Halting the decline in biodiversity is one of the main objectives that companies must address. The protection and conservation of biodiversity in the places where the Company's activities are conducted is a priority for the company.
With the aim of preserving the natural spaces where Cellnex's activity takes place and minimising environmental impacts, such as visual or noise impacts, Cellnex has created a specific pillar in its sustainability strategy for "Natural Spaces and Biodiversity”. In this regard, in 2022 Cellnex Netherlands received nine noise and visual impact complaints and Cellnex UK received one.
In recent years Cellnex has been working on various actions focused on biodiversity management and evaluating Cellnex's impact on natural spaces and all these actions have resulted in the development of the Natural Capital project.
One of the actions carried out is management of the visual impact of Cellnex sites. The policies and practices related to the location of masts and transmission sites, site sharing and initiatives to reduce visual impacts in each country where Cellnex operates are outlined below.
The locations where Cellnex Austria builds sites are determined primarily by customers' needs, as is the case with site sharing. With regard to visual impact, Cellnex Austria meets the local requirements established by the government.
Denmark is highly regulated in terms of building requirements, planning regulations and the placement of new towers in rural areas and the impact on open land. In this regard, Cellnex Denmark follows best practices and guidelines from municipal and governmental agencies to comply with regulations.
Cellnex Spain complies with municipal regulations on the location of masts and all that this entails, in addition to taking into account criteria such as visual impact (in this regard, camouflage measures are taken). Each action is subject to local regulations and is undertaken in accordance with the regulations applicable in each case. The procedure consists of a prior study and compliance with the regulations applicable to each of the sites.
At Cellnex France, site location is mostly determined by customers' needs. A task force works to promote shared sites and optimise locations where possible. In this regard, in 2022 a project was initiated with the aim of relocating sites owned by Cellnex. This project will be further developed in 2023 and will take sites not owned by Cellnex into consideration.
As regards visual impacts, Cellnex France uses a specific strategy of "integration paysagère". This technique consists of reducing visual impact by concealing telecommunications equipment using fake objects (fake trees, fake chimneys, etc.).
In The Netherlands telecom operators are obliged by law, to share mast sites. For all regular towers an environmental building permit is needed. For every new site a compliance to Natura2000 is mandatory. In certain cases along railroads NGCE (non exploded conventional explosives) investigations need to be executed. High towers require a valid and up to date environmental permit.
Cellnex Ireland has a process for planning applications for new developments, as well as a Visual Impact Assessment for its site in Portrane. When building a new site, Cellnex Ireland focuses on requirements, existing services and co-location.
Cellnex Italy takes great care to reduce environmental impact for its customers. To this end, multi-operator infrastructures are built.
Cellnex Italy follows Italian law and specific actions are taken to further reduce visual impacts at the request of the Public Authorities.
During the site design process, architectural style, local conditions and communities are taken into account. Cellnex Poland responds to the needs of the landowners and legal authorities (e.g. monument conservators) and makes sure that the structures do not disturb the surrounding architecture and fit into the surroundings as much as possible. In addition, the focus of the local community is of great importance in the process of selecting a structure.
Cellnex Portugal locations are determined at the request of its customers, as envisaged in the BTS programmes. New sites are built ready for shared use. Existing sites are adapted for co-location at the request of Cellnex Portugal customers. As regards reducing visual impact, all of Cellnex Portugal processes are scrutinised by municipalities and entities with decision-making powers on infrastructure concessions, meaning that the definitive solutions are aligned with the decisions of these entities.
When such entities require concealment, or when this is agreed with the landowner, Cellnex provides solutions for rooftops (chimneys) and green spaces (trees) to reduce visual impact.
Cellnex UK looks to manage and deploy shareable communications infrastructure, which aligns to long-standing town planning policy to share existing sites and minimise the proliferation of new communication sites. Cellnex UK town planning and community relations processes are aligned with the industry Code of Practice for Wireless Network Development in England, a similar Code in Wales and similar practice in Scotland and Northern Ireland. The Code of Practice sets out guidance and principles in deploying mobile communication infrastructure, largely based around minimising environmental impact through sharing good design, where possible, respecting site context and sensitivity.
This is embedded into Cellnex UK project delivery, ensuring that good design and environmental considerations are considered at the earliest stages of feasibility, through to the eventual planning submission to the relevant determining body, such as the local planning authority.
Even where certain infrastructure needed by Cellnex UK or its customers does not require planning permission and can be regarded as ‘permitted development’, there is governance and control within the planning legislation to ensure that any chosen design looks to minimise visual impact.
Cellnex UK is also currently engaged in initiatives to bring forward better rooftop and mast design, through an aesthetic design initiative with an architectural consultancy firm. Cellnex UK town planning activities are supported by a Town Planning and Community Relations Guide and a comprehensive suite of model town planning documentation which embed the Code of Practice and also ensure that Cellnex UK proposals meet local and national town planning policy.
Cellnex Sweden follows the regulations of the country, region and municipality and the guidelines and recommendations of the owners in relation to requirements to reduce visual impact.
Sites at Cellnex Switzerland are built in line with the local regulations and administrative procedure.
The natural capital perspective involves a new approach that presents nature as the provider of a wide range of benefits. As such, this new perception of nature makes it easier for decision-makers to take into account the interactions of companies with natural systems and the flows between them.
During 2022, a materiality analysis on natural capital was performed for Cellnex, assessing the impacts, dependencies, risks and opportunities.
The Natural Capital project set out to analyse Cellnex Telecom's relationship with natural capital in terms of dependencies and impacts. Specifically, the company's dependence on ecosystem services and natural assets and its contribution to the main drivers of biodiversity loss, taking the value chain into consideration. The project was divided in two phases: 1) Analysis of impacts and dependencies on biodiversity; 2) Identification of risks and opportunities following the recommendations of the Task Force for Nature-Related Financial Disclosures (TNFD).
The starting point to identify the impacts and dependencies on natural capital in a qualitative way was the identifcation of all the economic activities (based on the International Standard Industrial Classification (ISIC)) that are directly or indirectly related to Cellnex along the value chain.
Cellnex followed the international tools ENCORE, developed by UNEP, and SBTN's Sectoral Materiality Tool for the identification of impacts and dependencies, respectively. For each economic activity, the analysis identified where negative impacts are generated along the value chain, as well as the drivers of biodiversity loss and the specific pressures that generate them.
This is key information to identify the points where the company should concentrate its efforts. At the same time, the degree of dependence on each ecosystem service and the related environmental aspects were identified for each economic activity. For both impact and dependencies, an exercise was undertaken to align the results to reflect the specific nature of Cellnex's business.
This analysis allows for a global assessment of the impacts and dependencies on natural capital, thus facilitating a better understanding of these issues and providing a holistic view of the interaction between Cellnex Telecom and the natural environment.
In addition, this pre-planning exercise was essential to assess the nature-related risks that the company is exposed to, as well as the opportunities that can be addressed. An initial analysis was performed based on the recommendations by the Task Force for Nature Related Financial Disclosure (TNFD). This exercise, following the corporate risk management system, resulted in an initial identification of risks and opportunities associated with nature, the potential impact that they would generate and the possible management of them.
Source: Natural capital & business relational models
This is an initial analysis to establish a roadmap towards measuring, managing and establishing nature-positive goals in a strategic way, helping to improve the resilience of the organisation for ecosystem restoration and mainstreaming the opportunities it offers.
Biodiversity loss and the transformation of ecosystems are real challenges that threaten to cause serious harm to human beings and worsen the impact of climate change. Cellnex recognises the importance of identifying which of its sites are in nature protection areas in the countries where the company operates.
To this end, Cellnex identifies and assesses biodiversity legislation applicable to the Company using the SALEM tool. The tool is updated monthly with European, national and local legislation related to environment management, biodiversity, energy, etc.
During 2021, training and awareness-raising sessions were carried out at the various Cellnex Business Units to provide an introduction to the operation of the SALEM tool. These training and awareness-raising sessions were extended and completed in 2022. In addition, following completion of the training, country-specific follow-ups were undertaken in 2022.
Another tool that Cellnex uses is the DaNA tool (DaMa in the case of Cellnex Spain). This tool is used to geolocate Cellnex sites in all the territories where the Company operates. It can identify the sites that are located in spaces within the Natura 2000 Network or in protected areas in line with the UICN categories. The tool also makes it possible to apply climatic scenarios to evaluate how climate change may affect these sites and consequently apply preventive and corrective measures.
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84,428 sites analysed |
7% of sites in protected areas |
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Cellnex also evaluates the impact that its sites have on the environment (such as visual impact), carrying out studies to enable sites to blend into the rural or urban setting where they are located, or developing projects to integrate the sites into the environment. One of the main impacts managed by Cellnex relates to birdlife, especially in Cellnex Spain, as the sites are located in stopover areas for migratory birds. In this regard, storks are protected by laws and regulations in Spain, where it is prohibited to disturb them or damage their eggs or nests during the nesting period.
Because of climate change, the length of stopovers for birds in Spain has increased to as long as 10 months, making it difficult to carry out maintenance processes on Cellnex sites. This results in costs due to non-compliance with the SLA and customer dissatisfaction.
Each nest weighs about 100 kg, and this causes a problem because it reduces carrying capacity, in addition to increasing the risk of falling from the nest and danger for people who work there. To prevent this risk and be able to carry out maintenance procedures at the sites, Cellnex Spain has designed and built structures for stork nests on its towers: Nest Baskets. Moreover, this structure allows Cellnex to place the weight of the nest on the most appropriate part of the tower, simultaneously preventing the nests from impacting its customers' antenna systems and improving the carrying capacity.
Cellnex has installed over 50 nest baskets at sites where it was technically feasible. Thus far, they have proved to be effective, as the storks have returned and made their nests in the baskets that were installed.
Cellnex Spain also collaborates with the Catalan Government in the Exocat project, which focuses on identifying exotic species with invasive behaviour, as they have a considerable impact on natural ecosystems, other species or even human and economic activities, leading to loss of native biodiversity. Every two years, the Catalan Government prepares an annual report on "Les espècies exòtiques invasores a Catalunya", which includes the number of invasive species detected. Cellnex is mentioned as a collaborating company in the last report published, corresponding to 2019-2020.
In May 2022, the Cellnex Spain Environment team shared the "Stork Nest Basket" project with the other Cellnex territories. Although the location of some territories means there is no impact on migratory birds, the project is a model of good environmental practices, strengthening Cellnex's commitment to protecting and preserving biodiversity.
Cellnex Netherlands actively takes the nesting season into account in its operations by planning work and technical visits to towers in such a way that nesting peregrine falcons are not affected, or are impacted as little as possible. In this regard, Cellnex Netherlands has installed nesting boxes on 16 of its 24 media towers, in consultation with the Peregrine Falcon Society. This results in a healthier working environment for workers, less damage to the building and facilities and well maintained ledges and roofs. In 2022 it resulted in 35 siblings.
Cellnex Telecom, Cellnex Spain and the Cellnex Foundation have presented a joint application to the Life Nature Funds to develop actions for the conservation of agro-steppe habitats and species in the Natura 2000 Network. The purpose of Cellnex's participation in this project is to compensate the loss of biodiversity due to the presence of birds at its facilities as a consequence of Cellnex's activity. The actions focus on restoring 300 hectares of degraded natural pastures, their biodiversity and quality; signing agreements with landowners to promote sustainable practices; promoting crops with greater added value on at least 100 hectares; fixing power lines that are dangerous for agro-steppe birds; and strengthening alliances between farmers to improve habitats. The project will last five years and €20,000 will be invested per year. The actions will be undertaken in a border area between Spain and Portugal.
In addition, another measure to compensate the removal of nests is Cellnex Spain's collaboration with TRENCA, an organisation that relocates and builds stork nests in suitable nesting areas.
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