Santiago Cadena, General Manager, GRUENtec

To meet the market’s rigorously high expectations, GRUENtec is investing to meet future demand in infrastructure, personnel, and technology.

• Interview

How are GRUENtec’s services addressed at helping companies meet increasingly higher environmental standards?

All of our clients seek to meet environmental regulations and prove to the regulatory bodies that they are doing things right. Our main goal is to help them achieve that. We also want to ensure we provide high-quality services at a technical level and therefore have the ISO 17025 certification, in addition the ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 from Bureau Veritas. GRUENtec is an Ecuadorian company, though its founders are German. That German DNA makes us make different from other laboratories, especially given our advanced technological equipment and wonderful professional team of over 100 people. We have state-of-the-art laboratories, and many of our processes are automatized, making us one of the few if not only laboratory with such automatization in Ecuador; we can be easily compared with high performance laboratories around the world. GRUENtec has the only environmental and commercial lab with certain special equipment in Ecuador, and in addition to our headquarters in Quito, we own a network of three more labs in local areas. Ecuador is a small yet diverse country, which is why we need the capacity to quickly adapt to the needs of different industries. On top of that, we work to promote the benefits of being a green company. There are not many companies in Ecuador that value the benefits that being green can bring to them. For example, a metallic mining company does not need to evaluate the impact that plastics residues can generate, although monitoring that could generate a huge benefit for the entire society. We must remember that all of us live in the same environment, and our actions affect everyone in some way.

How are you adapting to the new demands posed by the booming mining sector in Ecuador?

GRUENtec has commercially high expectations because mining is one of the industries that requires many resources. The company is currently investing to meet future demand in three strategic fields: infrastructure, personnel, and technology. The expectations are extremely high. However, there has been a great deal of political instability in the country in recent years, which has concerned foreign investors. Nevertheless, we like working hand in hand with our clients and growing alongside them. As the sector consolidates, we are seeking to implement feedback from our clients to learn and promote best practices in the sector, which includes the social and economic aspect of their activity. The indigenous and general local communities will see changes in their environment, which is a challenge. That said, mining is extremely crucial to the country’s development.

Laboratories in Quito, El Coca, Yantzaza, and Guayaquil

ISO 17025, ISO 9001, and ISO 14001-certified

What would be your assessment of the different services provided as a chemistry laboratory?

We are the most comprehensive lab in the market, conducting analysis in water, soil, waste, noise, air quality, gas emissions, solids, liquids, vibrations, and all different kinds of environmental samples. We are not just specialized in one area, either, and have many different chemical parameters that are certified. The company has 23 years of experience and a great responsibility in terms of innovation. We train our staff and provide them with different materials to become innovative. Of our more than 100 employees, nearly the 30% of them work on new ideas. We have a program to develop these, make them real, and enable collaboration and cooperation across the company. We are focused on services for the mining industry and permanently invest in personnel, communications, infrastructure, technology, and other areas, planning CAPEX investments to cover the needs of the industry. ✖

Santiago Cadena GENERAL MANAGER, GRUENTEC