SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS MODELS
Having been in the market for 17 years, Sambito has not only completed 2,250 environmental projects but also convinced companies across Ecuador that going green is a win-win proposition for everyone.
What are the challenges that companies face in terms of environmental compliance, and how can Sambito help them?
GUSTAVO MANRIQUE More and more people are realizing that being environmentally responsible is the correct decision, not only to save the planet, but because it makes economic sense. Studies from the top-10 auditing and consulting companies, such as PwC, Deloitte, and others, support this notion. In fact, 193 countries have aligned their agendas with the UN SDGs, including climate action, clean energy, access to water, and others. The common objective should be to move toward 2030 without increasing global temperatures by 2 degrees Celsius. Audit companies have determined that measuring carbon footprint can enable companies to lower costs related with greenhouse gases by 15-22%. This is how Sambito can help. We have been in the market for 17 years and during this time we have completed over 2,250 environmental projects. At present, we are helping 80 clients reduce their carbon footprint. We use our Integral System for CO2 Management (SIM CO2) to measure a company’s carbon footprint per employee. We have managed to reduce a company’s yearly costs by up to USD350,000 in some cases. Notably, 85% of consumers look for an environmentally responsibility attribute when they make purchases. Similarly, 40% of job seekers will choose to work at an environmentally responsible company in the near future. Sambito helps address all these issues from a holistic perspective for companies that want to make a difference not only in terms of environmental protection, but also in terms of making operations efficient.
To what degree are Ecuadorian companies becoming more interested in adding environmental values to their brands?
JOSÉ JAVIER GUARDERAS Without a doubt, we have witnessed a host of changes in the last 20 years. Before, businesspeople saw environmental issues as an expense, whereas today, thanks to the evolution of scarcity of non-renewable resources, praising certain environmental values can make the company more profitable. Measuring the carbon footprint of a development can help figure out one’s CO2 emissions. This methodology can help reduce CO2 emissions and, as a result, save thousands of dollars. We have developed a product named ‘sin CO2’ (without CO2), a calculator that estimates CO2 emissions of every single business. This is a process of sustainability that helps a company become more efficient, and this not only helps the company save money, but also creates a sense of community and stronger ties between employees. It is an initiative that goes further than the existing regulation in Ecuador. This product is related to the daily operation of a business. This methodology measures the consumption of fuel, electricity, air travel, and waste and calculates the size of CO2 emissions. Every business creates this environmental impact. A bank, for example, also generates CO2 emissions through its daily operations. This has been a good product for the environment and for the pockets of the companies that have implemented it, because those companies have seen a 15% reduction in CO2 emissions, as demonstrated in a PwC audit.
How do you work to bring about an industry-specific approach, so that the solutions you provide can adapt to different situations?
GM Sambito has created an ecosystem of seven companies. Our mission is to save the planet. We need to take the stigma away from environmental activists. We need to see them as entrepreneurs. We have products ranging from USD500 to USD1 million with four lines of action. Ecosambito is in charge of doing environmental consulting, related to what is required by the environmental authorities. For example, we do the environmental permits, audit plans, and monitoring plans. Sambito works more with annual sustainability plans, carbon footprint, and water-use footprint, which would be considered as voluntary actions. In this field, we oversee all green areas in the city of Guayaquil, having created even education plans. Notably, we received a Guinness record for plastic bottle recycling. Our flagship project with the Municipality of Guayaquil is the Puná project to make this place more sustainable. We are working on sewage systems, solar panels, and electric mobility, including an electric bike project. The group also includes Oletnat, which is the first third party run sewage water treatment plant in Ecuador. We go to industries and factories, and we remove the water that they are not capable of treating. We take it to our mega plant to treat it and then discharge it in line with the regulations. We have treated
over 120,000cbm since we started about two years ago, which is equivalent to 6 million water bottles. We also have a service that recycles tires. We also sell German-made mini refinery that cleans and purifies diesel in order to reduce CO2 emissions. The company also runs the Latinoamérica Verde foundation, which awards the 500 best environmental projects in Latin America. More than 10,000 projects have applied for this over the last six editions.
Seginus is the first collective system for recycling of tires. How was this initiative conceived, and how can it be applied to other sectors?
JJG Seginus is one of the projects that makes us the proudest. When we talk about circular economy, which should be a priority, recycling plays a major role. After passing a law on PET bottles, Ecuador has become the country with the highest rate of PET bottles recycled per capita. The government has imposed a tax on every bottle that does not get recycled. This gives value to waste and makes us understand that garbage has a design problem. We need to design products that can re-enter the economy after they get used. Ecuador is one of the few countries in Latin America that has a waste management public policy, which makes companies responsible for the waste that their products generate. For example, for the tire industry, a regulation was established to ensure that 45% of the tires being imported into Ecuador get recycled and transformed into products such as shoe soles and basketball courts, among others. The regulation says this recycling has to result into positive products. In case companies fail to meet these targets, the government can shut down their business. As a result, companies like Continental and Firestone, among others, have approached us and asked to find a solution to meet the regulation and provide positive results. We looked at Spain for this, where companies use Signus, which stands for Sistema Integrado de Gestión de Neumáticos Usados. We travelled to
Spain to learn everything about the model and how to trace the recycling process. We eventually localized it in Ecuador. Now, we are implementing a similar process for used lubricants. As of today, 45% of all the car tires get recycled. Ecuador imports around 6 million tires per year, and we recycle about 2 million of them. This process has generated more than 500 jobs and more than USD5 million in investments. We have also improved people’s health conditions, because the tires lead to certain diseases transmitted by mosquitos. This circular economy concept has created an industry in an area where a business did not exist in the past. We have decided to diversify these services and we have a project with Holcim, among other clients. Our software is capable of tracing the entire process, starting from when the tire gets imported until it gets sold, and when it gets recycled. These processes of circular economy have a positive future in Ecuador, and also in other countries across Latin America and the rest of the world. ✖