Atlas Renewable Energy awarded bronze for corporate diversity, equity and inclusion by The Cleanie Awards

MIAMI, FL, Nov. 17, 2021 – Atlas Renewable Energy, a global renewable energy generation company with operations across the Americas, has been awarded bronze in The Cleanie Award’s Corporate Diversity, Equity and Inclusion award category. The recognition was presented during an award ceremony on Nov. 16.

The company was recognized for various DE&I actions during the year including elevating female representation at an internal company level, creating and executing a program dedicated to promoting leadership skills in women, increasing female representation in the construction phase of renewable energy projects through the program “We are all part of the same energy” and focusing on contracting minorities as a way to foster a more inclusive and diverse industry.

“Creating an inclusive and diverse culture that embraces richness and diversity of opinions and experience is extremely valuable. We believe it can take us further as a company and as individuals,” said Marcela Pizzi, Head of People at Atlas Renewable Energy. “There are many social issues still to be addressed, but the fact that women are still underrepresented in the energy sector is something that needs to be tackled. That’s why we’ve been focusing on creating collaborative and safe working environments, working hard not to allow unconscious biases to seep through and create artificial barriers not only for women, but for everyone within the company. With this, we aim for all our collaborators to grow and be challenged while having a reasonably balanced family life.”   

Bolstering gender diversity within our own offices

At a corporate level, tackling the gender gap became one of the first moving parts of the larger DE&I plan. Actions such as implementing innovative recruiting practices to avoid biases, inclusive benefits for all our collaborators and a true commitment from the company’s leadership team has allowed Atlas to significantly grow within this area. In just 4 years, Atlas saw female representation increase to 40% from 11%.

With female representation at an all-time high, the company also implemented “She Leads”, a program that helps promote leadership skills in women for their overall development. To date, a total of 30 women have participated in this leadership program.  

Promoting DE&I within our projects

To expand this vision to the communities where the company operates, Atlas launched its flagship program “We are all part of the same energy”, a program set to continue to be implemented in the future. This program was created to promote local female workforce within the communities and to offer women training to acquire technical skills. While this program was being implemented, Atlas also started to mobilize its contractors to prioritize qualified female workforce in the hiring process of the projects. These efforts allowed female participation in the construction phase of a project to increase to 15% from a traditional level of 2%.

The program also demonstrated that the same concept can be adapted to address the needs of other minorities. In our Jacaranda Solar Plant and our Lar do Sol Casablanca I Solar Plant in Brazil, Atlas mobilized its contractors to promote the African decedent workforce in the area. This initiative accounted for 111 afro-descendant women from a total of 172, and 838 afro-descendent men from a total of 1,103 working in both Brazilian solar projects’ construction. These numbers are expected to continue rising as construction activities continue.

With all these efforts, Atlas has been able to do its part to push forward the DE&I agenda across the industry. But there still remains much more to be done in this space.  

About Atlas Renewable Energy

Atlas Renewable Energy is a renewable energy generation company that develops, builds and operates renewable energy projects with long-term contracts across the Americas. The current company portfolio is 2.2GW of contracted projects in development, construction or operational stages, and aims to expand by an additional 4GW in the next years.

Launched in early 2017, Atlas Renewable Energy includes an experienced team with the longest track record in the solar energy industry in Latin America. The company is recognized for its high standards in the development, construction and operation of large-scale projects.

Atlas Renewable Energy is part of the Energy Fund IV, founded by Actis, a leading private equity investor in the energy sector. Atlas Renewable Energy’s growth is focused on the leading emerging markets and economies, using its proven development, commercialization and structuring know-how to accelerate the transformation toward clean energy. By actively engaging with the community and stakeholders at the center of its project strategy, the company works every day to provide a cleaner future.

To know more about Atlas Renewable Energy, visit: www.atlasrenewableenergy.com