Atlas Renewable Energy continues to tackle gender inclusion in the renewable energy sector

• To mark International Women’s Day, Atlas Renewable Energy announces that in just four years the company has increased its corporate female representation from 11% to 40%, thanks to innovative recruiting processes and inclusive culture. Committed to a more gender diverse approach, the company is looking ahead and setting a comprehensible pathway to promote women within its offices.

• Atlas has also extended its diversity and inclusion vision to the communities where it operates. Today, the company reveals the early results of its most ambitious social program to date, called “We are all part of the same energy” that addresses gender inequalities within the energy sector. 700 women are being trained in technical skills, across all the locations where Atlas is building new projects.

• As part of the same program, the company has also mobilized its contractors to prioritize women in their hiring processes within the construction of Atlas’ solar projects – early results show an increase of female representation from a traditional 2% to 15% of the total workforce in these projects.

• Renewable energy remains overly male-represented as an industry and we must do better, urges CEO on International Women’s Day.

Although progress has been made at improving gender balance in the energy sector, there is still a long way to go, according to Atlas Renewable Energy which develops, builds and operates renewable energy projects across the Americas. A study conducted by the International Renewable Energy Agency highlighted this issue in 2019, when it found that women still only represent 32% of full-time employees in the industry.

Today, Atlas has made public its achievements so far tackling gender imbalance. As of March 2021, 40% of the company’s employees at the corporate level are women, an increase from just 11% when the company was founded in 2017. Reasons for this success include innovative recruiting practices to avoid biases, a strong commitment to an inclusive culture, and designing employee benefits that go above and beyond local regulations to ensure that family responsibilities do not represent a structural barrier to employees.

Atlas is now enhancing their female employees’ careers by developing leadership skills in women inside the company. To do this, the company is putting in place a talent and mentoring program for them to support women personal and professional growth.

“Creating an inclusive and diversified culture that embraces richness and diversity of opinions and experience is extremely valuable. We believe it can take us further as a company and as individuals,” said Marcela Pizzi Head of People at Atlas Renewable Energy. “There are many social issues still to be addressed, but the fact that women are still underrepresented in the energy sector needs to be tackled urgently. That’s why we’ve been focusing on creating safe, nurturing environments for women to grow professionally. The aim is for this growth to be balanced with their family life.”

Increasing female representation across the broader renewable energy industry

Following the company’s commitment for a more inclusive approach to business, Atlas has expanded its vision to the communities across all its projects under construction and it has launched a program called “We are all part of the same energy”.

This is an initiative created to promote the local female workforce within these communities and offer them training and technical skills development. The main goal of the program is to give these women better access to more technical jobs within Atlas’ solar plants construction sites or other projects developed in their local area.

At the same time, Atlas has mobilized its local contractors to prioritize women in the hiring process of the projects it develops. The company has set an initial target of 10-15% of the total workforce to be women at each construction site. This compares to an average level of only about 2%.

To mark International Women’s Day, under the motto ‘powering a more inclusive energy,’ Atlas has made public the first results of the “We are all part of the same energy” program. So far, it has focused on communities where the company has solar projects under construction in Brazil, Chile, and Mexico.

To date, Atlas has already sponsored the training of almost 600 women out of a targeted 700. The training programs are developed based on the needs and capabilities required at the solar construction sites under construction, including civil works, carpentry, module mounting, and electricity.

As of today, the Sol del Desierto solar plant under construction in Chile has hired 95 women, which represents 14% of the total workforce. Meanwhile, the Jacaranda solar plant in Brazil has hired 56 women, which represents 15% of the total workforce.

In both cases, forecasts for the number of female employees are expected to rise as construction activities reach their peak in the next three months. In addition to Brazil and Chile, almost 300 women have been trained at Atlas’ site under development in Mexico, while the training program will be extended to Minas Gerais in Brazil shortly, where the company is developing the Casablanca solar plant. 

“’We are all part of the same energy’ is our way of materializing our company’s diversity and its inclusive vision, not only from a corporate standpoint but from the roots of the communities where we are building our solar plants,” said María José Córtes, Head of ESG at Atlas Renewable Energy “By addressing female representation and creating the space to train and hire more women from local communities, we are not only promoting equal opportunities for men and women, but gene
rating profound change in the Latin American renewable energy sector. We hope this program inspires other companies in our industry and becomes a vehicle to transform society”.

“We are very proud of the work we’ve done and the commitment our team has taken to promote a real change in every aspect of our business,” said Carlos Barreras CEO of Atlas Renewable Energy. “It is imperative that companies worldwide see themselves as a force to challenge the status quo and shift paradigms, no matter how big or small they are. This will not only speak louder of the company’s culture, but it actually helps us build the world we want to live in.”

Carlos also mentioned that “there is still much to do in terms of gender diversity in our industry. Renewables are going to be one of the most important growth industries of the next decade, but it’s still largely represented by men. Collectively, we must do better. This will remain a big focus for us as we set ourselves to provide a more sustainably and responsibly sourced clean energy across the Americas.”

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About Atlas Renewable Energy

Atlas Renewable Energy is a renewable energy generation company that develops, builds, and operates renewable enerzgy projects with long-term contracts across the Americas. The current company portfolio is 2.2GW of contracted projects in development, construction, or operational stages, and aims to expand by an additional 4GW in the next years.

Launched in early 2017, Atlas Renewable Energy includes an experienced team with the longest track record in the solar energy industry in Latin America. The company is recognized for its high standards in the development, construction, and operation of large-scale projects.

Atlas Renewable Energy is part of the Energy Fund IV, founded by Actis, a leading private equity investor in the energy sector. Atlas Renewable Energy’s growth is focused on the leading emerging markets and economies, using its proven development, commercialization, and structuring know-how to accelerate the transformation toward clean energy. By actively engaging with the community and stakeholders at the center of its project strategy, the company works every day to provide a cleaner future.

To know more about Atlas Renewable Energy, visit: www.atlasrenewableenergy.com