Reducing carbon footprint becomes strategic

By: Marinete Veloso.

Including in their strategic plans projects capable of reducing or offsetting carbon emissions in the atmosphere has become a market requirement for organizations, with no way back.

"More and more financial institutions and investment funds are charging good sustainability practices to finance enterprises and companies," says Maurício Bähr, CEO of Engie Brasil.

CDP's vocation, for example, as an international NGO formed by a group of investors, is to organize and manage an environmental database collected from companies, the purpose of which is to guide investment decision-making. "Today there are 525 signatory investors, with US$ 96 trillion in assets under management and a research portfolio of eight thousand organizations worldwide. According to Lauro Marins, CDP's executive director for Latin America. According to him, another vector that reveals the importance of the subject are the carbon indexes already incorporated to the Stock Exchanges. "Companies that have good environmental performance drill better in the Stock Exchange", he says.

For Professor Leonardo Marques, of Coppead-UFRJ, Brazil has made great strides in the last ten years, but the initiatives are still in the voluntary sphere, due to market pressure, differently from what happens in some neighboring countries, such as Argentina, Chile, Colombia and Mexico, which already operate with pricing. "In Argentina, all fuel sold carries an extra tax. The higher the carbon intensity, the higher the rates".

Companies with sustainable projects heard by Valor are unanimous in recognizing the urgency of this agenda. Votorantim acts on several fronts and the main one is to replace petroleum coke, the main component in the manufacture of cement, with alternative fuels such as açaí, babaçu and urban waste. Thus, in the 11 countries where it operates, it managed to reduce 18.6% of CO2 per ton of cement produced, from 1990 to 2018, as Fábio Cirilo, the company's eco-efficiency consultant, informs.

Sunew has invested more than R$ 100 million in the last 10 years to offer the market the OPV photovoltaic film, an organic solar panel whose characteristic is the low energy demand. "We have the lowest carbon footprint, 10 to 20 times lower than traditional solar technologies," says Tiago Alves, CEO. According to him, due to its production capacity of 600,000 m2 per year, the company holds more than 80% of market share in the world.

Maurício Sala, executive at Crowe, which operates in the energy industry, said the company allocated US$500,000 in research this year to launch, in the second half, solutions that enable organizations to reduce Greenhouse Gases (GHGs).

Vestas, a wind turbine producer, aims to reduce the company's carbon footprint by 55% by 2025 and that of its suppliers by 45% by 2030, according to Rogério Zampronha, the company's president.

Consulting companies also register greater demand in the environmental area, Roberto Gonzalez, iBlue Zone consultant, highlights that environmental concerns have already reached ordinary citizens. He cites the example of truck drivers who are installing solar panels in their vehicles; this increases battery life and can use the air conditioner for longer without having to start the vehicle.

Solutions for integration of sustainability in corporations were responsible for increasing Way Carbon's revenues by 70% in the last three years, according to its business director Felipe Bittencourt.

Source: Valor Econômico