Specific accomplishments include the development of the Environmental Health Programme, a manual which has been established as the protocol for diagnosis of the main environmental risk factors underlying regional morbidity-mortality rates with a view to improving them and preventing new illnesses. The programme was published as a book (Guide to drafting primary care environmental health programmes), first by the Spanish Ministry of Health and Consumer Affairs and later by the World Health Organisation (WHO), as part of the environmental health care framework programme for primary care teams in Navarra.

 
When Elorrieta was Head of Navarra's Public Health Institute, he transformed the institution into the primary centre for liaison in Spain with the WHO's European Regional office. As a result, in addition to launching a number of very advanced environmental health programmes (hydatidosis, critical points, chemical safety, etc.) and collaborating closely as a temporary advisor to the WHO on numerous occasions, he organised an International Master's Degree in Environmental Health, under the auspices of the Navarra government and the WHO, which was particularly successful in Latin America.

The award was presented at a dinner held on Thursday, 29 October, in La Coruña on the occasion of the 10th Spanish and Iberoamerican Environmental Health Conference.

Elorrieta holds a PhD in biology from the Complutense University in Madrid, having majored at post-graduate level in bioelectromagnetism, biomedical engineering and environmental taxation. Before joining the Cementos Portland Valderrivas group, he held a number of positions in the public administration: Spain's central government (Ministries of Health and Consumer Affairs, Environment and Education & Science), and the Navarra regional government (Departments of Health and Social Welfare, Environment, Territorial Planning and Housing), among others. He is also a former Executive Director of Sustainability at the Institute for Resources Sustainability. 

Regarding his international experience, Elorrieta has headed Spanish delegations at conferences of the Parties to the Stockholm Convention and the Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management (SAICAM) under the auspices of the UN and the OECD. He has advised the World Health Organisation as part of international panels of experts on the environment, health and urban ecology, and also the European Commission and the European Environment Council.

He has published 17 books on science, and over 180 articles; he was awarded the Civil Order of Health for his teaching work.

With the appointment of José Ignacio Elorrieta as Director General of Environment and Sustainability, Cementos Portland Valderrivas evidences its strong commitment to aligning group strategy with the most advanced policies in the area of sustainability, health, and the fight against climate change, setting specific objectives such as minimising greenhouse gas emissions from all its plants.

The first challenge which José Ignacio Elorrieta addressed at Cementos Portland Valderrivas was to reduce annual CO2 emissions by the group's plants by 300,000 tonnes/year.