Innovation

We interviewed Alberto Buy who is the owner and founder of ASSPA and the most qualified person working there, as well thanks to the 20 years of experience he has in environmental consulting. Alberto is in charge of developing several projects and supervising all of the company's activities in the engineering sector but also of developing protocols, procedures and records in the administrative sector as well. Today, the company is positioned as one of Mexico's leading companies in environmental certification services.

ASSPA is a company that works towards the environment. They offer a variety of sustainability projects for bigger companies who want to reduce their carbon footprint. Likewise, they offer the analysis of several types of consumption that businesses usually have, for example water consumption. For the industrial sector, there are many innovation projects available for implementation.

Some other examples of the services that they can provide to companies are the ISO-14001 and ISO-45001 certifications, consulting on compliance with the standards of identities such as SEMARNAT or PROFEPA, advising industrial plants, research laboratories and connections with third-party service providers that the company may need.

Inspiration

ASSPA's focused efforts to analyze the various situations at companies, but also give advisory, develop and implement sustainable projects in the industrial sector has a great impact on sustainable development. Currently, we need industries and factories not only in Monterrey, but throughout Mexico to integrate these types of strategies in their processes so that they contribute to a benefit towards the health of the community and its employees, towards the environment and of course, towards the economic growth of the region.

Their collaborations are innovative in the sense that they merge the industrial background knowledge of business leader, Alberto Buy, with sustainability mindset changes that ASSPA incorporates in the businesses core practices, in order to optimize, mitigate and even contribute to society, such as their program “Amigos de la Tierra” that creates alliances between private sector companies and public sector departments to foster environmental education and participation from the Mexican public.

Overall impact

Since the current urge of sustainability, more and more organizations around the world continue to integrate social, economic and environmental projects to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. The priority involving the industrial sector is not other than to avoid contaminating and restoring the damage that has been already caused to nature. Therefore, ASSPA’s business model is considered to be replicable as well as essential, the services they provide are based on the sustainable development of the industry, for both the private and public sector this is currently considered a fundamental attribute because we cannot and must not continue to value the importance of the environment below economics.

In addition, as of today’s global needs, ASSPA’s business model innovation becomes extremely relevant to the company's geographical context. The company is Monterrey based, an epicenter of industrial activity, becoming the second most contaminated city in México. (Anguiano, 2018). There are 135,482 company establishments in Nuevo León, 3.2% of the country's total. It ranks second in total national gross production. Monterrey concentrates the highest percentage of production in the entity. (INEGI, 2013). There is no recorded data of how many of those businesses practice CSR or ESG activities such as ASSPA's guidance and consultancy services, meaning that there is still a lot of room for implementation and innovation inside the Mexican business sector.

ASSPA is a company that works towards the environment. They offer a variety of sustainability projects for bigger companies who want to reduce their carbon footprint. Likewise, they offer the analysis of several types of consumption that businesses usually have, for example water consumption. For the industrial sector, there are many innovation projects available for implementation.

Business benefit

In terms of economic impact, we can see ASSPA as a profitable business. As we were discussing earlier, they are always trying to improve their strategies to help other companies become sustainable and efficient, and that has an impact in the region's economic productivity while generating an economic development chain. The purpose of this type of services is not only to help a business become more environmentally friendly, but also to help them reduce their operating costs in the long term.

In this matter, companies which fulfill social and environmental impact control requirements have benefits in the application of the USMCA, a free trade agreement between México, United States and Canada. This way, companies are motivated to reduce their negative impact and also, rewarded if so.

Social and environmental benefit

The social impact that ASSPA has in the community around them. Alberto states that “Mexico's current government has many followers and for them the environment is not a priority”. As a result, they began to set limits in the growth of this type of ecological strategies. He describes this as “rowing against the current” because spreading awareness in a country that doesn't care about environmental impact can be way more difficult but important as well. This problem is more common between the lower and lower middle classes since they have the least access to information and education.

Alberto considers that progress in all sectors is important and that they have had a very positive impact, not only in other companies as stakeholders, but also in their community in general. His services and projects promote society's participation as well as awareness in this type of subjects. Improving industrial processes is very important to him, because that way companies could reduce an important percentage of their carbon emissions. This would have a very important impact in the community’s health, but more specifically, in the worker’s health since they have direct contact with these types of chemicals. They also work in order to promote laws which force the industrial sector to make awareness and take action on this topic. Also, we must mention the importance they give to provide workers a safe station to carry out their activities, strategies for occupational hygiene, accident prevention and ergonomy cause a great impact in the workers health, so by providing affordable methods in these scopes, ASSPA facilitates this kind of benefits.

Which leads us to the environmental impact, as we previously mentioned, one of the principal goals implicated in the services provided by ASSPA is related to actions for avoiding climate change. The companies they collaborate with, are eager to improve their processes so they can be socially and environmentally responsible. Reducing carbon emissions, efficient usage of water, electricity and other resources, air purification and its quality preservation, improving their production process and products in order to reduce wastes, along with other positive impacts are held by this company beside its collaborators through technology innovation and clean energy sources. Moreover, these actions guide to preserving a better life quality in the urban environment, but also preserving life itself.

Interview

Alberto Buy, Founder & Owner

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