Commitment to the environment
Making chlorine, just like any other manufacturing process, has an impact on the environment that is measured and minimised by the modern technologies being used at our production facilities. As signatories to a number of voluntary agreements, the companies belonging to ANE are committed to continuous improvement of their environmental practice and achieving environmental performance standards that are more stringent than those legally in force. One of these agreements is the Voluntary Agreement on Environmental Protection and Emissions Control in the Spanish Chlor-Alkali Industry. It was signed in 1999 by the Spanish Ministry for the Environment, the Environment Departments of five Regional Governments (Andalusia, Aragon, Cantabria, Catalonia and the Basque Country), ANE and the companies belonging to it. This voluntary agreement committed the chlorine industry to take steps to continue to reduce its mercury emissions even further. External auditors have periodically checked how the companies involved are actually complying with their commitments. This Voluntary Agreement has been renewed in January 2006 for the period 2005-2011, and substitutes the first Agreement signed in 1999. As a consequence of the application of this first Voluntary Agreement the mercury emissions have been reduced a 37% with regards to the situation in 1998. Despite the current emissions are very low, the companies have committed to do additional reductions of 47% with regards to the goal in 2004.
A picture featuring the Voluntary Agreement renewall fot the period 2005-2011 Likewise, the companies will present at the end of this period (2011) a plan to implement membrane cell technology in the chlorine production plants or to cancel the activity with the main goal of cancelling the mercury emissions in 2020. ANE's members are engaged in incorporating the Best Available Techniques (BATs) into their production processes in order to reduce these emissions in line with the recommendations of the European Union Directive on Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control (known as the IPPC Directive). In 1999, ANE signed the Chlorine Agreements and played a key role in promoting them. The object of these agreements is preventing accidents and helping the authorities in the event of an accident in the transportation of chlorine by road or rail. The companies in ANE also participate in the Programme Compromiso de Progreso (Responsible Care), a voluntary scheme set up by the chemical industry around the world to improve health, safety and environmental protection. 
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