Madrid sets aside EUR 3 million for sustainability, innovation and health

The investment covers electric mobility, creation of a green belt and protection of historic buildings

3 million euro will be used for the realisation of 20 projects in Madrid in the field of sustainable development, innovations and health. The funds’ roll out starts this year and is provided by 22 large companies and the City Council of the capital of Spain, united in a business forum.

The announcement was made at this week’s meeting of Foro de Empresas por Madrid (Forum of Companies for Madrid) - a public-private platform in which the City Council and the business sector join efforts and resources to carry out large projects.

Art, culture and tourism

Among the planned actions is to rehabilitate the Marconi estate in Villaverde, through outdoor artistic events that will be developed by national and international artists with 190,000 euro allocated for the purpose. 

Also, in order to prevent irreversible incidents, similar to the one in the Notre-Dame of Paris Cathedral, a plan to protect historic buildings has been presented. This project for 120,000 euro consists of the implementation of a system that allows connection with fire sensors and improves the response of fire-fighters.

Furthermore, to support the candidacy of the Site of the Retiro and the Prado for the World Heritage of UNESCO which is on the Tentative WHC list since 2015, it has been proposed to design a mobile application in Spanish and English that will allow access to different tourist itineraries and will have a budget of 54,450 Euros.

Finally, during the next three years 300,000 euro will be allocated to the organisation of parades in the city centre on the occasion of the celebration of the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week (or Madrid Fashion Week) in June and will be invested in the installation of giant screens to follow the parades.

Innovation and greenery

In terms of innovation, Madrid entrepreneurs will play a key role in the promotion of electric mobility through the creation of an operations centre. It will offer innovative solutions for vehicles and will work as a service centre for fleets and private individuals. This project will receive an investment of 60,000 euro.

Finally, another project previews the design of the future Metropolitan Forest, a green belt of 75 kilometres and 600 hectares that will receive 2.2 million euro.

The Business Forum for Madrid is chaired by Mayor of Madrid José Luis Martínez-Almeida. It gathers corporations from various sectors and at the last meeting has been joined by football club Atlético de Madrid and Airbnb. One of the objectives of the public-private collaboration is to reduce bureaucratic obstacles that prevent Madrid from growing faster.