Revista LIDE - 12/28/2022
By Equipe de Redação
Posted in January 11, 2023
CEO of Ambipar Environment shows that the company forms an arsenal in defense of the environment.
Graduated in economics, the current CEO of Ambipar Environment, Cristina Andriotti, has been working for the company for over 12 years. The executive started at the company in one of the divisions of the Environment segment as Director of Operations. With the acquisition of Response shares, in 2018, she was promoted to Operational Vice President and in 2020 assumed the presidency of Ambipar. Cristina leads the first Brazilian multinational in the field of environmental management to be listed on the Brazilian stock exchange. Since its IPO, in July 2020, Ambipar has already acquired eight new businesses in Brazil and around the world. It has more than 20 acquisitions in its history, serves 16 countries on five continents and leads a team of more than five thousand employees.
With an administrative office in São Paulo and headquarters in Nova Odessa, in the interior of the state, Ambipar is present in South America, Europe, Africa, North America and Antarctica. Formed by Ambipar Environment and Ambipar Response, two reference segments in the environmental management market, it has a commitment to sustainable issues in its DNA, working on the ESG pillars within its business.
In this interview, Cristina Andriotti details the potential of each company’s operation and the trends for the company’s expansion. “At Environment, we will continue to focus on Brazil and Latam and we want to increase market share in these locations. We understand that we still have many opportunities, including expanding our participation in the country”, highlights the CEO.
LIDE Magazine: Ambipar operates in two verticals: Environment and Response. What are the specific characteristics of each operation?
CRISTINA ANDRIOTTI: Environment focuses on the entire waste chain. It is a platform for environmental services, including waste management and recovery, from the moment of generation within the industry to the circular economy process. This work is divided into two parts: the post-consumer, which is the packaging we use at home and which are captured and reinserted, and the post-industrial, since within the industry there are also many recyclables that we can work with, even this one has more value because it is a clean recyclable material, being much easier to reclassify it.
Following this Ambipar Environment platform, we have all the ESG and Compliance aspects, support for the environmental areas of the industry and the entire process of environmental legislation, its consequences and developments, such as audits related to this topic. We support clients in inserting the ESG agenda. Response, our emergency response services platform, represents the training and outsourcing services that remain at the customer’s industrial plant, focused on fire brigades. We serve all modes, road, rail, sea and air, services that we have already replicated from Brazil to all of Latin America, North America (USA and Canada) and now we are in the United Kingdom and have advanced bases in the Port of Rotterdam , in the Netherlands, and outposts in Africa, Asia and Oceania.
And how do you manage to serve the world with its particularities?
The polluting chemical product and the petrochemical are the great demands of Response. The handling of these materials complies with UN criteria in all parts of the world. When we entered some countries, mainly the United States, for example, we realized that companies served regionally and focused on a single mode, so they were unable to grow. Ambipar’s idea when it takes over companies abroad is to train and qualify these companies, observing the needs of other modes. We focus a lot on training, our biggest training camp is here in Brazil, in Nova Odessa, in the interior of São Paulo. We have other camps in Peru and Chile and, in October, we took over the largest training camp in the world located in Pueblo, in the US state of Colorado. We are very strong in training and outsourcing, especially in the United States due to the high demand for calls for the local industry.
Decarbonization is one of the most debated topics today. In what context does Ambipar operate in this operation among its target audience?
This operation is also divided into two segments. Ambify is Ambipar’s platform that connects individuals to the transformation process towards a greener, low-carbon economy. With the possibility for everyone to reduce their emissions. Every process is certified and audited with international recognition. In addition, in all compensation through the Ambify platform, a percentage of the amount is directed to partner social projects. On the other hand, we have projects for industry that seeks to mitigate or neutralize its emissions, through denser forest projects in the Amazon region, among others.
Con varias adquisiciones, la empresa se encuentra en plena expansión internacional. ¿En qué mercados tiende a crecer más y en qué países la compañía está considerando invertir sus esfuerzos?
Miramos mucho a Chile, un país donde hicimos una adquisición reciente y tenemos importantes perspectivas de crecimiento para replicar muchas de las tecnologías que tenemos aquí en Brasil, especialmente en lo que respecta a la economía circular. Estamos iniciando una gran obra que debe estar lista pronto, denominada Proyecto GIRI, una planta industrial de clasificación, pretratamiento y preparación para el reciclaje y valorización de residuos con una capacidad de 60 mil toneladas al año. Por lo tanto, vamos a replicar la plataforma de economía circular para Chile, comenzando con Santiago, con dos puntos de transbordo más, luego también deberíamos replicarla para Perú y Paraguay.
¿Cuáles son las perspectivas de crecimiento de las operaciones de la empresa en los próximos años?
En Medio Ambiente, continuaremos enfocándonos en Brasil y Latam y queremos aumentar nuestra participación de mercado en estos lugares. Entendemos que todavía tenemos muchas oportunidades, incluida la expansión de nuestra penetración en el país. Brasil está muy avanzado en términos de medio ambiente y economía circular. Tenemos nuestra Política de Residuos Sólidos, obligatoria para que las empresas devuelvan sus envases a la cadena, entonces tenemos una gran oportunidad en el país y, si se dan adquisiciones, debemos avanzar en la región. En Ambipar Response somos la empresa más relevante del continente, si tenemos la oportunidad, nuestro foco para el próximo año será Estados Unidos y Canadá.
In this scenario, what is the importance and role of Ambipar Certification?
Many companies wanted to demonstrate compliance with all ESG requirements. For this, Ambipar Certification is an independent operation specialized in certification services. The new company carries out assessment activities in different types of schemes for products, services and processes, in order to verify compliance and compliance with legal standards and requirements. Accredited as a Certification Body (OCP) by the National Institute of Metrology (INMETRO), Ambipar Certification will grant the Green Seal. This seal certifies that the company has complied with the legislation, including the requirements of the National Policy on Solid Waste (PNRS) and that it may have waste recovery and circular economy practices. In this way, the Green Seal adds more value to the business and helps organizations achieve regularity and excellence in their management. The certification qualifies the companies audited for Zero Landfill and Circular Economy practices, confirming their excellence and commitment to the environment and sustainability.
What is the profile of companies seeking Ambipar’s services?
Some segments and large companies are already quite engaged in the theme of sustainability, global warming, circular economy. However, we have the group of small and medium-sized companies that want to take the first step, but don’t know how. Many of them are concerned about the cost, so we have to dedicate ourselves to guidance, showing that it is possible to start work with simple actions and observe environmental and governance issues on a daily basis.
What are your main achievements over the last two years at the helm of the company?
I want to make it clear that the achievements are collective, we have an important team involved and we always work cooperatively with all areas. The great achievement of the last two years at Environment was being able to see the synergy between all our services. At Response, the best strategy was to multiply and transfer knowledge and technology to the rest of the world. We are already seeing that this has worked because of the size of the billing that comes from abroad. We will keep this path in the future.
Social
Ambipar announced the acquisition of share control of ViraSer Negócios de Impacto, through its direct subsidiary, Environmental ESG Participações. From now on, as part of Ambipar, ViraSer gains more power and scale, accelerating its expansion planning and contributing to the Era of the R’s: Rethink, Reduce, Reuse, Repair, Recondition, Remanufacture, Reuse, Recycle, Recover, Regenerate, Reframe, Replan, Reengage and so many others. The objective is to encourage Social Entrepreneurship, increase the positive impact and consolidate the environmental sustainability of small and medium-sized municipalities in the recycling chain, expanding reverse logistics systems for post-consumer packaging to the five Brazilian regions. The expansion plan for the coming years foresees the creation of at least 150 Social Franchise units in different regions of the country.
