Providing and divulging environmental information is a commitment to society that SIGAUS has undertaken as part of their work since its foundation in 2007, and that goes beyond the management of waste or used oils, from whose impact it is essential to protect the environment and living creatures.

In this sense, SIGAUS is aware that this informative work cannot be carried out without the support and collaboration of the main agents involved in the life cycle of industrial oil: each of them, in their own particular role, come together in the equation, not only contributing to make the system work, but also providing visibility and somehow participating in this dual task of raising awareness and keeping society informed.

Since 2015, SIGAUS has an additional tool to promote training in this area: its Environmental Classroom, an innovative project that has already appealed to several Universities and Vocational Training Centres relating to the automotive, mechanics and engineering sector, interested in receiving specific training on the management and particularities of this hazardous waste, which they will have to face in the near future during their professional development.

This Environmental Classroom has continued to grow since then, with presentations and training talks in centres throughout Spain, such as Nebrija University, the first to offer a Mechanical and Motor Engineering course or the Secondary school, Vírgen de la Paloma, in Madrid, one of the reference centres in Spain in terms of the number of students and facilities of its Automotive and Machining Department. Other leading universities in different engineering specialities have joined them, including the University of Deusto or the University of the Basque Country (UPV), as well as students from different Master courses of the Autonomous University of Madrid (UAM) or the University of Jaén (UJA).

An ally in social media

For several years now, SIGAUS has also been actively promoting their Social Media, a key tool to connect the organisation with people and one of the best ‘loudspeakers’ to publicise their work, which the general public usually knows very little about. Their social profiles not only enable them to share their work and the importance of protecting the environment from the impact of this waste with the public but also allow them to divulge the economic and environmental benefits involved, moreover how citizens can contribute with their actions to make the system work.

To make this contribution more tangible, SIGAUS gets citizens involved in their work through campaigns associated with the plantation of urban forests. So far, up to 2019, eight SIGAUS Forests have already been transferred to different Madrid municipalities in order to provide them with new green areas and at the same time “reward” those who participated in these campaigns - mainly publicised through Social Media - with a tree “of their own” that they can name and visit for real or virtually, thanks to its tagging and geolocation as well as a specific website that includes all planted forests.

This year, the eighth urban forest has been located in Villalbilla (Madrid) and its plantation has been associated with a new campaign: “El Paseo de la Naturaleza de SIGAUS” (SIGAUS’ Nature Trail), in which participants had the chance to be a part of one of the four types of forests created: Friendship, Protection, Heroes or Sustainable Development.

In the first forest, users were able to name a tree with the name of a friend or loved one; In the second, the name had to be of an endangered animal. For the third forest, the tree had to be named after a historical figure committed to the environment; In the fourth ‘Forest’ one of the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals had to be selected for the name of the tree.

Mass media, 'partners' in SIGAUS' dissemination work

As part of their social awareness work, SIGAUS cannot forget about their key 'partners': the media, with whom they work closely throughout the year, to deliver the most relevant information and results regarding their work in the most attractive and understandable way possible.

For this purpose, they also carry out specific communication campaigns such as the regional information published each year which provides a breakdown, by Autonomous Community, of all management data obtained in the previous year. This campaign reaches more than 1,000 regional and local media throughout the country (written press, digital, radio and television), and exceeds, on average, 200 impacts.

Expanding this work with the media, and as a novelty in this 2019-2020 Course, journalists specialising in the environment will join the SIGAUS Environmental Classroom through an agreement between the Organisation and the APIA, the Association of Environmental Journalists; such journalists will receive specific training on this unknown residue and its particularities, which will make their work easier and help them reach the public with information that is as enlightening and explanatory as possib.