Ignacio Galán has received the ESG Leadership Award from the Foreign Policy Association in New York.
Galán, the Executive Chairman of Iberdrola, and Chairman of its US subsidiary Avangrid, has become the inaugural recipient of the Foreign Policy Association’s ESG Leadership Award during its annual dinner at New York’s Harvard Club.
The newly created award recognises business leaders who have demonstrated a firm commitment to ensuring that ESG + F (Environmental, Social & Governance + Financial Performance) principles are embedded as a core pilar of business strategy.
Other award recipients on the evening included General Mark Milley, the 20th Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the highest-ranking military officer in the US, as well as Joaquin Duato, Chairman & CEO of Johnson & Johnson.
Galan was honoured by Governor George Pataki, New York’s 53rd Governor, who served in office between 1996 and 2006.
Accepting the award, Galán said: “I am very grateful to the Foreign Policy Association.
“I greatly admire all of the positive work that the association has been delivering for many years.
“Iberdrola’s commitment to ESG principles has always been driven by our own internal belief that we must do all that we can to achieve a positive impact in the communities that we serve.
“This is why we included the Sustainability Development Goals in our corporate by-laws and created the concept of a social dividend.
“As we continue to invest and grow in the years ahead, we remain committed to demonstrating that decarbonization is fully compatible with value creation.”
Under Galán’s leadership over the past two decades, Iberdrola has invested over $150bn to drive the transition to clean energy.
The company’s investment strategy has been coupled with a full commitment to the creation of sustainable value for all its stakeholders (“Social dividend”).
In 2022 alone Iberdrola welcomed 4700 new hires into the group and its activities around the world now support 400,000 jobs.
Iberdrola’s purchases with suppliers exceeded $19bn in 2022 and over $8bn was paid in taxation globally, supporting public finances.
In the last two decades, the company has grown from the 20th largest electricity utility in the world, to the second largest by market cap, at the same time as leading the industry in climate ambition.
Galán has overseen the closure of all of Iberdrola’s 17 coal and fuel oil plants across the world at the same time as establishing an industry leading renewable energy capacity of 40,000MW.
More than $50bn of investments is planned between 2023 and 2025, which will underpin the company’s ambitious Climate Action Plan.
Iberdrola aims to achieve carbon neutrality for scopes 1 and 2 by 2030 and net-zero emissions before 2040 for all scopes.
The Foreign Policy Association is a non-partisan organisation that has been working for over 100 years to help develop awareness, understanding, and informed opinion on US foreign policy and global issues and aims to encourage citizens to participate in the foreign policy process.