services. Protecting the environment comes before business objectives. We believe that doing business that harms the environment is bad business.

We are committed to providing the means and the resources for preventing environmental damage. We also offer the necessary training to our operational and administrative leaders and make them aware of the importance of protecting our natural resources. Fulfilling our internal environmental policies or the country's environmental laws (whichever is more stringent) is a condition of employment in our corporation. At Grupo Propagas and our Fundación Propagas, we have taken on the following commitments:

Safety and Environment:

Maintaining our commitment to high ethical standards, legal compliance and integrity is reflected in our safety, environmental policies and practices, protecting both people and the environment.
Continuing to implement practices that benefit the environment as part of the safety and environmental policies that govern our business operations.
Grupo Propagas is committed to doing business in such a way that protects and promotes safety in our operations, the health and safety of our employees and of the communities in which we work.
To gear our efforts towards reducing our operations' emissions and those of the end users of our products.
To plan safety strategies for emergency situations.
Installation of leak-proof equipment that meets international environmental protection specifications. Propagas's new gas installations are 100% green. They comply with a process through which water is collected and is cleaned using grease traps, by installing leak collectors.
Water recycling: we have a pumping system that enables us to recycle water using solar energy. Our Propagas filling plants are eco-friendly as they recycle 60% of the water used by the car washing points at our stations.
Reduction of paper consumption in our company.
Reduction of energy consumption at our filling plants where we use a solar energy system. By 2020 we will have converted all the electricity system.
Collection of oil waste in our filling plants
Reduction of CO² emissions to the atmosphere.
Development of some strategic guidelines focused on clean production and sustainability in eleven main areas with timely practices that will continue to increase during a process lasting from four to six years of continuous development. These areas are: Corporate Safety, Transport, Internal Audit Office, Marketing, Central Filing, Customer Services, Technical Management, Finance and Accounting, Technology, Logistics and Human Resources Directorate.

Clean production and sustainability practices developed in these areas are in line with our Corporate Social Responsibility strategy that ranges from training and continuous accompaniment in the 3Rs proposal: Reduce, Reuse and Recycle as well as the implementation of measures that are directly linked to rationalised paper, water and energy use. When it comes to solid and oil-based waste, the company is working on collecting these together with other recycling companies dedicated to the collection of these residues in such a way that mitigates their impact on the soil.

We have also introduced a water recycling system in the corporate offices as well as in the fuel dispensing installations that include a vehicle washing service. In addition, we have developed a system for washing the company transport vehicles that includes a model that enables the wastewater to be processed and dispersed. In another area it is important to point out that our fleets of trucks have reduced their CO² emissions by some 40-50% with the use of propane gas due to the high proportion of hydrogen-carbon in its molecules.

These practices are already being implemented, and we have also planned to improve them significantly over the next four years as well as introducing new initiatives related to clean production, like for example "green" fuel dispensing installations based on clean and eco-friendly production.

The shared management of Valle Nuevo National Park, a privileged protected area in the Dominican Republic:

We continue our joint management based on an agreement signed between the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources and the Fundación Propagas, through which the administration roles of the La Pirámide sector of the Valle Nuevo National Park in Constanza are shared. We seek to increase visits to the park, healthy recreation and rest for visitors, as well as promoting public environmental education in order to highlight the importance of the park due to its hydrological resources, mild climate, outstanding biodiversity at a regional level and spectacular features.

Extending the action networks of the Propagas Rural Gas Programme:

PropaGas Rural Gas is a social responsibility programme by Grupo PropaGas and its Fundación PropaGas that provides subsidised propane gas (LPG) services to low-income families living in rural areas located in the areas of impact of our main national parks. Through this we contribute to reducing the use of firewood and charcoal as a source of energy for homes, while improving these families' health and quality of life and reducing the environmental impact caused by indiscriminately cutting trees from our forests.

PropaGas Rural Gas is the only propane gas mobile service that directly reaches the rural communities in our national parks and the Dominican Republic-Haiti border zone, in the mountains, the plains and in the valleys, supplying them with a safe and cost-effective product for cooking their food all year round. Our innovative initiative has had a positive impact on rural communities in the Armando Bermúdez, Los Haitises and Valle Nuevo national parks, as well as on communities along the Dominican border with Haiti with 12 eco-friendly mobile stations inaugurated to date.

Priority Areas:

Marine and coastal protection areas: In the next two years we plan to impact several communities located in the country's marine coastal protected areas by supplying them with the Propagas Rural Gas service.

Sustainable tourism: Through our co-management agreement of the Valle Nuevo National Park, we have developed initiatives that benefit the park's conservation objectives while promoting responsible visiting to the park itself, with which we have contributed to the development of sustainable tourism in the protected area as well as the communities of impact.

Primary natural areas impacted by this commitment: Ocean, Coast and Forest

In order to fulfil our Grupo Propagas and the Fundación Propagas commitments we commit to implementing the following actions:

Continue the development of the current projects and new projects that contribute to meeting the objectives of the CCI.
Participate in the "Defend Paradise" campaigned targeted at the Dominican Republic market, in order to raise awareness among our own population as well as among visitors about the importance of preserving our Caribbean marine coastal resources. We can link this campaign to the Club Propagas loyalty programme with its valuable contributions from the purchase of promotional items, and the proceeds will be used for conservation work.
Maintain business practices enshrined in safety and environmental practices, thus achieving an improvement in the service chain and guaranteeing the quality of our products.
Sharing our experiences and replicating the Fundación Propagas programmes that have been successful in the areas of education, conservation and community development.
To expand our range of action in the fulfilment of our commitments with our own financial resources, with human resources, through strategic alliances with other organisations, fundraising for donations from NGOs and allies.

Why is conservation important to your company/organization? How does conservation benefit you?

The Grupo Propagas and the Fundación Propagas believe that conservation management is vital for our business operations and for guaranteeing their sustainability.

Thanks to our green conservation practices, at Grupo Propagas we save money by reducing residues and increase our efficiency, we have achieved mental peace by reducing concerns about responsibility for the health and safety of our employees, customers, suppliers and collaborators. We increase the value of our business, we attract green consumers, as consumers are increasingly more concerned about environmental issues, and thus sustainable practices are continuing to grow. We are also improving our public relations with the range of audiences with which we interact and all this sets us apart from our competitors.

As a Green Corporation we demonstrate that our leadership and commitment towards environmental protection are directly linked to our business objectives both at present and in the future. There is no doubt that the actions that we are carrying out have favourable repercussions on our corporate image and have positioned Grupo Propagas and the Fundación Propagas as a responsible corporate entity.

Grupo Propagas considers it our responsibility to contribute to the conservation of our Environment, and we believe that this improvement has a direct impact on our company's optimisation, competitiveness, and recognition.

It is important to point out that the benefits of working with this approach are tacit and timely – we can see this in the reduction of general costs and the reduced consumption of energy, water, raw materials, generation of residues, etc. Insertion into a more demanding market as well as the incorporation of new operational practices and working that enable business activity.To be an environmentally responsible company implies taking into account the ecological impacts that its production and operation generates. Our aim is to gear our approach to better environmental practices and an increasingly cleaner production where the environment and its relationship with human beings is the central pillar that we take into consideration, and which will enable us to ensure the development of future generations.

Who is your CCI focal point? (Include any contact information you want included on the website)

name: Rosa M. Bonetti de Santana
title: President at Propagas Foundation
phone:809-364-1000 Xt 2295
email:This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

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