Estimated reading time - 4 min
For over ten years, Vantiva’s manufacturing facility in Manaus, Brazil, has been undergoing Project Green Factory, intending to reach and maintain a carbon-neutral operation. This initiative has been no easy feat, but through perseverance, Project Green Factory has created an organic, self-sustaining manufacturing plant that is a true testament to Vantiva’s commitment to Corporate Social Responsibility.
Sustainable Practices
The plant is powered by solar panel-generated electricity and uses a rainwater collection system, allowing the facility to reduce water consumption by more than 90%.
This collection system consists of two storage tanks that hold 20,000 liters of rainwater. The water is used for the eternal maintenance and general cleaning of the facility, in on-premise toilets, and in the watering of the gardens.
In addition to these green initiatives, the facility has a composting site regularly fed by any waste produced at the on-site restaurant. Once matured, the compost is used to improve the quality and fertility of the soil used in the facility’s vegetable gardens, with its harvested vegetables then used in the manufacturing process.
The compost is also used in the site’s nursery, where fruit and ornamental plant seedlings are grown and tended to for the eventual planting on and around the facility’s premises. This planting of trees and plants not only helps offset emissions generated from the facility but restores vegetation in a region that has been victim to mass deforestation over the past decades. The plant executes regular socio-economic projects to successfully plant the seedlings, including one of the first efforts in 2013, where over 5,000 seedlings put permanent roots down in soil.
In 2023, a total of 4,750 açai seedlings were planted. This planting of açai, a plant known for its ability to absorb greenhouse gasses, renders Vantiva a carbon-neutral company.
Through established partnerships with Vantiva customers, Vantiva Manaus collects and recycles used products and houses a waste center where all waste is vigilantly sorted according to its category, allowing it to be appropriately disposed of. The site issues monthly recycling reports to measure the number of items recycled at the facility and receives disposal deposits for any waste collected.
As of 2020, 100% of electricity consumed on the premises came from renewable resources. In 2023, 100% of the energy purchased was produced from sugarcane bagasse, a biomass that can be almost entirely transformed into usable energy.
Giving Back to the Community
Adapting to a more sustainable, environmentally sane future involves the participation of every one of us. Helping to create greater environmental awareness in the community, Vantiva’s CSR team provides training to local teachers and students on environmental education.
The Project Green House garden not only produces a sufficient amount of crops for manufacturing, but it also supplies a significant amount of produce used in the site’s restaurant and shares a portion of the harvest with the plant’s employees. The site also shares unused water through redirection pipes to local communities that do not have water provided by a concessionaire.
Project Green Factory’s Acknowledgments
The efforts put in throughout Project Green Factory have not gone unnoticed. The Vantiva facility is certified as a ‘Company Partner of Nature’ by the Brazilian Institute for Nature Protection for its commitment and responsibility towards environmental issues.
Additionally, adding to Vantiva’s continued recognition by EcoVadis, including our most recent Platinum Medal for the second year in a row, our Manaus facility received the Environmental Merit Award by the Regional Council of Engineering and Agronomy, MÚTUA and AENAMBAM (Amazonas Society of Professional Engineers) in January of 2022.
The success of Project Green Factory has, and will continue to be, an exemplary model of the sustainable future of manufacturing.
