The CLD team received the Bequal Seal from Francisco Vañó Ferre, the Institutional Relations representative of the Fundación Bequal, during an event held this morning at CLD’s headquarters in L’Hospitalet de Llobregat, Barcelona.

The event was attended by Xavier García, Director of CLD; Eloi Baró, Deputy Director of Human Resources for Sorigué, Ernest Martorell, Head of Human Resources for CLD; Ramón Giró, Managing Director of the Fundación Seeliger y Conde; and José Antonio Martín Rodríguez, Managing Director of the Fundación Bequal.

The Director of CLD stated “we are very proud to receive this recognition, which reaffirms our commitment to the inclusion of people with disabilities. We firmly believe that the growth and value of a business is only achieved through responsible management that ensures both financial and social sustainability”.

Likewise, Francisco Vañó said “CLD has demonstrated an inclusive strategy that guarantees equal opportunities for persons with disabilities in all areas assessed and evaluated by the Bequal model. In fact, most notable is the company’s compliance with the General Law on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities with 5.3%, more than half of which corresponds to individuals with severe disabilities and special vulnerability”.
It was clear to the representative from the Fundación Bequal that CLD is aligned with the Foundation’s main objective: the employment of persons with disabilities. Furthermore, Vañó highlighted the responsible purchasing policy implemented by CLD.

The Bequal Certification

The Bequal Certification is a third-party evaluation formula used to determine the degree of commitment made by Public Administrations to Corporate Social Responsibility and Disability in essential areas such as strategy and leadership, human resources management, attention to equal conditions for all citizens and the inclusion of social clauses in public tenders. 

In addition, organisations that obtain the Bequal Certification demonstrate their commitment and contribution to fulfilling the SDGs, specifically SDG 4 on quality education, SDG 8 on decent work and SDG 10 on reducing inequalities, among others.

The Fundación Bequal, the entity responsible for awarding the certification of the same name, is the result of work that has been ongoing since 2011 to design a certifiable systematised model of indicators that brings together all the tradition and experience of its founding entities: the Spanish Committee of Representatives of People with Disabilities (CERMI), the Fundación ONCE, FEACEM and the Fundación Seeliger y Conde.

CLD

CLD was founded in 1930 and is one of the first environmental operators in Catalonia, boasting more than 88 years of experience in urban services management. Originally CLD was structured as a cooperative, hence its Spanish name: Cooperativa de Usuarios del Servicio de Limpieza Pública Domiciliaria de Barcelona (Cooperative of Users of the Domestic Public Cleaning Service of Barcelona).

It currently has urban services contracts in place across more than 70 locations in Catalonia and Andorra. Among other operations, since 2009, CLD has been responsible for waste collection and street cleaning in the northern part of Barcelona, which encompasses the Nou Barris and Horta-Guinardó districts and serves more than 340,000 residents. The company was acquired by the Sorigué Group in March 2016.

Sorigué is a business group that was founded in Lleida in 1954. The company, which currently has over 20 active subsidiaries and an average staff of 3,800 employees in 2018, engages in the benchmark circular economy in the sectors of water technology and engineering, services, construction and materials and is firmly committed to innovation and giving back to society.