AR Racking, finalist at the CEL Awards in Sustainable Logistics 2025

• The «100% human automation» project places people centre stage.
• AR Racking’s plant combines advanced automation, renewable energy and low carbon mobility.

The 35th edition of the CEL Awards for Logistics Excellence was held yesterday, 15 December, in Madrid with AR Racking among the finalists in the Sustainable Logistics category. Although the company did not win the top prize, it did receive an award as a finalist project in this category, which recognises organisations that promote environmental commitment initiatives through improvements in equipment, facilities or environmental responsibility policies. AR Racking presented the «100% human automation: AR Racking’s factory» project, focused on its Tudela plant (Navarra).

The initiative describes a highly automated factory in which technology serves both people and the planet. Robots and digital systems carry out the most repetitive and physically demanding tasks, while human resources are focused on advanced operation, programming and continuous improvement of processes. The result is more stable production, with less energy consumption per component, less material waste and a direct reduction in emissions associated with the industrial process.

«Being finalists at the CEL Awards in Sustainable Logistics is recognition of a specific way of understanding automation», said José Antonio Gómez, AR Racking’s Sales Director for Southern Europe, who collected the award on behalf of the company. «We don’t automate to follow a trend, but rather to make every shift safer, every part more efficient and every decision more environmentally responsible».

The Tudela factory integrates rooftop photovoltaic self-consumption and electricity from 100% renewable sources, with an energy monitoring system that makes it possible to monitor the use of resources in almost real time and steer efficiency actions. This is in addition to circular economy measures —reduction of waste, recovery of waste and progressive use of steel with a reduced footprint— and an increasingly decarbonised logistics process, supported by the combination of electric trucks for proximity routes and intermodality (train and ship) for long distances.

Another key aspect of the project is impact on people. Automation has made it possible to remove workers from higher-risk tasks, improve ergonomics and stabilise working patterns, reducing accidents and facilitating more sustainable shifts over time.

As a finalist at the CEL Awards in Sustainable Logistics, AR Racking consolidates a roadmap that connects automation, reliable data and responsible decisions. The company proposes the Tudela model as a scalable and measurable solution, capable of replication in other industrial environments that seek to reduce their environmental footprint without sacrificing competitiveness or the well-being of people.