Orange reveals the details of its sustainable strategy

“At Naranja, we generate different transversal actions that allow us to have an increasingly sustainable management of our business. These actions allow us to create economic, social and environmental value for all our stakeholders and future generations, ”says Romina Ruffino, Manager of Internal Communication and Culture of Naranja, in dialogue with Sustainable economy.

The company, already consolidated within the local financial industry and with a strong strategy to enhance its fintech solution, Orange X, outlined a complete strategy that responds to becoming an environmentally friendly company.

“We think sustainable management of our business as a permanent process that requires adaptations and innovations. For this, we guarantee frequent conversation spaces both internally and with our stakeholders, in order to identify synergies and opportunities for improvement, “adds the manager.

Economically, the company invested more than $ 1 million in environmental expenses in 2019. This represented an increase of 266% compared to 2018, and corresponds to the implementation of new actions, including those related to measurement, mitigation and compensation of Institutional Carbon Footprint. While, for this year, they budgeted an increase of 25% over the previous year.

Thus, the firm in a constant process of designing and promoting specific programs and training spaces for multiple areas, which allows adding and strengthening criteria for sustainability in its products, services and operations.

“Furthermore, as a company, we understand the environment as part of the environment of people, so we constantly seek to guarantee the greatest efficiency in the use of natural resources and implement practices that allow us to reduce our environmental impact.”

Less trash, more business

Recently, and for the seventh consecutive year, the company published its sustainability report, with the most outstanding results of its sustainable management.

Its strategy includes waste management, the measurement of its environmental impact, energy efficiency, in addition to working with local and triple-impact suppliers.

For the first point, they carried out a diagnosis at the national level, -both in corporate buildings and in more than 200 branches-, which allowed to gather information to identify opportunities for improvement and design a national plan for waste management.

“This plan is being worked on by an interdisciplinary team and from a circular economy perspective that allows us, on the one hand, to reduce the amount of waste we generate and, on the other, the correct disposal of those that we cannot avoid”, Ruffino completes.

With regard to materials, they indicate that plastic for credit cards, paper, toner cartridges and computer equipment (computers and printers) are the main concern regarding the care and reduction of material consumption.

At this point, to reduce consumption, some of the actions they perform are:

• Reduced toner: Consuming less toner impacts the cost of sheets in all the houses in the country.
• Grammage decrease: using sheets with a lower weight means a saving of 1,425 kg of paper.
• All digital: All the documentation that is signed when a new collaborator enters is electronic.

Furthermore, together with NGOs and cooperatives, they work to Recycle as much waste as possible, such as plastic from cards, toner, caps, paper and film.

Linked to the environmental footprint, the person in charge of Naranja stresses that the greatest impact is in the electric power consumption, representing 55% of its carbon footprint.

On that path, this year, began a process of contracting suppliers so that they can increase the percentage of renewable energy. Likewise, since 2018 they carry out actions for the protection of forests and biodiversity as well as awareness raising, with the aim of compensating the environmental impact.

“The forest conservation It is the main strategy that we use to offset our carbon footprint. Between 2018 and 2019, we have conserved 16,167 m2 of national forests, ”he stresses.

To achieve this, in 2019, they held two days of planting 300 native species, in addition to teaching awareness workshops on the importance of forest conservation.

However, the new transversal actions that we are designing, they contemplate budgets of new managements that previously we did not take into account ”, he warns. In this way, this year’s increase will end up being greater than in 2019, and will involve the entire company.

Commitment 360

Regarding work with suppliers, the company seeks to promote the development of local suppliers, the generation of inclusive businesses and the commercialization of triple impact products.

“Whenever possible, we encourage the incorporation of goods and services with social and / or environmental value, both to give to our collaborators and for branding and events.”

On this axis, invested more than $ 11 million on purchases from 19 suppliers sustainable. Also, 98% of annual supplier expenses were destined to suppliers of Argentina, contributing as a company to the local economy.

On the other hand, they added almost 900 new national suppliers to the more than 4,500 assets, with at least 40 suppliers for each province, mostly SMEs.

“We are currently working on defining new criteria that allow us to classify all of our suppliers at different impact scales. Our list of sustainable suppliers is open so that any interested company can access their contacts, “he adds.

“By 2020 we plan to work on the reduction of our environmental impact, as well as in the redesign of community outreach programs. Without a doubt, the current context required modifying the work methodologies and action schedules ”, the spokesperson concludes.

In parallel, they also added a new focus linked to strengthening the local economy and to the accompaniment of suppliers and businesses, mainly SMEs. For these audiences, they deployed a series of benefits and training linked to the challenges of the pandemic context.

Date published: Jul 2, 2020