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EDAFOTEC apoya la iniciativa de la FAO en la celebración del Día Mundial del Suelo. El Día Mundial del Suelo (WSD) se celebra anualmente cada 5 de diciembre desde 2014, año en el que la ONU designó esta fecha a propuesta de la FAO un año atrás. Los orígenes de la idea se remontan a 2002 gracias al impulso de la Unión Internacional de Ciencias del Suelo (IUSS), la cual propuso este evento en el marco de la Alianza Mundial por el Suelo, un foro colaborativo surgido ante la necesidad de compartir experiencias sostenibles para recuperar un suelo que pensábamos era un recurso infinito. El objetivo de esta jornada es concienciar la población sobre la importancia de mantener ecosistemas saludables que garanticen el bienestar humano con una gestión eficiente del suelo. Hay que tener en cuenta que el suelo es un recurso vivo que alberga más del 25%...

EDAFOTEC, as a company concerned with the evolution of soils as a way of supporting life, supports the initiative before UNESCO for the creation of the Ortegal Geopark (https://proxecto.xeoparquecaboortegal.gal). A Geopark is a territory that has a geological heritage of international importance and a high value for the knowledge of the history of the Earth. Geoparks are also management figures that seek to conserve, disseminate and enhance the value of geological richness as a basis for the sustainable development of the areas where it is located. The proposal of this new geopark covers around 630 km2 of territory and slightly more than 28,000 inhabitants distributed in 57 municipalities and 1,211 entities of population that, in good part, are part of the so-called Geological Complex of Cape Ortegal, widely studied by specialized science since the mid-twentieth century....

On the occasion of the start of the processing of the Climate Change and Energy Transition Act, in EDAFOTEC we would like to make the following comments. To limit global warming below catastrophic levels, significant reductions in emissions are essential but no sufficient. We must also capture and safely store billions of tons of CO2 in the next decades. To do that we will need carbon sinks. Carbon sinks are fundamentally different from emission reductions. Today's easily available, scalable nature-based technologies include - Carbon forestry - Soil Organic carbon - Biochar Few carbon markets and governments today distinguish carbon sinks from emission reduction projects (e.g. renewable energy). In addition, existing schemes are often vague about the longevity of carbon sequestration. Many of the existing markets are currently over-supplied and require additionality, which is relevant in the world of offsets, but not for negative emission technologies (NET), such as biocoals. EDAFOTEC, has been...

Every year on February 2, World Wetlands Day is celebrated to commemorate the date of the signing of the Ramsar Convention, in the Iranian city of that name on February 2, 1971. Wetlands are the most productive ecosystems in the world and also the most threatened. The use of artificial wetlands for the treatment of contaminated water can emulate the natural processes characteristic of these ecosystems, reducing the impact of human activities on the environment and mitigating the effects of climate change. Artificial Wetlands are systems designed to reproduce the processes of pollutant removal by imitating the processes that take place in natural wetlands. EDAFOTEC designs wetlands with the joint action of artificial soils made with the area's own waste, within the framework of the Circular Economy. Our experience in the design of these systems both in the mining and in the industrial sector has allowed the treatment...

Pazo de Señorans is a pioneering winery in many things under the Rias Baixas Denomination: its wine selection from adding or recovering eucalyptus soil for the vineyard with, for example, the help of turnip tops. Moreover it has always taken care to maintain a well-looked-after environment with a spectacular garden with a large variety of tree and shrub species. The innovative element is the residue water purification system that it has had since last year. It is a wetland with artificial soils, designed from residues, which allows the use of a system based on biological principles, obtaining a channel suitable for discharge into rivers or that can be used for irrigating the vineyards. The wetland is a system that has been implemented for the last few years in Pazo de Señorans, where the discharge is high in organic matter. At Pazo de Señorans its behaviour...

[vc_row css_animation="" row_type="row" use_row_as_full_screen_section="no" type="full_width" angled_section="no" text_align="left" background_image_as_pattern="without_pattern"][vc_column][vc_column_text]The city of Vitoria-Gasteiz decided many years ago to become the benchmark for open and sustainable cities, and that is how it has been with different municipal governments to date, considered by the Spanish as one of the most attractive cities to live in. In recognition of these efforts it was elected European Green Capital in 2010 by the European Union. Among the numerous actions undertaken is the development of the green belt, over 120km of cycle paths, plans for the reduction of noise and light pollution, and many others that can be seen in Vitoria-Gasteiz Green Capital. As a further activity, the town hall, through the service of public space and natural environment, is developing an intervention with a view to incorporating artificial soils on vacant plots in the city in the future. The project, which started a few months...

First some history of ideas, which is always good. In the seventeenth century, among other ideas, vitalism emerged in Europe. It developed in opposition to Descartes' Mechanism which left out any explanation of what life was and how it worked. Vitalists maintained for some time the idea that, despite the redundancy, life was something that was beyond the experimental sciences, and of course not synthesizable. When in 1828, Friedrich Wohler, the rather confused-looking gentleman in the photograph, manages to synthesize urea, an organic substance from inorganic components, vitalism gives way to a new science, known as organic chemistry, which studies carbon and its relationships with other elements. What does this have to do with compost and humus? They are both formed of carbon and nitrogen, as well as other elements and micro-organisms, and are governed by the laws of organic chemistry. At EDAFOTEC we always say that...

Today in Europe and other countries the crisis has arrived before the completion of numerous construction sites, there are also other sites that are simply obsolete such as abandoned warehouses or factories. In many cases there is a certainty that they will never be finished or have any productive use, this is a process of decline in some cities that are seeing a drop in population and activity in recent years and where land supply exceeds demand, taking into account also the projection of the future needs of such cities. This is considered a problem mainly in the countries of Eastern Europe, and even in Ireland; the so-called bad bank has already started to demolish housing developments over the last few years in County Longford, as published in The Guardian. In Spain the wrecking ball also threatens ghost buildings. Spain has 800,000 unsold homes and experts...