Sanitation and environment

Photo: Márcia Costa, VP of people management at Aegea: “We seek results for the communities where we operate” (Leandro Fonseca/Exame)

Aegea, Ambipar and BRK are highlights in the Sanitation and Environment category in the Best of ESG 2023.

Aegea is responsible for ensuring water and sewage services for 30 million people in 489 municipalities, considering the recent concessions won in the city of Crato and in the metropolitan region of Fortaleza, Ceará, and the acquisition of Companhia Riograndense de Saneamento (Corsan ), which serves more than 300 municipalities in Rio Grande do Sul. The company’s net operating revenue, last year, reached 3.7 billion reais, a growth of 25% compared to the previous year. Ebitda (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) reached 2.5 billion reais, up 37% on the same basis of comparison.

This result was obtained from a performance fully aligned with the precepts of the ESG. “A concession contract lasts for 30 years. It is not possible to enter this market without looking at sustainability”, says Radamés Casseb, CEO of Aegea. “For us, ESG indicators are efficiency markers.” Efficiency that can be measured in numbers. In 2022, the company saved 20 billion liters of water with investments in the operation.

Efficiency, however, is not just financial. “We seek results for the community”, says Márcia Costa, vice president of people management at Aegea, who recently took charge of the sustainability area. In 2022, 4,000 teachers and 72,000 students participated in the company’s educational programs; more than 500,000 families benefited from the Social Tariff, which grants discounts for the low-income population; and 36 million reais were invested in social responsibility programs.

These are results that add to the social impacts promoted by Aegea’s own business, sanitation, a fundamental right, but which is not guaranteed to all Brazilians. Only three Brazilian capitals have 100% of the population served by water supply — Porto Alegre, Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. There are cases, such as Porto Velho, in which the percentage does not reach 30%. In general, the service reaches 93.5% of the population. When it comes to exhaustion, the scenario is worse: only 64% of Brazilians have the right.

Ending this inequality is the main objective of Aegea, which has established the goal of, by 2033, providing drinking and safe water to 99% of the people who live in the company’s concession areas, and sewage collection for 90%. Last year, the company treated 527 billion liters of sewage, a 131% increase over the previous year. “Water is at the base of the limit of dignity; access to it is essential to maintain the social fabric,” says Casseb.

Ambipar

Ambipar, a company that operates in the waste recovery sector, has seen considerable growth since its IPO (initial public offering) in 2020. That’s what Rafael Tello, the group’s sustainability director, explains. “Our strategy is to work on Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) 12 (responsible consumption and production) and 13 (action against global climate change), with the aim of leading the transition to a low-carbon circular economy”, he explains. Tello. The company, which today operates with natural gas, has the ambition to transition its production to biomethane. “Biomethane makes it possible to significantly reduce and offset our emissions”, says Tello.

Thinking about practices aligned with ESG, Ambipar has a biocapsule production project. According to the company, this front has already launched more than 1.2 million sustainable biocapsules into the ground, capable of transforming waste into trees —the initiative has earned around ten awards in Brazil and abroad. Last year, the company also started a partnership of technical cooperation in research with Universidade Presbiteriana Mackenzie and Fiap. On the waste front, Ambipar had a 60% increase in the compensation of valued waste for customers, with a total of 1,650,025.59 tons. When asked about the future of the sector, Tello is categorical: “ESG is the core of Brazilian development”.

BRK

Created in 2008, BRK, a company in the sanitation sector, provides water and sewage services through concessions, partnerships, among others. According to Carlos Almiro de Magalhães Melo, the company’s ESG and risk management director and president of the BRK Institute, the company has a strategic plan when it comes to applying environmental, social and governance parameters. “We have an advisory body, the sustainability committee, in which we formally bring the representation, opinion and course corrections of the top leadership with the participation of presidents and representatives, including shareholders”, says Melo. Among the ESG initiatives that have stood out in recent years at the company, the director highlights the review of the decarbonization plan — with concern about the process of certification of targets, taking into account the indications of the Securities and Exchange Commission (CVM). In addition to the creation of the BRK Institute which, according to Melo, becomes the absolute leader in the company’s social investment. “This is the structure, the thinking head of social investment focused on the positive impact of BRK”, he says. For him, an achievement that demonstrates materiality on the part of the company is the score of 12.7 in the ranking of Sustainalytics, by Morning Star, which places the company’s risk as “low” when considering ESG practices — this being the best score of a company in the sanitation sector in Brazil and the Americas.

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