Betting on the environmental transformation of organizations in Portugal

At the end of last year, the European Union decreed that organizations and companies in the bloc would be obliged to report evidence of their energy performance and carbon footprint. Although until 2023 this requirement only covered the financial sector, after that date it will cover all companies and similar organizations.

Miguel Salgueiro, one of the founders of Portugal's NextBITT, a specialist in physical asset management, confesses that sustainability has made the sector much sexier, but that the EU obligation has opened the door to new business opportunities and a field that has yet to be explored.

Having received an investment of 5 million euros from the Explorer Investments fund, which closed last July, NextBITT has reinvented its strategy and its operating strategy, placing a significant focus on sustainability.

Against this backdrop, the Portuguese technology company has developed two new modules based on Energy Management and Environmental Management. The new offer was driven by the "significant increase in the evidence required of organizations in all sectors of activity, pressured by increasingly demanding national and EU regulations with regard to sustainability and reducing companies' carbon footprint".

Environmental Management

With regard to Environmental Management, NextBITT explains that this system aims to provide "more effective management of the environmental aspects of business operations, taking into account environmental protection, pollution prevention, legal compliance and socio-economic needs".

To this end, this system manages polluting gas emissions, offsets, document management and certification, as well as making it possible to draw up reports on the organization's sustainability.

Energy Management

As far as energy management is concerned, the Portuguese company helps organizations to "monitor electricity costs" and "reduce greenhouse gas emissions", with the ultimate aim of achieving energy efficiency.

Explaining that "sustainability is the fundamental pillar on which the future of [NextBITT] rests", Miguel Salgueiro points out that "without quick and agile management of organizations' physical assets, they will not be able to ensure that they are addressing the reduction of their carbon footprint in the best way".

When it comes to energy efficiency in organizations, André Calixto, partner and head of the consulting area at Nextbitt, says that "we can only reduce what we already know", stressing that without indicators to measure and evaluate performance in terms of energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions, companies will not be able to implement measures that make them more sustainable and reduce the impact of their operations on the environment.

"Sustainability is a question of data management"

"Sustainability is a question of data management," adds Miguel Salgueiro, pointing out that the Portuguese physical asset manager's platform makes it possible to bring together all the data that will shape organizations' sustainability strategies at a single management point.

However, NextBITT "does not claim to be an energy certification body", adding that its aim is to provide the necessary information so that its clients can understand, in a clearer and more integrated way, the energy performance of their organizations and thus redesign, consolidate or implement the sustainability policies that best suit their profile and respond to the requirements emanating from Brussels and defined by the authorities at national level.

Portugal "can be an international benchmark in sustainability"

Taking into account the rules decreed by the European Union, and as in all other member states, companies in Portugal will have to implement significant changes, not only internally, but throughout their entire value chain, which will be "forced to change from one end to the other", says Miguel Salgueiro.

Even so, the same official is confident that the country, namely through the business fabric that gives it life and that strongly boosts the national economy, "can be a benchmark in sustainability at international level".

On this point, he points out that the companies with the best ratings in terms of sustainability and the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions from their operations are also the best performers on the stock exchanges, so there are many incentives to make changes in this direction.

In this regard, Miguel Salgueiro says that the state should be a more active agent in promoting and catalyzing environmental and energy sustainability in organizations, leading by example.

"The state should leverage the development of the sustainability of companies operating in Portugal," he says, adding that the public administration doesn't know exactly how many physical assets it has in its possession, which severely hinders its sustainable transformation, the reduction and optimization of energy consumption and, consequently, the minimization of its carbon footprint.

André Calixto argues that "we need the state to be more focused" in the area of company sustainability, so that we can respond to the demands coming from the corridors of Brussels and so that Portugal can position itself at the forefront of environmental protection.

Asked whether the demand from companies for environmental and energy management systems would have grown without the EU's impositions, Calixto says that these requirements have "accelerated" the process.

The future of NextBITT

As for the business itself, NextBITT, created in 2015, already has clients from a wide range of sectors, such as Sonae, CTT, CUF, BPI, Brisa and Galp, and, with its international expansion strategy, the Portuguese company wants to reach markets such as Spain, the United Kingdom, France and the Netherlands, which it sees as "very attractive".

And this expansion across borders will be driven by the funding received from Explorer Investments, with the company's sustainability as its main banner, and plans to hire another 60 people, bringing the company's total workforce to 100.

Here, those responsible suggest that they may enter into partnerships with the public sector, but point out that it is still premature to give details on the subject, indicating that news will emerge in the future.

The European Commission considers that companies "play a key role in building a more sustainable economy and society", so the requirements now in force "require them to identify and, where necessary, prevent, end or mitigate the adverse impacts of their activities (...) on the environment".

Source: Greensavers

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