The Elecnor Foundation and the Ronald McDonald Children’s Foundation join forces in a pioneering project on air treatment and disinfection.

• The initiative “We Care about the Air you Breathe” will be set up in the Madrid Ronald McDonald House located in the Niño Jesús Children`s University Hospital.
• The project aims to minimise users` potential exposure to COVID-19 as far as possible using measures to improve and renew the air in the centre.
• Fernando Prados, Director of Hospitals and Healthcare Infrastructure in the Autonomous Community of Madrid, visited the Madrid Ronald McDonald House to see the project for himself.

The Elecnor Foundation, in conjunction with the Ronald McDonald Children’s Foundation, has set up a project on air treatment in the Madrid Ronald McDonald House which is in the Niño Jesús Children's University Hospital. The aim is to improve air quality by removing pollutants that are harmful to the health of the particularly vulnerable people who live in this house. In doing so, the idea is not only to ensure comfort and health, but also to create an atmosphere with fresh, clean air without any harmful particles.

The project, called “We Care about the Air you Breathe”, thereby aims to minimise users’ potential exposure to COVID-19 as much as possible using measures to improve and renew the air, as well as other complementary actions. All of these measures are to be applied to a 3,000 sqm building which provides free accommodation for families who have to travel from their usual place of residence in order for their child to receive medical treatment in the hospitals they have been referred to in the Spanish capital.

Fernando Prados, General Manager of Hospitals and Health Infrastructures in the Autonomous Community of Madrid, has visited the facilities, highlighting that “this project reinforces the treatment of the patients that use this space and it is absolutely essential to be aware of energy consumption and air purification. Having a space where families can live together while accompanying children in hospital and having the means to improve air safety are factors that definitely help to provide and improve quality during their stay here.”

The initiative centres on people’s health and comfort, energy efficiency and indoor air quality in a building. To this effect, it focuses on the indoor environmental quality of the House and will help to prevent the spread and infection of SARS-CoV-2, the well-known COVID-19.

In this sense, and in the context of the pandemic in which we find ourselves, the foundations, along with their technological partner Aire Limpio, have set up “We Care about the Air you Breathe” together. The technology involved in the project was chosen by the Spanish Centre for the Development of Industrial Technology (CDTI) in response to the call for “R&D and investment projects to address the health crisis declared due to the illness COVID-19”.

During its development, the project has considered the recommendations from international agencies and appropriate professional organisations with proven experience, such as the World Health Organisation (WHO) or the Spanish Federation of Indoor Air Quality Associations (FEDECAI).

Monitoring indoor air quality.

The new facilities include a monitoring system to identify the different variables in air quality and measure them continuously. These data are received in real time by the operators at Ronald McDonald House, who can take action to adjust the ventilation systems to what is needed at any given time.

The system, designed by Aire Limpio, will use sensors to carry out the monitoring of particles, volatile organic compounds, relative humidity and temperature. These sensors will significantly reduce the time necessary to detect contamination through an automatic process of sampling, monitoring and detection, as they are connected to the monitoring system and are responsive and alert if contamination is detected.

In 2013 the Elecnor Foundation and the Ronald McDonald Children’s Foundation signed a partnership agreement to introduce energy efficiency measures in the project to build the Madrid Ronald McDonald House.

About the Elecnor Foundation

Since its constitution in 2008, the Elecnor Foundation has strengthened its role as the main vehicle for Elecnor’s Corporate Responsibility. Its specific activities, from supplying power and water to isolated villages in America and Africa to supporting the progress of the Spanish education system, demonstrate the wish to serve society which was behind the creation of the foundation, focusing particularly on the most disadvantaged communities and young talent from Spanish universities and vocational training. For more information: ww.fundacionelecnor.com

More information:
Jorge Ballester
Head of Media Relations and Internal Communication
jballester@elecnor.com
Tel. 91 417 99 00

About the Ronald McDonald Children’s Foundation in Spain

The Ronald McDonald Children’s Foundation is part of an international organisation, Ronald McDonald House Charities®, that works on several programmes focusing on improving the health and comfort of sick children and their families. At present there are 384 Houses and 265 Ronald McDonald Family Rooms® in 62 countries around the world. Since its creation in Spain in 1997, the Foundation has led the way in creating programmes that provide comfort and support for families. The Foundation, through its four Ronald McDonald Houses in Spain, in Madrid, Barcelona, Málaga and Valencia, provides free accommodation to families that have to travel to other cities in order for their young children to receive medical treatment. Since 2002, it has welcomed more then 11,800 and assisted more than 25,500 people.

It also has three Family Rooms in Spain, in the Neonatology Service in the La Paz University Hospital in Madrid, the Vall d’Hebron Children’s Hospital in Barcelona and another one that has been inaugurated recently in the Virgen de la Arrixaca University Hospital in Murcia. Find out about our work at fundacionronald.org

More information
Rocío Balsón
Head of Communications and Marketing
rocio.balson@es.mcd.com / 686204403

About Aire Limpio

Aire Limpio is a group of companies that specialise in Indoor Environmental Quality with a particular focus on people’s health and comfort, energy efficiency and air quality in buildings. A pioneer in its sector in Spain, for two decades the group has managed the indoor air quality of more than 300 large office buildings, 140 hospitals, 300 isolated environments (ICU, isolation rooms, laboratories, etc.) which reduce the chance of infection, and over 340 schools. Since it was founded, it has supported the differentiating factors of investigation and innovation, investing more than EUR 4 million in different projects, such as the one underway in conjunction with the CIEMAT (Energy, Environment and Technology Research Centre) on using photocatalysis to fight SARS-COVID-19. Aire Limpio works with Ambisalud, a specialist in environmental quality consultancy for buildings and hospitals, and in February 2021, Aire Limpo acquired the company Commtech, which has enabled it to expand its activity to include commissioning, set-up and auditing of systems and installations in all kinds of buildings and settings.

More information :
Policarpo González del Valle
Managing Partner