The Renault Palencia body assembly plant, in the locality of Villamuriel de Cerrato (about 8 km from Palencia city centre), covers a surface area of 190 hectares, including 30.4 hectares under cover. It is located on an industrial estate surrounded by farming land, and there is a railway line nearby.

2008 saw the launch of the new Megane III. For this very reason, it was important to take the environment into consideration in the new project in order to renew the ISO 14001 certification necessary for the Renault Eco2 label. Efforts focussed on energy savings and the use of renewable energies, evidenced in the installation of five thermal solar panels.

• Communication – World Environment Day

Renault Palencia celebrated the World Environment in June 2009. The numerous events included an exhibition "Petites histoirie" and a conference of the head of the innovation and environment office of Cantabria province, a competition to save on paper use, and the distribution of a holly branch to all plant employees..

• Communication – Suppliers

The Palencia plant organized two meetings with its suppliers and service providers to look at the main environmental procedures specific to the plant. We improved supervision of chemicals used on the premises of many of our suppliers and insisted on the importance of taking account of our Environmental Policy. The World Environment Day was also an opportunity to show the waste sorting stations to suppliers in order to raise their awareness of environmental issues.

• Management

The Environmental Management System introduced at the Palencia plant was deployed across the various levels of the company. The EMS has been incorporated into the general organization of the plant and is consistent with the quality system in place (audit, management review, documentation checks, joint training and communication, etc.), making it possible to establish the basic principles for environmental policy.

• Testimonial

With zero remarks, the Palencia factory scored the highest possible marks in the external audit to renew our management system conducted by the UTAC certification agency in March 2008 and 2009. This outstanding result, achieved at a time when a new vehicle was in the process of being launched, highlights the motivation and the efforts made by everyone at the factory, and in particular the members of the site’s environmental network.

(*): change in scope

Thanks to our policy of continuous improvement, daily actions and our efforts to save on natural resources, the Palencia plant has considerably reduced its water and energy consumption and hazardous waste. The rise in the number of vehicles produced in 2009 is reflected in an increase in liquid effluents and NOx emissions. However, SO2 emissions were reduced by using less pollutant fuels such as natural gas.

For further details, see registration documents: 

• 2009 registration document 
• 2008 registration document
• 2007 registration document