Choni Fernandez Veciana is the director of central services and sustainability at PortAventura, the first carbon neutral theme park in the world. She joined the company in 2007 and holds a Diploma in Business Sciences and a degree in economics from the Faculty of Economics of the University of Oviedo. Fernandez Veciana is a key player in PortAventura’s efforts to minimise its environmental footprint.
In 2020, PortAventura World became the first carbon-neutral theme park. The attraction will now offset 100 percent of the direct emissions generated. Its programmes include a large solar energy plant, plastic elimination targets and the first carbon-neutral hotel, Colorado Creek.
“The carbon-neutral resort project is integrated into the global corporate responsibility strategy that guides the company’s decision-making to continue being a benchmark in sustainable tourism,” Fernandez Veciana said. “Our strategic approach also demands that we integrate compliance with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), defined in the 2030 Agenda, into our management in order to continue generating value.”
She is not content just to rest at carbon neutral, however. Speaking at greenloop 2022, Fernandez Veciana outlined the next steps in decarbonisation for one of the most sustainable theme parks & resorts in the world and explained how and why PortAventura is adopting Science Based Targets.
“We are preparing a process where, first, you need to commit. You need to work on the reduction targets of your emissions. You need to submit your targets to SBTi, and outline how you are going to meet them. They then need to approve your process for this reduction, and at that point you can announce your target, reporting on how your strategy is going over the following years.
“For Scope 1 and Scope 2, our goal is to be below 1.5 degrees. Our Science Based Targets are aligned with this pathway. That means that we need an average annual reduction of 4.2% in emissions. In the case of scope three, we have to choose a softer way to decrease our emissions, because of the difficulty in moving our supply chain. Here, our target is to go below two degrees. That means that we need an average annual reduction of 2.5%.”