The Imuplsa Talentum XXI Foundation highlights the investment in innovation and sustainability that the Penedes company has carried out in recent years

The Impulsa Talentum XXI foundation presented this weekend the 32 awards corresponding to the 2021 edition of the Talent Chamber Awards, in a round of interviews and meetings that took place on Saturday and Sunday, at the Hub Cambra of the Chamber of Commerce, collaborating entity of the awards.

Among them, Cales de Pachs has received the Chamber Talent Award 2021, in the Energy Transition category. Valentí Grané, general manager of the company together with his brother Xavier Grané, has collected the award. The company has highlighted its satisfaction with this award, which recognizes the investment in sustainability and innovation that the Penedes company has made in recent years.

Cales de Pachs has been committed to finding new uses for lime for some time now. Over the last decade, in collaboration with several university centers, it has developed innovative applications for its products, mainly intended for the care of the environment.

In addition, the company from Penedès has been working with biomass in its production processes for some time, and currently has a project on the table to install a 3,000 KW solar panel park at its headquarters in Pacs del Penedès. The energy plant would allow Cales de Pachs to reduce its CO2 emissions by 32% and to make it a reality an investment of 2 million euros is needed.

The Chamber Talent Awards

The awards want to recognize people, projects, institutions and companies that stand out for providing imaginative solutions to challenges, problems and situations, which have been chosen by various juries, from the socio-health and care fields to sports , from industry to the media, passing through the transfer of knowledge or literature and performing arts. Among the most cross-cutting criteria are the use of technology, sustainability or environmental criteria, in addition to innovative, successful and disruptive projects.

Bru Recolons, president of the Impulsa Talentum foundation highlights the relevance of many projects, “which are a very outstanding advance in the use of technology and innovation to solve challenges and problems in our society”. In addition, Recolons explains that among the winners of previous years there are “startups that are now on top of everything, unicorns, and even companies that are listed in New York, which demonstrates the value of the juries and confirms the need to award the talent, to help its impulse”.

During the weekend members of the public administration passed through the Cambra hub such as the Minister of Justice, Lourdes Ciuró; the president of the Chamber of Commerce, Mònica Roca; the deputy for culture of the Barcelona Provincial Council, Joan Carles Garcia Cañizares; or the honorary president of the Welcome Talent Society, Antoni Gelonch, among many others, to present the awards to the winners.

The awardees have received the trophy that accredits them as this year’s winners in their category. In addition, they will be part of a business diagnosis carried out by the Impulsa Talentum Foundation for each of them to help improve the project from very diverse areas, in the preparation of a piece in report format, and in communication support through Catalonia Talent.

The quarries of Pacs del Penedès and Vilanova i la Geltrú have hosted various recordings of audiovisual content in recent months

Penedès is a territory with an unlimited offer of landscapes. In recent years, its privileged location has made it popular with audiovisual companies from all over the European continent, who find in the area a thousand and one unique locations for their recordings.

From the hand of the label Gran Penedès Film Commission, created by the company NODE Film Clúster with the aim of achieving a pre-eminent position in the market of filmographic destinations, the last few years have been shot in the Upper and Lower Penedès and the Garraf dozens of commercials, films, series and music videos, all with the same common denominator: having the Penedès as a backdrop. They have been involved from administrations to private companies.

One of the companies that has most participated in this new trend is Cales de Pachs. The two quarries that the company has in Gran Penedès – one in Pacs del Penedès (the company’s headquarters) and one in Vilanova i la Geltrú – have in recent months hosted the recording teams of several audiovisual production companies that have managed to transform these spaces in unimaginable places, like a snowy mountain or a distant planet on Earth.

In the quarries of Cales de Pachs, prominent fashion companies have been engraved, one of the leading companies in the manufacture of smartphones, music groups, film producers, and now a contract is being concluded with a large production company streaming content to record a series on.

An example of the possibilities offered by the Pachs del Penedès company due to the versatility of its facilities.

The agreement establishes that the path located in this location will be recovered but maintaining the safety conditions of the quarry enclosure

The Vilafranca City Council, the Pacs i Cales de Pachs City Council, have signed an agreement to recover the access path to the top of Sant Jaume mountain.

In 2011, Vilafranca City Council bought the land of Casal 2000, a rustic property located on the Sant Jaume mountain, from the La Principal-Casal Society, to develop sports and leisure activities . The farm is located on the southeast side of the mountain, and goes from the 240 m level, at the lowest point, to the ridge of the mountain, where it borders the quarry of Cales de Pachs SA, already in the municipality of Pacs del Penedès.

Close to the border between the two estates, in the last 20 years, along the ridge, a path has been built that was used by hikers and runners. But the presence of more and more people walking there, which increased considerably after the end of the first phase of the pandemic, made the Cales de Pachs company start the procedures in order to complete the perimeter fence at the southern end of the quarry, for safety reasons and in order to comply with the Mining Safety Regulations.

The perimeter fence prevented passage along a section of this road, and this caused complaints from some residents and users.

For this reason, Cales de Pachs, Pacs City Council and Vilafranca City Council have decided to sign an agreement with the main objective of recovering the footpath, and at the same time maintaining the safety conditions of the quarry enclosure. With this agreement, Cales de Pachs also undertakes to carry out an action to improve the landscape of the space, planting up to 120 specimens of white pine along the path.

This action is added to those already carried out by the Pacs del Penedès company in 2001, when it agreed with the society La Principal-Casal to install a protective fence, plant a large number of pine trees , the construction of 48 barbecues and the restoration of an old quarry located on the Casal grounds, among others.

It is expected that the action will be completed next November.