Barcelona, Spain
- New hub is UPS’s first facility in Europe certified to meet LEED energy efficiency standards.
- Built by CILSA – ZAL Port of Barcelona, this facility expands capacity and will offer businesses in Barcelona more efficient connections to their customers across Europe.
With economies, families and communities being impacted by the pandemic and ongoing challenges such as climate change, we are committed to being a force for positive change and to supporting businesses and local communities. As a part of our commitment, UPS is opening a new hub in Barcelona that has been designed to rigorous global certification standards for energy performance. When the facility opens by the end of this year, it will allow us to better serve our customers while underscoring our commitment to reducing the environmental impact of our services.
CILSA - ZAL Port of Barcelona and UPS worked in collaboration to equip the building with LED lighting, energy-efficient insulation and advanced package sorting technology that reduce energy consumption, and photovoltaic panels installed on the roof will reduce the amount of electricity drawn from the grid.
“At €40 million, this new Barcelona hub is one of UPS’s largest ever investments in Spain and will support an important junction in our cross-border European network,” said Elisabeth Rodriguez, country manager, UPS Spain and Portugal. “Trade with the European Union accounts for 67 percent of Spain’s exports[1] and the hub’s strategic location at the Port of Barcelona, near El Prat airport and the French border, will encourage local businesses seeking to expand their customer base that selling across borders can be as straightforward as shipping at home.”
The building will open in time for this year’s holiday peak shipping season, which will help businesses in Barcelona connect more efficiently with their customers in Europe.
Our Barcelona hub now joins 18 other certified UPS facilities worldwide. The new hub covers an area of more than 24,000m² and has a sorting capacity of up to 22,000 packages per hour—more than 2.5 times the capacity of the current facility in Barcelona it will replace. Built by CILSA – ZAL Port, Port of Barcelona and Merlin Properties, the facility is part of a series of construction projects that real estate firm CILSA is developing in a new 270,000m² logistics park in ZAL Port of Barcelona, along with more than 920,000m² of logistics warehouses in the prime Barcelona Logistics Area.
“With the addition of UPS to our portfolio, ZAL Port will become the most important logistics development in Southern Europe, bringing together all the world leaders of the logistics sector, with multiple developments of local, regional and international hubs completing the value chain of logistics”, said Alfonso Martínez, CEO of ZAL Port.
For more information about UPS’s logistics services and sustainable delivery solutions, visit ups.com.
About UPS
UPS (NYSE: UPS) is a global leader in logistics, offering a broad range of solutions including transporting packages and freight; facilitating international trade, and deploying advanced technology to more efficiently manage the world of business. UPS is committed to operating more sustainably – for customers, the environment and the communities we serve around the world. Headquartered in Atlanta, UPS serves more than 220 countries and territories worldwide. UPS was awarded America’s Best Customer Service company for Shipping and Delivery services by Newsweek magazine; Fortune magazine’s Most Valuable Brand in Transportation; and top rankings on the JUST 100 list for social responsibility, the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index, and the Harris Poll Reputation Quotient, among other prestigious rankings and awards. The company can be found on the web at ups.com or pressroom.ups.com and its corporate blog can be found at longitudes.ups.com. The company’s sustainability eNewsletter, UPS Horizons, can be found at ups.com/sustainabilitynewsletter. Learn more about our sustainability efforts at ups.com/sustainability. To get UPS news direct, follow @UPS_News on Twitter.
About CILSA- ZAL Port
CILSA (Centro Intermodal de Logística, S.A., S.M.E.) is the company that manages the port concession of the Logistics Activities Zone (ZAL Port) of the Port of Barcelona.
CILSA manages 239 hectares located in the municipalities of Barcelona (69 ha), Prat del Llobregat (143 ha) and in the CZFB (27 ha), and directly manages a total of 601,614 m² of gross leasable area in the ZAL Port (GLA). Likewise, CILSA has granted a surface right to clients who have built some 183,252 m² of warehouses, configuring a logistics park of 784,866 m², a pioneer in Spain. ZAL Port is currently building (WIP) 135,058 m² of new logistics warehouses through 4 new contracts already signed, which intends to certify them with LEED Gold, which will configure a total Logistics Park of 920,000 m² of first-rate logistics infrastructures when these new developments are fully completed.
CILSA has led the development, promotion and commercialization of this area since its foundation in 1992 and has been a pioneer in social and environmental action. A benchmark in good practices, it has implemented the ISO14001 environmental management system in order to commit to respectful and efficient growth and also has the European EMAS distinction. In this sense, it has recently been certified in the ISO 50001 energy management system until joining the United Nations Pact in February 2018. All this, together with its size, logistics offer and flexibility, make it the benchmark logistics platform in the sector.