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mexico at cop16 Challenges and Opportunities in the Environment-friendly Goods and Services Sectorxi
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backing clean
businessesMexican private sector’s efforts
in climate change mitigation
offices abroad
North AmericaRegional [email protected]
Offices in: Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, Montreal, New York, Toronto and Vancouver
Latin Americaand South America Offices in: Bogotá, Buenos Aires, Guatemala, Santiago de Chile and Sao Paulo
Bogotá[email protected]
Buenos [email protected]
Santiago de [email protected]
Europe and Middle EastOffices in: Brussels, Dubai, Frankfurt, London, Madrid, Milan, Paris and Stockholm
Brussels [email protected]
Asia - PacificOffices in: Beijing, Mumbai, Seoul, Singapore, Taipei and Tokyo
Beijing [email protected]
Singapore / New [email protected]
ProMéxico Headquarters
+ 52 (55) 544 [email protected]
www.promexico.gob.mx
2 Negocios
Contents
backing clean
businesses
22
38MEXICO: LAND OF THE SUN
Interview with Vicente Estrada Cajigal, President of the Mexican
National Solar Energy Association
Briefs 6
Report PORK MEAT FROM MEXICO TO JAPAN 12
Mexico’sPartnerBACHOCO 14
SpecialReport UK TARGETS MEXICO 16
SpecialReport GREEN SOLUTIONS 18
BusinessTips MEXICO AT COP 16 19
Mexico’sPartnerBIOFIELDS 26
MÓDULO SOLAR 28
DESMEX 30
KIOTO CLEAN ENERGY GROUP 32
IBERDROLA 34
ACCIONA ENERGÍA 36
Baker & McKenzie Passionately Global
www.bakermckenzie.comAll rights reserved. Baker & McKenzie International is a Swiss Verein with member law firms around the world. In accordance with the common terminology used in professional service organizations, reference to a “partner” means a person who is a partner, or equivalent, in such a law firm. Similarly, reference to an “office” means an office of any such law firm.
We are a law firm with deep market knowledge and global perspective.Legal Services:Banking & Finance • Corporate (M&A) • Environment & Climate Change • Foreign Trade & Customs • Intellectual Property • IT & CommunicationsTax • Labor • Litigation • Real Estate & InfrastructureIndustries:Automotive • Energy, Mining & Infrastructure • Financial Services • Maquiladora • Pharmaceuticals & Healthcare Resorts, Tourism & Entertainment • Risk Management & Compliance
REV_Advert_CSB2540_ARLopez_Mexico.indd 1 10/6/2010 11:03:17 PM
4 Negocios
Interview
michelrojkind
Mexican Identity Under Construction
44
58 The Lifestyle Report football passion
61 Feedback impulso verde
42 The Lifestyle Briefs
49 Sustainabilityefecto verde
56 Culture day of the dead
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proméxico
Sebastián EscalanteManaging [email protected]
Miguel Ángel Samayoa Advertising and [email protected]
Fernanda Luna Copy Editing
taller méxico
Alejandro Serratos Publisher [email protected]
Felipe Zúñiga Editor in Chief [email protected]
Orlando SantamariaMarketing [email protected]
Pilar Jiménez MolgadoDesign [email protected] Dalia Urzua OrozcoDesign [email protected]
Paloma Ló[email protected]
Vanessa SerratosProduction [email protected]
Vanesa RoblesSenior Writer [email protected]
Karla Juárez Sandra RoblaguiLucila ValtierraMauricio ZabalgoitiaStaff Writers
translationAlejandra Díaz AlvaradoJuan Manuel RomeroLuis Cabrera
proof readingGraeme Stewart
contributorsGraeme Stewart, María Cristina Rosas, María Eugenia Sevilla, Cristina Ávila-Zesatti, Antonio Vázquez, Jennifer Chan, Francisco Vernis.
This is an editorial project for ProMéxico by taller méxico (www.tallermexico.com).
Download the PDF version of Negocios ProMéxico at: negocios.promexico.gob.mx
Negocios ProMéxico, año 3, número 11, noviembre 2010, es una publicación mensual en inglés editada por ProMéxico, Camino a Santa Teresa No. 1679, Col. Jardines del Pedregal, Delegación Álvaro Obregón, C.P. 01900, México, D.F. Tel. 54477000 www.promexico.gob.mx; [email protected] Editor responsable: Gabriel Sebastián Escalante Bañuelos. Reservas de derechos al uso exclusivo No. 04-2009-012714564800-102. Licitud de título: 14459; Licitud de contenido: 12032, ambos otorgados por la Comisión Calificadora de Publicaciones y Revistas Ilustradas de la Secretaría de Gobernación. ISSN: en trámite. Impresa por Foli de Mexico S.A. de C.V., Negra Modelo No. 4, Bodega A, Naucalpan, Estado de México, C.P. 53330. Esta publicación se terminó de imprimir el 30 de octubre, 2010 con un tiraje de 12,000 ejemplares. Las opiniones expresadas por los autores no necesariamente reflejan la postura del editor de la publicación. Queda estrictamente prohibida la reproducción total o parcial de los contenidos e imágenes de la publicación sin previa autorización de ProMéxico. ProMéxico is not responsible for inaccurate information or omissions that might exist in the information provided by the participant companies nor of their economic solvency. The institution might or might not agree with an author’s statements; therefore the responsibility of each text falls on the writers, not on the institution, except when it states otherwise. Although this magazine verifies all the information printed on its pages, it will not accept responsibility derived from any omissions, inaccuracies or mistakes. November 2010.
three views on sustainable architecture
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ACCESS8_21X13.5_ENG.pdf 1 10/6/10 6:02 PM
We create the value you re looking for
We focus on three things: Assurance, Consulting, Tax and Legal Services. But we don’t think ‘offthe-shelf’ products and services are always the way to go. How we use our knowledge and experience depends on what you want to achieve.
So we’ll start by getting to know you. You do the talking, we’ll do the listening. What you tell us will shape how we use our network of 163,000 people around the world – and their connections, contacts and expertise – to help you create the value you’re looking for.
Contact us:52636000
© 2010 PricewaterhouseCoopers. All rights reserved. PricewaterhouseCoopers refers to PricewaterhouseCoopers Mexico, the network of member firms of PricewaterhouseCoopers International Limited, each of which is a separate and independent legal entity.
www.pwc.com/mx
6 Negocios6 Negocios Photos COURTESY OF POSCO / BOMBARdIER / CHRYSLER
Roaring Engines
AUTOMOTIVE
US automaker Chrysler has
opened a 570 million usd
engine plant in Saltillo, Coa-
huila. This is the company’s
sixth plant in Mexico and it
will manufacture Chrysler’s
new fuel-efficient Pentastar
V-6 engine for Chrysler,
Dodge, Jeep and Ram
vehicles. The new plant will
have the capacity to build
440,000 engines per year.
www.chrysler.com.mx
Canadian industrial giant Bombardier opened a new 450 million usd plant in central Mexico, where it will produce components for the Learjet 85 business aircraft. The facility, an extension of a five-year-old Bombardier facility in Querétaro, will make the fuselage and electrical system for the aircraft, which will then be assembled at a Learjet factory in the US city of Wichita, Kansas.
www.bombardier.com.mx
AEROSPACE
Preparing for Take Off
Mexico’s largest steel galvanizing plant, owned by POSCO-Mex-ico, is to save 6 million usd per year in electrical power costs and achieve power independence with a new 9MW power plant using natural gas.
The power plant –located in Altamira, Tamaulipas– fea-tures three of GE’s natural gas-fuelled JMS 620 Jenbacher gas engines, rated at 3 MW each.
It was designed and built for POSCO-Mexico by its partner company Daewoo Engineering Company of South Korea, and will enter commercial operation by the end of 2010.
www.posco.com
Energy Savings
METALLURGICAL INDUSTRY
there Are mAny wAys to get your clients’ Attention,
none As eFFective As ours
negocios.promexico.gob.mx [email protected]
Published monthly in English.
Distributed among businessmen, decision-makers, research centers and national and international subscribers.
Close to 10,000 copies out of 15,000 are distributed abroad through a network of more than 25 representative offices located in the Americas, Asia, Europe and the Middle East; all Mexican embassies and consulates and at international trade shows and expos.
Geographic distribution covers a wide spectrum of key countries and cities, which guarantees an strategic coverage in the world’s leading markets.
8 Negocios8 Negocios Photos COURTESY OF EMBRAER / LEGO / CISCO / ARCHIvE
Brazil’s Embraer has signed an agreement with Transpaís Aéreo to establish its first executive jet authorized service center in Mexico for the Phenom 100 and Phenom 300 aircrafts.
Tranpaís Aéreo –a subsidiary of the Lomex Group Aeronautics Division, Embraer’s sales representative in Mexico since March 2008– has become a leader in executive aviation services, both na-tionally and internationally.
Embraer decided to expand the scope of the partnership with the group, in order to better serve its customers and provide techni-cal support to a growing fleet of entry level and light jets in the region.
Transpaís’ certified service center is scheduled to start offering inspections, scheduled and unscheduled maintenance, paint touch-ups, and interior shop services for the Phenom 100 and Phenom 300 as of the first quarter of 2011.
www.transpaisaereo.com
AEROSPACE
Embraer Lands in Mexico
MANUFACTURING
With a 100 million usd investment, LEGO started the expansion
of its plant at Ciénega de Flores, Coahuila. The new building will
cover 39,500 square meters (425,172 square feet) and will have
384 plastic injection machines. With this movement, the com-
pany expects to increase its sales in the US –its main market–,
Canada and Mexico.
www.lego.com
Lego’s Newest Brick
With a 20 million usd investment and the generation of 300 jobs, the Korean company Prima Tech will start operations in Querétaro next February to work on plastics injection. Prima Tech’s plant will have a surface of 10,000 square meters (107,636 square feet) and will be located in Querétaro Industri-al Park. The Korean corporation will manufacture refrigerator parts by plastic injection, to be supplied to Samsung.
www.primatech.co.kr
CHEMICAL INDUSTRY
Prima Tech Invests in Mexico
briefs.
Expansion on the Way
CHEMICAL INDUSTRY
Mexican PVC producer Mex-ichem has completed the acquisi-tion of Policyd and Plásticos Rex –two subsidiaries wholly owned by its competitor Cydsa– after ac-complishing conditions imposed by the Mexican antitrust author-ity Comisión Federal de Compe-tencia (CFC). The transaction is
Pho
to A
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E
estimated in 160 million usd and would represent additional yearly sales for Mexichem of 300 million usd.
Mexichem is a public company that leads the Mexican chloro-vinyl chain with a total annual production capacity of 380,000 met-ric tons. Since 2003, the company’s expansion plan has included the purchase of 12 companies in the US and Latin American countries with an investment close to 1.9 billion usd.
www.mexichem.com.mx
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
Innovative Solutions for Latin AmericaCisco has opened a Center of Innovation in Mexico City to inte-
grate new technical solutions specially tailored for the business
needs of its clients in Mexico.
With an initial investment of 2 million usd, this is Cisco’s first
Center of Innovation outside San Jose, California, and Banga-
lore, India, the two main campuses of Cisco worldwide. The
Center of Innovation in Mexico City is initially working in two
main areas for Mexico and the region: safety and security and
a health care solution. Additional modules, including education,
will be integrated in the future.
www.cisco.com
Conquering US Plastics Market
CHEMICAL INDUSTRY
Mexican conglomerate Alfa is buying three plants from East-man Chemical Co. for 600 mil-lion usd, boosting its presence in the US plastics market.
Alfa’s DAK Americas unit is expected to close the trans-action before year-end. One of the Eastman plants being ac-quired by Alfa produces PTA, a chemical used in the produc-tion of plastics. The other two make PET, a polymer used in beverage, food and other liquid containers.
The three plants are locat-ed in South Carolina and have an annual production capacity of 1,275 million tons. Alfa esti-mated the facilities had sales of close to 405 million usd during the first half of the year.
www.alfa.com.mx
Getting Bigger
FOOD
Gruma Corp., Gruma’s subsidiary in
the US, inaugurated a 50 million usd
plant in Los Angeles, California. The
plant, Gruma’s 16th in the US and its
92nd worldwide, is expected to pro-
duce 12 million tortillas per day in the
form of flour-and-corn tortillas, tor-
tilla chips, tostadas and taco shells.
Located in the Panorama City area,
the plant will comprise 12 production
lines and will contribute one-third of
the company’s output in Southern
California. Of the total investment,
5.8 million usd are aimed at develop-
ing environmentally friendly technol-
ogy to increase energy and water
efficiency and reduce emissions at
the plant.
www.gruma.com
10 Negocios Photos ARCHIvE10 Negocios
ENERGY
A Strong Bet on BiofuelsRepsol, an energy company based in Spain, and the Mexican Group KUO have reached an agreement to establish a joint company called Kuosol dedicated to the development of bioenergy from the cultivation of the jatropha curcas, an oilseed with a high content of non-edible oil.
With an initial investment of 15 million usd and a total estimated investment of 80 million usd for the next four years, the new company will develop and market highly sustainable non-edible vegetable oil to be used for the production of second generation biofuels.
The jatropha plant will be cultivated on barren land in Yucatán and the plant will additionally generate a considerable amount of biomass that could be used for steam and electric power cogeneration.
In its first stage of development, Kuosol has as main objectives to plant and cultivate 10,000 hectares of jatropha on third party lands in the state of Yucatán and to harvest 44 million litres of crude oil for biofuels. It is estimated that agricultural development will be completed in the next 3 years, allowing industrial production to start in 2013.
www.kuo.com.mx / www.repsol.com
GE Strengthens its Presence in Mexico
MANUFACTURING
General Electric has transferred the production of medical products assemblies, high ef-ficiency engines and turbines for airplanes and power generation to Mexico. In order to adapt its facilities at Ciudad Juárez, Monterrey and Querétaro to the production previously made at the US, a 60 million usd invest-ment has been programed for the next two years.
www.ge.com
briefs.
Diversifying Business
MANUFACTURING
Helvex, a company specializing in the manufacturing of plumbing products, has launched a new line of business with the opening of its plant of ceramic furniture Sanivex in Apaseo El Grande, Guanajuato.
In its first stage –in which 20 million usd are invested– the plant will have an annual production of 120,000 pieces and will employ 450 people. With this production, it is expected that the new line would represent 10% of the com-pany’s annual revenue, with a large growth potential.
With the second and third stages –that will be developed in the next four years, with an invest-ment of 25 million usd– the plant will increase its production to 150,000 pieces per month.
www.helvex.com.mx
Mexican cement manufacturer Holcim Apasco is carrying
out the final tests to start operating a new cement plant in
Sonora state capital Hermosillo. The firm has spent over
400 million usd on the new plant, which will have capacity
to produce 1.6 million tons per year. The new plant, which is
the company’s seventh, will increase Holcim Apasco’s overall
cement production capacity by 8% to 12 million tons from 11.1
million tons per year.
Holcim Apasco is a subsidiary of Swiss company Holcim.
The firm currently operates cement plants in the states of
Veracruz, Tabasco, Estado de México, Colima, Coahuila and
Guerrero.
www.holcimapasco.com.mx
CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY
Concrete Expansion
12 Negocios Photos COURTESY OF MPEA
Mexican pork in Ja-pan is a winner! Pork meat has become Mexico’s
largest export to Japan. This has occurred because of the activities of a very effective private/public sector partnership over the last several years. The combination includes the Mexican Pork Export Association (MPEA), an aggres-sive, quality and safety conscious group of producers and exporters working with an active, creative Japanese-American consulting-promotion team in Tokyo and supported by the Mexican Minis-try of Agriculture, Livestock, Rural Development, Fisheries and Food (SAGARPA, for its acronym in Spanish).
Early DevelopmentAlthough small amounts of Mexi-can pork had previously been ex-ported to Japan, the first industry
The Success Saga of Mexican Pork Exports to Japan
action to significantly increase exports was in 1993, when pork producers from Sonora started a major study of the market. That study revealed that an active sales effort –combined with changing Mexico’s product strategy from trying to sell Mexican pork prod-ucts to marketing more of the pork cuts that Japanese wanted to buy– could result in increased exports. And it did. Exports grew sharply over the next eight years, peaking in 2001 at over 42,000 metric tons.
As competition increased and other countries began to promote more aggressively, Mexico’s vol-ume declined in 2002 and then stagnated in a 32,000 to 35,000 metric tons range in 2003-2005. During that period, the industry united into MPEA –which includ-ed the key producers in Sonora and Yucatán– and initiated a new research study to determine what
could be done to renew its growth. That research recommended hiring a representative in Japan and initiating a major promo-tion program. Eventually in 2004 MPEA hired Promar Japan –the Japanese-American consulting firm specializing in food and ag-riculture that had conducted the industry’s two previous market re-search studies– to assist in promo-tion program planning in Japan and to coordinate its execution.
Government InvolvementIn the meantime, the Mexican government had been negotiat-ing a Free Trade Agreement with Japan, which in 2005 resulted in Japanese duties on Mexican pork being reduced by 2.1%, from 4.3 to 2.2%, for a total annual quota of 80,000 metric tons of imports. That provided Mexican producers with a small cost advantage com-pared to its competitors.
Concurrently, MPEA –assisted by Promar– has prepared a business plan for the promotion program in Japan and requested –and, in early 2006, received– government support funding from SAGARPA.
Mexican Promotion SuccessThe MPEA promotion program kicked off its first annual promo-tion program in March of 2006. The trade had anticipated the program and imports increased by 15% that year. The program, which has been modified an-nually, is now in its fifth year. Through careful planning in the early years it initially concen-trated on trade –especially with importers and wholesalers to convince them of the benefits of Mexican pork. As the program progressed it gradually shifted its targets until most promotion is now focused on consumers and retailers. The current year plan
report PORK MEAT FROM MEXICO TO JAPAN
includes promotion basics like a good website, basic promotional brochures and other materials and active trade contact. It also features creative programs like a subway train covered with MPEA promotion, a set of cute piglets which tie the program together and stimulate the inter-est of children and their young mothers –the primary buyers of imported pork– and other unique and effective ideas. The latest program emphasizes ma-jor cooperative promotions with important Japanese retailers.
The success of this combina-tion of aggressive and high quality producers, government support –first in reducing trade barriers, then in assisting with the promo-tion funding– and a creative, well planned, promotion campaign, ini-tially stimulated dynamic growth in Mexican exports –an average of 17% annually for 2006, 2007 and 2008– while total exports from Mexico to Japan grew by only 5% during that period. Mexico jumped from 4.0% in 2005 to a 6.9% market share in 2008 while shipments expanded from 35,000
metric tons to 57,000 metric tons during that period.
However, a near disaster then occurred. Mid 2008 brought the advent of the worldwide H1N1 flu epidemic. Consumer reaction was as expected: an immediate drastic drop in Mexican pork consump-tion as many retailers pulled the products from their lines.
By mid 2009, the world had recognized H1N1 as a paper ti-ger and strong signs of recovery for Mexican pork exports were recorded. Expectations for 2010 are that Mexican pork exports to Japan will nearly total those of 2009 and that 2011 and 2012 will begin to show Mexican pork exports expanding.
That quick recovery was stim-ulated by the mutual cooperation and efforts of the MPEA, SAGAR-PA and Promar during that dif-ficult period. It now appears that what could have been a disaster may have only been a dip in the otherwise continued growth of pork exports, Mexican’s most im-portant single export to Japan. n
www.mexicanpork.com
14 Negocios Photos COURTESY OF BACHOCO
Bachoco was founded in 1952 and is listed on the New York and Mexi-can Stock Exchange since 1997. It is a vertically-integrated Company,
with more than 23,000 employees in México and sales of over 1.8 billion USD in 2009.
The company holds 34% market share in Mexico with strategically located opera-tions and extended distribution. Its business lines are: chicken, eggs, pork, balanced feed, turkey and others. Bachoco sells 950,000 tons of ready to cook chicken per year plus 66,000 tons of processed chicken; 130,000 tons of eggs and 14,000 tons of live swine plus 250,000 tons of feed. Chicken repre-sents 78.3% of 2009’s total sales, table eggs accounted by 10.1 % and balance feed con-tributed with 6.3 % to total sales.
The company has 60 distribution centers all over the country, 9 complexes, more than 700 farms, 10 processing plants, 4 further process plants and 16 feed plants. Its prod-ucts are mainly sold through supermarkets and institutional chains, such as Walmart, Soriana, Comercial Mexicana and Chedraui, among others. Bachoco also supplies interna-tional companies in the foodservice branch
Bachoco:A High- Performance CompanyIn 2010, the biggest Mexican poultry company, Bachoco, decided to begin exporting chicken to Japan, one of the most demanding markets in the world
like KFC, Domino’s Pizza, Burger King, Mc-Donald’s and Subway.
All of Bachoco’s plants are TIF (Federal Inspected) and have HAACP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points) systems in place as well as internal quality systems to control every step of process from raw material to finished product, applying both Mexican and interna-tional standards.
Under the TIF system, every plant has at least one Government Official Federal veteri-nary and several assistant veterinaries to en-sure reliable and safe products to the market. The company also has an internal traceability system to identify any possible problem from the farm to the end customer.
Since Mexico has internationally recog-nized disease free zones eligible for export, Bachoco maintains a very strict internal mobi-lization policy between these areas monitoring transit of live and processed chicken between states and working together with the Ministry of Agriculture through check points all over the country to ensure these areas remain free of entrance of possible infected livestock.
After obtaining the corresponding cer-tification for its plant in Sinaloa by the Agri-
culture ministry of Japan, in 2010 Bachoco started to export to Japan market as a result of a strategic growth plan to expand its pres-ence in the world.
Recently the company introduced, with very good customer acceptance, its yellow chicken to the Japanese market, under the brand of “Golden Chicken.”
Thus, Japan market has become extremely important for Bachoco, providing the company a steady and long term business.
The government of Japan has recog-nized five Mexican states –Sonora, Sinaloa, Campeche, Quintana Roo and Yucatán– as free of the three main chicken diseases –Avian Influenza, Salmonella and Newcastle. Bachoco has three plants located in those states. All these plants comply with all food safety stan-dards and are in the process of being enlisted for export. Bachoco also has a further process plant at Merida TIF 97-B capable of doing prod-ucts like marinated, breaded and fully cooked.
Bachoco is currently working on its growth strategy and expects to eventually increase its exports to the Asian country, ex-pand its market share and position its brand in the Japanese market. n
mexico’s partner BACHOCO
16 Negocios16 Negocios Photo ARCHIvE
Global investors have pinpointed Mexico as one of the top mar-kets, according to a new report published by UK Trade & Invest-
ment and Economist Intelligence Unit. The Great Expectations: Doing business
in emerging markets report offers new in-sights from international investors about which markets they see as being the global growth engines of the future.
The report is based on a survey of more than 520 global executives from every sector. All respondents are already doing business in emerging markets or plan to do so in the next two years.
Launching the new report in London, the UK Business Secretary Vince Cable said: “The balance of global economic power is shifting towards emerging markets and this is recognised in UK Trade & Investment’s report. UK firms are using their expertise to help promote growth and prosperity in these markets.”
Brits Invest in MexicoA recent UK Trade & Investment report has identified Mexico as one of the top markets for British investment worldwide. Two British companies already established in the country give their views on why Mexico is such an outstanding investment target.
Key findings include:Emerging markets are viewed as sourc-es of new consumer demand. 76% of investors see emerging markets as a source of new business growth. Only one quarter of companies intend to rely on their existing products and services in emerging markets. Most companies intend to customise their offerings for new markets.71% of respondents agreed that emerg-ing markets beyond the BRIC coun-tries collectively offer an opportunity too big to ignore. Companies are now prioritising a range of other countries alongside their well-established opera-tions in the BRIC countries. For many firms, emerging markets are increasingly familiar places. Nearly half of the respondents have been op-erating in one or more emerging mar-kets for at least a decade and two thirds have been there for six years or more.
Institutional knowledge of these coun-tries is far higher than it was at the turn of the century. Far more executives believe that the potential rewards far outstrip the risks within both the BRIC countries and other emerging markets. 52% expect growth prospects for their once-risky emerging markets business to be “sig-nificantly better” over the next two years.Local companies in emerging markets are sought after for partnerships and alliances. Despite a greater ease with the risks of new places, the need to tap into local knowledge and contacts quickly remains strong. Emerging markets are not just for big business. One in three SMEs polled plan to expand into one new emerg-ing market over the next two years through joint ventures or partnerships with local companies.
by GRAEME STEWART
special report UK TARGETS MEXICO
The report’s findings were welcomed by two British companies already operating in Mexico: Worldmark in Guadalajara and Cobhams Mi-crowave Electronics in Tijuana.
Ricardo Medina, General Manager of World-mark Americas based in Guadalajara, Jalisco, which employs 230 people, said: “Of course, Mexico is regarded as suitable for investment by British companies because of the cheaper labor market and the country’s close proxiity to the US, the largest market in the world.”
“But there is so much more on offer in Mex-ico to make it attractive to foreign investors. There is a large pool of skilled workers and highly qualified engineers ready to work hard. Mexico is not just about cheap labor –there are many highly qualified people who can do great things,” Medina adds.
“We have been here for nearly 10 years, the main reason for setting up in Mexico was to fol-low the main electronic manufacturing compa-nies, known as EMS, including Flextronics, Jabil, Sanmina-SCI, Celestica and Foxconn.
These companies are subcontractors for manufacturing of electronic devices such as smart phones, laptops, PCs and servers. That is our main market. The company is based out of Scotland and in the past we use to have a lot of people from the UK, but not any more. World-mark Mexico is now driven by Mexican people,” he continues.
Javier Urquizo, Mexican Plant Manager of Cobham Sensor Systems in Tijuana, employing 120 people, said Mexico was a natural place for British companies to invest because of the low cost of labor.
He added: “Our Tijuana plant is a very impor-tant and strategic branch of our operation. We are only 40 minutes journey from our larger facil-ity in San Diego and we send our products there for final testing. We carry out very sophisticated work that requires a lot of technical support, so it is handy to be so close to the San Diego operation.”
Cobham Sensor Systems makes microwave electronics for the defence industry and has been in Tijuana since 1997. It is an international com-pany that has engaged in the development, de-livery and support of leading edge aerospace and defence technology systems for more than 75 years. The company has four divisions em-ploying more than 12,000 people on five con-tinents, with customers and partners in more than 100 countries. It has an annual revenue of some 3 billion usd. n
“THERE IS SO MUCH MORE ON OFFER
IN MEXICO TO MAKE IT ATTRACTIVE
TO FOREIGN INVESTORS. THERE IS A
LARGE POOL OF SKILLED WORKERS
AND HIGHLY QUALIFIED ENGINEERS
READY TO WORK HARD. MEXICO IS
NOT JUST ABOUT CHEAP LABOR –
THERE ARE MANY HIGHLY QUALIFIED
PEOPLE WHO CAN DO GREAT THINGS.”
— Ricardo Medina, General Manager
of Worldmark Americas
based in Guadalajara, Jalisco.
18 Negocios18 Negocios Photo ARCHIvE
While representatives of partici-pating countries at the XVI Conference of the Parties of the United Nations Frame-
work Convention on Climate Change (COP16), discuss political and legal challenges of climate change mitigation, businesses from all over the World have a unique opportunity to communi-cate and share environmental friendly products, services, business practices and solutions.
Green Solutions@COP16 seeks to create a platform to favour the exchange of ideas and
Green Solutions: Helping Businesses to Reduce Their Carbon FootprintOrganized by the Mexican Federal Government and sponsored by several private companies, Green Solutions@COP16 offers businesses from all over the world a platform to exchange ideas and showcase efforts in climate change mitigation.
showcasing of leading private sector efforts in climate change mitigation, particularly in the fields of trade, investment and technological development.
The event will take place from December 5 to 8, 2010, and will be hosted during COP 16, in Cancún México.
Organized by the Mexican Federal Gov-ernment, in a joint effort by ProMéxico and the Ministries of Economy and Foreign Affairs, Green Solutions@COP16 aims to gather busi-nesspersons, government officials and experts
from Mexico and around the world in order to address topics related to the challenges of sustainable development. Green Solutions@COP16 is sponsored by companies like Accen-ture, Acciona, Braskem, Cemex, Ericsson, Fem-sa, Gamesa Corp., General Electric, Iberdrola, Siemens, Technowise and Vestas.
The event is a great opportunity for pri-vate companies to share environmentally friendly practices on a world stage. n
www.greensolutionscop16.com
business tips
Mexico at cop16
by MARÍA CRISTINA ROSAS*
FOR PARTICIPATING COUNTRIES –INCLUDING MEXICO– COP16 NOT ONLY
REPRESENTS IMPORTANT POLITICAL AND LEGAL CHALLENGES BUT ALSO GREAT
OPPORTUNITIES FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL ORIENTED BUSINESSES.
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20 Negocios illustrAtion ARCHIvE
by taking on the commitment to reduce its GGEs 30% by 2020 and 50% by 2050. Prior to this meet-ing, Mexico had already announced that it would take these measures voluntarily, which does not contradict ongoing multilateral negotiations.
But in addition to the commitments to reduce contaminant emissions, it seems timely to ad-dress the economic oportunities created by the much needed liaison between technology and en-vironment under current conditions. The topic is not new; for example, the selective opening of en-vironmental services markets has been suggested within the World Trade Organization (WTO), an area which promises huge growth in the face of climate change.
IN COPENHAGEN, MEXICO SET AN EXAMPLE IN THE REDUCTION OF
CONTAMINANT EMISSIONS BY TAKING ON THE
COMMITMENT TO REDUCE ITS GGEs 30% BY 2020 AND
50% BY 2050. PRIOR TO THIS MEETING, MEXICO HAD
ALREADY ANNOUNCED THAT IT WOULD TAKE
THESE MEASURES VOLUNTARILY, WHICH
DOES NOT CONTRADICT ONGOING MULTILATERAL
NEGOTIATIONS.
Being entrusted with generating a legally binding global warming agreement to take effect in 2012 is challenging enough, but for the
XVI Conference of the Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP16), to be held from November 29 to December 10, 2010 in Cancún, Mexico, it is also an opportunity for all things envi-ronmental and in the inevitable debate sur-rounding the environment-friendly technolo-gies required to meet the proposed goals.
COP16 became necessary after the mea-ger results of its predecessor, COP15, held in Copenhagen, Denmark, in 2009. Among the most notable achievements of COP15 were, firstly, a long-term goal seeking to prevent glob-al temperatures from rising more than two de-grees Celsius in this century. This goal could be modified in 2016 to a maximum limit of 1.5 de-grees. By the year 2050, greenhouse gas emis-sions (GGE) should be 50% less than in 1990. Developed countries will achieve an 80% re-duction. For the 2010-2012 period, developed countries will contribute technological aid and 30 billion usd to finance climate change mitiga-tion and adaptation actions of lesser developed countries. These resources will reach an an-nual figure of 100 billion usd in 2020.
Although no new countries joined the Kyoto Protocol and the US and the Popular Republic of China remained on the outside, the commitment will continue to operate for the initial member nations. Developed and developing nations outside the Kyoto Proto-col established voluntary medium (2020) and long-term (2050) goals for the reduction of GGEs. The great challenge for COP16 will be to adjust these proposals and guarantee their compliance through the signing of a legally binding agreement.
In Copenhagen, Mexico set an example in the reduction of contaminant emissions
veloping and emerging markets represent 15% of that volume.
It is true that today’s international environ-mental technologies and products market is dominated by the developed countries of North America, Europe and Japan. Nevertheless, mar-kets in developing countries, mainly in Asia and Latin America, are growing fast as environmen-tal issues gain priority. Developing countries with growing populations and ongoing urbanization processes need environmental goods and servic-es. Furthermore, agencies that provide interna-tional developmental support are placing empha-sis on sustainable development and environmen-tal performance in their financial aid programs.
In Latin America’s case, towards the end of 2010 the environmental goods and services mar-ket had grown by 15 billion usd, especially in mat-ters of waste management and water treatment, fundamental areas given the needs of cities and growing urbanization.
During the ratification process of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) be-tween Mexico, the US and Canada, it was obvi-ous that provisions must be included on work and environmental issues, on the understanding that trade has consequences in both fields. In light of that, the three countries signed the so-called “parallel agreements,” one on work issues and the other on environmental ones, which resulted in the creation of the North American Environmen-tal Commission.
NAFTA, then, set a precedent by including environmental concerns in trade agreements, creating important niches for environment-friendly technologies. In other words, Mexico has an expanding environmental market whose characteristics are worthy of attention, in order to demonstrate the investment opportunities the sector offers.
At world level, environmental goods and ser-vices markets are divided into three large groups: a) goods and services aimed at contamination
To start with, it is worth mentioning that en-vironmental technologies, products and services have grown in the last two decades to such an extent that they equal those of the aerospace and pharmaceutical industries. In fact, in 2000, the global environmental products and technologies market was valued at 450 billion usd and by the end of 2010 may reach a figure of 640 billion. De-
business tips
management; b) goods and services aimed at the promotion, design and application of clean tech-nologies and the fabrication of less harmful en-vironmental products and c) goods and services aimed at natural resource management and sus-tainable leverage.
The first group refers to specific “end-of-pro-cess” technologies. The second group concerns compatible generic technologies that are sup-ported by the argument that technological in-novations lead to ecoefficiency. Finally, the third group addresses a kind of heterogeneous group of goods (clean-up infrastructure and forestry/fishing practices) and services (consulting and ecotourism) which facilitate a sustainable lever-age of natural resources.
In general, environmental goods and ser-vices in demand by Latin American countries –and Mexico is no exception– are involved in the growth of cities (waste management, water supply and treatment, air decontamination, in-frastructure of energy plants, noise control, con-servation of natural areas, among others) and in the economic activities of those countries with emphasis on the exploitation of natural resources (forests, minerals, sea and farm products).
In Mexico’s case, businesses which provide environmental services include Vivendi and Suez Lyonnaise des Eaux (for water treatment, both French companies); Severn Trent (in the same field but this time a British company); Mit-subishi Heavy Industries (same field, Japanese company); Ebara Corp. (industrial equipment, also Japanese); and Bechtel (engineering). These corporations are, basically, engaged in environ-mental services which arise as a result of the needs of cities, not the field of exploitation of natural resources.
Although it is clear that each country must develop actions aimed at the mitigation of global warming, it is also true that the measures they adopt are not necessarily identical for all nations. Mexico, for example, must remember that small
scale productive units predominate, and that must be taken into account when incorporating technological devices aimed at mitigating their contaminating emissions and, of course, at thor-oughly complying with environmental legislation.
Regarding legislation, for more than two de-cades Mexico has lived through a series of impor-tant changes which have been reflected in the cre-ation of laws, new legal institutions, governmental dependencies, non-governmental organizations, international and regional agreements, that seek the solution to environmental problems from a legal point of view and with the application of the law as an effective tool for the achievement of gen-eral environmental objectives.
From the point of view of trade and invest-ment, laws on ecology and the incorporation of crimes against the natural environment into the country’s penal code have favored the de-velopment of the environmental goods and services market.
The application of environmental standards has gone through change with satisfactory results. Some years ago, not complying with environmen-tal legislation meant being punished. Recently, a more negotiating, conciliatory approach has been adopted that contemplates voluntary compliance
BUT IN ADDITION TO THE COMMITMENTS TO REDUCE CONTAMINANT
EMISSIONS, IT SEEMS TIMELY TO ADDRESS
THE ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES CREATED BY THE
MUCH NEEDED LIAISON BETWEEN TECHNOLOGY
AND ENVIRONMENT UNDER CURRENT
CONDITIONS.
programs that include compensations for compliance failures and team work with the offender to help it comply with and respect the standard. Clearly this program enables both compliance with environmental legisla-tion and provides incentive for investment in the sector. It is an opportunity which satisfies mitigation goals and those of adaptation to on-going negotiations.
Mexican and Latin American companies dedicated to the region’s environmental mar-kets offer investment opportunities basically because their strategy includes:
That small and medium businesses form alliances with large corporations that ba-sically satisfy the demand arising from the growth of cities and urbanization.Opportunities in the environmental goods and services market to cover the demand for the sustainable exploitation of natural resources, an issue around which international corporations do not abound, although research centers do, and these can provide valuable guide-lines. The challenge, therefore, would be to set up alliances between them all.The clearest opportunity is in environ-mental services, the nature of which de-pends on the environmental problems of each country and ecosystem.
It is clear, then, that the challenges and oppor-tunities of COP16 for Mexico are significant and above all –if added to economic, political and safety agendas– complex in themselves. But the commitment exists and confronting it will be the catalyst for driving processes of internal transformation that will create new investment opportunities in the environment-friendly goods and services sector. n
*Professor and researcher in the Political and
Social Sciences Faculty, National Autonomous
University of Mexico (UNAM).
22 Negocios
In Mexico, an increasing number of companies are implementing self-supply systems that reduce their
greenhouse gas emissions, among other steps being taken to tackle climate change, an issue that the Mexican government has includ-ed in its National Development Plan 2007-2011.
Between 1995 and 2008, Mexico’s Energy Regulatory Com-mission (CRE for its acronym in Spanish) awarded 491 self-supply and 73 co-generation licenses. The number of such licenses is
backing Clean businessesGenerating clean energy through self-supply is a growing trend in the private sector in Mexico in order to strengthen the commitment to sustainability and caring for the environment, and also to improve their business performance: these measures provide energy savings of almost 70 million usd for 555 companies in Mexico.
by MARÍA EUGENIA SEVILLA expected to rocket over the fol-lowing years due to the increasing number of companies investing in green systems to generate energy self-supply projects.
According to the Federal Elec-tricity Commission’s (CFE, for its acronym in Spanish) Program of Electrical Energy Sector Infra-structure 2008-2017, the genera-tion of electrical energy through self-supply and co-generation schemes will increase by 36% to 9,193 MW per year, representing almost 10% of total energy con-sumption in Mexico.
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Wind PowerCemex provides one of the most successful case studies in the use of wind energy in Mexico, after pro-moting the construction of the Eu-rus wind farm which, with an ener-gy production capacity of 250 MW, is one of the largest in the world and the largest in Latin America.
This wind farm has 167 wind turbines, each with a 1.5 MW ca-
pacity, and is located in Juchitán, Oaxaca –in the Isthmus of Te-huantepec, in the wind-blessed Southeast of Mexico.
“Eurus provides 25% of our energy needs in Mexico,” indi-cates Luis Farías Martínez, Se-nior Vice-President of Energy and Sustainability of Cemex, which developed the plant in col-laboration with the Spanish firm
IN APRIL 2010, WAL-MART BEGAN OPERATING A WIND FARM IN LA MATA-LA VENTOSA, SUPPLYING ENERGY TO 350 OF ITS STORES, CLUBS, RESTAURANTS AND DISTRIBUTION CENTERS IN MEXICO CITY’S METROPOLITAN ZONE.
Acciona Energía, with an invest-ment of 550 million usd.
“The project created over 850 direct jobs in the area during the construction phase and it will generate other benefits for the economy and the local commu-nity,” explains Farías.
Eurus is the fifth largest wind farm in terms of emissions reduc-tions registered with the UN Clean Development Mechanism and it has one of the highest rates of emissions reductions per installed capacity.
The energy generated by Eurus is enough to supply a population of half a million, reducing the equiva-lent of 600,000 tons of carbon di-oxide (CO2) per year, approximately 25% of the total emissions created by a community of the aforemen-tioned size.
Another success story is the Wal-Mart retail chain which, with 1,500 stores in Mexico, has invested over 48 million usd in renewable energies over the past five years, an investment that to date represents
annual energy savings of around 6 million usd.
In April 2010, Wal-Mart began operating a wind farm in La Mata-La Ventosa, also in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, supplying energy to 350 of its stores, clubs, restaurants and distribution centers in Mexico City’s metropolitan zone.
Developed in conjunction with Electricité de France, it is also one of Mexico’s largest wind farms, with 27 wind turbines generating a to-tal energy production of 67.5 MW, preventing the emission of 140,000 tons of CO2 into the atmosphere.
“It’s part of the general sustain-ability strategy, for which one of the pillars is precisely the reduction in greenhouse gases and energy efficiency. Another area is water savings, followed by the generation of zero waste, products and pack-aging,” explains Manuel Gómez, Sustainability Director of Wal-Mart Mexico, which since 2005 has been promoting green projects.
“Our target is for 50% of our energy supply to come from renew-able sources by 2015,” he adds. Cur-rently, 18% of the company’s energy comes from such sources.
The logistics company FedEx is also renewing its commitment to the environment, after exceeding the target it set itself two years ago when purchasing renewable en-ergy credits for 25,000 MWh.
Also, over the past five years, it has reduced 8.33% in its air freight emissions, and it hopes to increase this reduction to 20% by 2020, as well as with proportional improve-ments to the efficiency of its ground transport fleet, currently having reached a reduction of 14.1%.
24 Negocios Photos ARCHIvE
Sun and Water Small-hydros are another ener-gy-saving option for companies. Cemex, for example, now has three “small hydros” in Colombia with an approximate capacity of 12 MW.
Wal-Mart plans to install small-hydros in various states across Mexico to provide energy to its stores and it is even consider-ing the use of tidal power by 2012.
The company is also imple-menting a water-savings pro-gram that in the first quarter of 2010 alone has saved 170 million liters of water, equivalent to the average annual consumption of 500 homes.
With its 390 waste-water treatment plants, Wal-Mart
re-uses 32% of the water it con-sumes and saves over 1.3 million cubic meters of drinking wa-ter that represents the annual consumption of 4,777 homes. The company plans to increase the number of water treatment plants, included as part of the construction specifications of its new stores.
As regards solar power, at two of its stores the retail chain has placed in operation two mega so-lar panels –among the largest in Latin America –in conjunction with Water Capital. Both panels –consisting 2,215 panels each– help prevent a total annual emis-sion of 320 tons of CO
2, so the company intends to install more over the following years.
BETWEEN 1995 AND 2008, MEXICO’S ENERGY REGULATORY
COMMISSION (CRE FOR ITS ACRONYM IN SPANISH)
AWARDED 491 SELF-SUPPLY AND 73 CO-GENERATION
LICENSES. THE NUMBER OF SUCH LICENSES IS EXPECTED TO ROCKET OVER THE FOLLOWING YEARS DUE TO THE INCREASING
NUMBER OF COMPANIES INVESTING IN GREEN SYSTEMS
TO GENERATE ENERGY SELF-SUPPLY PROJECTS.
cover feature SUSTAINABLE BUSINESSES
RecyclingThe proper handling of waste is another priority initiative for Mexico. In this field, Nokia was awarded the Green Comm Award in the category of companies im-plementing technological waste handling and recycling programs, for the second year in a row.
Coca-Cola is also a pioneer in recycling with Planbottle, a new lighter PET bottle that is achieved by making plastic bottles with 30% of materials, reducing its carbon footprint by a fifth. These 100%-recyclable bottles are dis-tributed in the cities of Mexico, Guadalajara, and Monterrey.
The company also has a recy-cling plant of its own –Industria Mexicana de Reciclado – in Tolu-ca, the Estado de México, which is the first in Latin America to recycle post-consumption PET. This process generates PET for reuse, a circuit that currently includes 35% of packaging of re-cycled material.
Cemex is also making prog-ress in that area - and not just
within Mexico: in Rüdersdorf, Germany, the company has been behind an energy-recovery plant using solid urban and commer-cial waste, known as “Waste-to-Energy,” with a 30 MW capacity.
This energy-recovery plant was developed in conjunction with the Swiss company Vatten-fall. It uses 250 thousand tonnes of solid urban and commercial waste, preventing them from being confined with sanitary landfills or incinerated without recovering the energy contained within the waste. The plant began to operate in 2009 and complies with the strict emission regulations in force in Germany.
“Zero-waste” is also a medi-um-term objective for Wal-Mart. Currently, 65% of waste from our stores is being reincorporated into another productive process; we intend to increase that to 80% by 2015,” explains Manuel Gómez.
The company has therefore set in motion a project to convert organic waste into compost used for fertilizers, and another proj-
ect to transform oil after it has been used in its restaurants and shops into biodiesel. The retail chain is also working together with its providers to promote more sustainable packaging and its supermarkets are promoting the sale of re-usable bags instead of plastic bags.
Gómez mentions that such ini-tiatives are being shared with their providers at forums that Wal-Mart regularly organizes, such as Juntos por un Planeta Mejor (To-gether for a Better Planet), which took place in September 2010, in-cluding the participation of com-panies such as Danone, Pepsico, Coca-Cola and Nestlé, among the 120 participants, during which they shared and discussed sus-tainability initiatives, models that, he said, are being targeted for implementation at their stores in Central America.
“Sustainability is a track with-out a finish line. The idea is that we learn to walk it together and share our knowledge,” concludes Gómez. n
COCA-COLA IS A PIONEER IN RECYCLING WITH PLANBOTTLE, A NEW LIGHTER PET BOTTLE THAT IS ACHIEVED BY MAKING PLASTIC BOTTLES WITH 30% OF RECYCLED MATERIALS, REDUCING ITS CARBON FOOTPRINT BY A FIFTH.
26 Negocios Photo ARCHIvE
In the middle of nowhere, in the Sonora desert –alongside one of the most con-taminating Federal Electricity Commis-sion’s (CFE) plants in the entire coun-
try– a biotechnological complex that will soon solve several environmental problems with one blow. It will do so on a grand scale, taking full advantage of the zone’s inclement weather and aridity and using the CFE’s con-taminant components.
Does it sound like mission impossible? Well, there is more. In the loneliness of the Sonora des-ert, this complex will grow saltwater algae, giving
Biofields: Green Gold Straight from the Sea and Cultivated in the Mexican Desertby CRISTINA ÁVILA-ZESATTI
Grow algae in the desert? Produce ethanol without harming the environment? Use carbon dioxide –the worst contaminant agent of all– and a green process to transform it? Reuse a single consumable for two years? Is all this possible with just one technology? Yes, it is. The Mexican company BioFields will be the first in the world to put into practice a technological project which, up to now, has only existed in US trials.
them new life and transforming them into what may become the “gold of the future” –ethanol.
In April, 2007, the Mexican Congress ap-proved –after lengthy discussion– the first ver-sion of the Law for the Promotion and Develop-ment of Biofuels, to incentivize the production and use of ethanol in the country.
It is, no more no less, the so-called “fuel of the future”, but in reality it has become the burning issue of a present-day reality shaped by climate change, which advances in disastrous leaps and bounds over practically all inhabited surfaces of the planet.
Ethanol production has become a “hot topic” in several countries, not only for environ-mental reasons but also out of absolute neces-sity since the depletion of hydrocarbons, which come from non-renewable fossil (oil) resources, is fast and imminent. Marine Gold: From the Mexican Desert to the WorldThe same year that Mexico gave the “green light” to ethanol production, businessman Alejandro González Cimadevilla was placing a pioneering bet in the world of green industries: he founded
mexico’s partner BIOFIELDS
the BioFields company, which would bring to the country a technology developed by Algenol, a North American company, and which consists of a novel system for turning a special kind of algae into ethanol.
“It is the first time in the world that this system will really be used and it will be in Mexico. The company has bought the rights to put into prac-tice a technology that, until now, has only existed as a scientific project. It’s a system that produces ethanol from blue-green algae, metabolically optimized to produce more ethanol than they normally would,” explains Alejandra Aguilar, the Communications Manager of BioFields.
In fact, algae are the most reproductive or-ganisms in the world and this natural fuel is hiding inside. That has been known for several years, nevertheless, the technology developed by Algenol, as recently as 2006, enables the same material to be reused for two years thanks to a system which breathes life into the algae by using solar energy and, guess what, the major contami-nating agent, creator of the greenhouse effect and global warming: carbon dioxide (CO
2). But… seaweed in the desert? Yes. In Puerto
Libertad, Sonora, just a couple of kilometers from the 30,000 hectares owned by BioFields –in the community of Pitiquito– sits one of the biggest en-ergy plants of the CFE, not only in size and power but also in terms of contamination. It is number seven on the list of plants which give out the high-est levels of harmful CO2, and it is precisely this en-vironmental disadvantage that BioFields’ reactors will use and transform into an advantage.
“This thermoelectric plant emits 4.5 million tons of CO2 every year. In the first stage, we would capture some 2.5 million tons of the contaminant and recycle it to produce 250 million gallons of ethanol a year [...] As the perspective on demand is on the rise, it is highly likely that in the future we will capture all the CO2 that the CFE’s plant gener-ates and perhaps even have to look elsewhere for places which emit this contaminant [...] because in BioFields we are planning to produce one bil-lion gallons of ethanol,” the spokeswoman for this unique Mexican company affirms.
The closeness of the thermoelectric giant is not the only advantage on offer in Puerto Li-bertad, Sonora. In fact, before settling on this lo-cation, BioFields analyzed 15 other destinations around the world to locate its gigantic and nov-el ethanol-producing plant, but none surpassed the Sonora site.
Puerto Libertad guarantees 329 days of sun-shine a year: not just any sunshine, desert sun-shine, which receives an enormous quantity of
photons per square meter and far exceeds the ranges in other locations BioFields studied. In addition, the plant will be situated in what was a “dead zone”, that is, it will not affect any kind of crop or urban area.
And best of all: only 300 kilometers sepa-rate Puerto Libertad from the US-Mexico bor-der and it is conveniently right next to the sea: two advantages which ensure the company has the salt water it needs and also, and above all, outward routes to its main markets: the US, Europe and Japan.
Green Leadership in Burning TimesIn November and December 2010, Mexico will be the seat of the XVI Conference of the Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP16), an event which gathers representatives of more than 200 coun-tries in an attempt to reach an agreement on the measures the world should take on environ-mental issues. Curbing greenhouse gas emis-sions (like CO
2) at the lowest possible economic cost is priority number one –and also the most difficult one– for participants in the encounter in which Mexico acts as host and conciliator –a role which in a way also obliges the country to be accountable for measures taken to alleviate the effects of global warming.
The imminent start-up of operations at Bio-Fields, scheduled for 2011 is, without a doubt, a good card to hold. As this year draws to a close, Mexico has committed to starting production of ethanol and other biofuels based on maize, sugar cane (only permitted in the event of excess pro-duction since they are basic foods) and materials such as castor and jatropha seeds.
BioFields will not only avoid using materials that can be used for food, but will also remove millions of tons of CFE-produced CO2 from the atmosphere. Its plant will be situated on land that was not in use for any other kind of crop and, be-ing a superimposed platform, will not alter the nature of the land in any way or use chemicals or pesticides. Fresh and potable water will not be wasted; on the contrary, seawater will be used and recycled. The productive cost of BioFields is much less than other ethanol industries and its plant will provide 300 permanent jobs and 1,500 during the construction process.
Businessman Alejandro González Cimade-villa –who is the Director and Partner of Grupo Gondi, the second largest recycled paper produc-er in Mexico– knew what he was doing when he invested 850 million usd in the green adventure of his career: introducing this new technology
of gigantic photo-bioreactors which will obtain ethanol from algae in an environment-friendly process and using its own material.
Currently, BioFields seems to hold the ace. Including to the emerging market, since the de-mand for ethanol at world level is definitely rising and Mexico is ready to take on the demands of this “green gold” in the near future.
So, in these “hot times,” economically and cli-matologically speaking, this rising company’s ace may also be Mexico’s ace. One lucky green card that the world is screaming for to enable us to keep up the game of life. n
www.biofields.com
biofields process
The technology used is the creation of
the US company Algenol, owned by
entrepreneur Paul Woods.
For two decades, scientists around
the world have been doing research
and development work to create this
particular method of obtaining ethanol
(and not biodiesel, which is more usu-
al) from blue-green algae (also called
cyanobacteria).
Around 700 different species were
studied until they arrived at just seven,
which are metabolically optimized for
the best possible result.
This innovative technology, for
which BioFields has bought the rights
for use in Mexico, consists of enor-
mous, totally transparent test tubes
one meter wide and 100 meters tall,
called photo-bioreactors, where the al-
gae and seawater are deposited.
Carbon dioxide enters the photo-
bioreactors through valves located in
the corners, while their transparency
admits photons from solar energy.
After 7 days, the algae have repro-
duced and become “inflated” from the
nutrients it has received. Next, an enor-
mous current of air makes the cyano-
bacteria secrete the ethanol held in-
side. The final part of the process con-
sists of separating the secreted ethanol
from the seaweed.
The algae are used and subjected to
the same process over and over again
throughout their life of approximately
two years.
28 Negocios28 Negocios Photos COURTESY OF MódULO SOLAR
Founded 35 years ago, Módulo Solar is a tech-company that has so far installed almost 300,000 square meters of solar water heater equip-
ment all across Mexico.This amount means that the company –
based in Cuernavaca, in the central Mexican state of Morelos– has installed almost a quar-ter of all solar heaters in Mexico. According to data from the Ministry of Economy, in 2009 there were sales of approximately 1.3 million square meters of this technology which not only heats water using sunlight but also helps contribute to savings in energy consumption and, if that were not enough, improves both family and company finances.
“The solar heater market in Mexico has changed radically over the past ten years. Before it exclusively catered to a niche sector interested in energy and financial savings, but it has grown since people have become concerned about sustainability and climate change,” explains Daniel García, Módulo So-lar’s commercial director.
Founded in 1974, the company is now among the 10 largest in its field in the world, ensuring its continued leading position both in Mexico and in Latin America. It exports its products to countries in Central America and the European Union, mainly Spain, a pioneering country in the use of this tech-nology because –since three years ago– local laws have required each residence to have a solar water heater.
In an interview on July 31, 2010 published in El Financiero (Mexican newspaper), the
Hot Water 24 Hours a DayWith over 30 years’ experience, Módulo Solar ranks among the top-10 global companies in the world using solar power to heat water.
company’s president, Octavio García Mar-tínez, reported that they were seeking to be-come market leaders in Spain.
“Spain is a highly competitive market, but ultimately the market is globalized nowa-days, and therefore we are also exporting to Central America, and analyzing possible business opportunities in Chile and the pos-sibility of opening a plant in Ecuador,” said the executive during the interview.
Energy Savings EverywhereOver its three and a half decades in opera-tion, this Mexican company has developed solar-powered water heating equipment in three main areas: housing, swimming pools and industries.
Its basic product is Axol, a system that uses heat from sun light to heat water using photovoltaic panels, which is then deposited in a hot water storage tank from where it is distributed to a mid-sized house.
The cost of the system starts from 560 usd and has a 25-year life span, with a 10-year guarantee.
“A small, 150-liter equipment, provides savings of 400 kilograms of gas per year,” ac-cording to García. He calculates that a basic system such as Axol, over its quarter-of-a-century lifespan in a residential setting, pre-vents the emission of up to 24 tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere.
And there are financial benefits too, on top of the environmental benefits provided by a 150-liter equipment (which is enough for 3 people to have a bath every day, with hot water available throughout the day). Ac-
by ANTONIO VÁZQUEZ
BASED IN CUERNAVACA, IN THE CENTRAL MEXICAN STATE OF MORELOS, THE COMPANY HAS INSTALLED ALMOST A QUARTER OF ALL SOLAR HEATERS IN MEXICO.
In Spain, the Mexican company has an of-fice and Internet portal for consumers. Its par-ticipation in Feria GENERA 2009, Spain’s larg-est expo in the energy and environment sector, was notable and the company even has an ISO 9001:2000 certification granted by the Spanish certification association, Aenor.
Módulo Solar’s main clients are housing developers and companies such as Nestlé, Pepsico, Grupo Bimbo, as well as several ho-tel chains. It has a workforce of just over 50 employees and in recent years it has invoiced approximately 25 million usd. The company re-invests around 2% of its profits in research and development.
mexico’s partner MÓDULO SOLAR
cording to Daniel García, the investment is recouped after around four years, thanks to savings in monthly energy bills. Each year, a house equipped with a 150-liter Axol system can save up to 80% in gas consumption.
Due to their effectiveness, Axol heaters form part of the Green Mortgage (Hipoteca Verde) program of Mexico’s National Hous-ing Fund Institute for Workers (Infonavit, for its acronym in Spanish), which is the office
responsible for housing in Mexico.The Green Mortgage is a concept that has
been successfully applied in the United States and some European countries. In Mexico, it has been promoted so that all social housing projects acquired through Infonavit loans incorporate technology that uses renewable energy sources.
Poliheat is the second in Módulo Solar’s family of products, and is used to heat swim-
ming pool water. In its two presentations –plastic and metallic– Poliheat reduces the consumption of gas for heating water by be-tween 70% and 100%. With a 10-year guar-antee, the collectors used for this technology ensure that water in swimming pools main-tains a temperature ranging between 28 and 30 degrees centigrade for most of the year.
For industrial users, Módulo Solar has in-novated with Maxol, which heats water to a temperature ranging from 30 to 90 Celsius degrees, depending on the consumer’s needs. This large-sized panel equipment generates up to 100% savings in fuel use. It is ideal for hospitals, sports centers, clubs, gymnasiums, hotels, and wherever large volumes of water are needed.
Maxol, for example, is used by hotels such as Vallarta Palace in Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco; Club del Sol, in Acapulco, Guerrero; Cozumel Palace, in Quintana Roo; by retail chains such as Grupo Wal-Mart and Liverpool, and by Pumas football club of the National Autono-mous University of Mexico (UNAM). n
www.modulosolar.com.mx
OVER ITS THREE AND A HALF DECADES IN OPERATION, THIS MEXICAN COMPANY HAS DEVELOPED SOLAR-POWERED WATER HEATING EQUIPMENT IN THREE MAIN AREAS: HOUSING, SWIMMING POOLS AND INDUSTRIES.
30 Negocios30 Negocios Photos COURTESY OF dESMEx
The Grupo Desmex company was established in 1994 in the city of León, Guanajuato. Its growth has been such that it has now subsidiar-
ies in Monterrey, Puebla, Mexico City, the US and Europe.
Desmex has a curious history. During the 1990s it started by innovating the footwear industry. Up until that point it had focused on producing machinery for the sector. After gain-ing a strong reputation in that area, the compa-ny began experimenting with paints, dyes, and chemicals in the automotive sector.
Desmex defines itself as “a company aware of environmental problems and eco-logical damage, and therefore we have paid serious attention to developing business lines that tackle the problems created as a result of climate and environmental changes by contributing in the field of renewable energy technologies.”
“We were impressed by the industrial waste of polyurethanes which we saw in the production of footwear. In that way the idea formed of creating a recycling polyure-thane plant called ECOPUR (Ecological Poly-urethanes), that was joined to the Group in
A History of Environmental AwarenessFrom footwear to chemicals to the automotive sector and —over 15 years ago— to a market that was still in its infancy: photovoltaic technology, using solar energy.
by ANTONIO VÁZQUEZ
2004. ECOPUR as a house of systems offer-ing polyols in a base of soy and PET that are widely used in construction and refrigerating sections, industries dedicated to insulation,” according to the company’s website.
After seeing the polyurethane recycling process —present in various automotive com-ponents— and installing the first recycling plant for this material in the region six years ago, “the directors became aware of renew-able energy technologies and the whole range of environmental issues, and that there was a very important market niche that was not being filled either in Mexico or in Latin America,” says Carlos Olivares, manager of the Desmex Solar division.
At that point, Desmex took the next step: after conducting research to diagnose the con-sumption and market in Mexico, it decided to focus on solar energy. Through negotiations with other companies, mainly in Germany, Desmex began to import photovoltaic technol-ogy systems to Mexico.
“We do not manufacture solar panels our-selves. Instead we create strategic alliances with German companies; we bring the tech-nology over and install it. Desmex guarantees
the system’s proper operation,” remarks Carlos Olivares, adding that they have therefore in-vested in training to offer the technical service required for this type of equipment.
In three years, the company has installed so many panels across Mexico that it equals a total power of 500 kilowatts, in terms of energy consumption.
“The company has realized that thermal solar energy for residential hot water and swimming pools is a great market,” explains Olivares. “We have also worked on installing induction lighting systems or LED-type induc-tion lamps which lower the electrical energy consumption for clients based on the use of photovoltaic panels.”
A New Division, New Challenges to MeetBefore undertaking the expansion, Desmex needed to create a division for sustainable tech-nologies in the Mexican market.
“With the new division we also set up orga-nizational structures, specific sales teams for sustainable technologies, training courses for technicians in thermosolar energy, photovolta-ics and lighting that give us a faster response time for our clients,” says Olivares.
mexico’s partner DESMEX
That was when the idea arose for Desmex Solar, which offers “a complete solution for analysis, design and installation of renewable energy projects that can range from large, com-mercial and industrial photovoltaic systems to solar water heating systems for homes.”
Desmex Solar’s photovoltaic systems have up to a 25-year guarantee.
“The systems will have an effective perfor-mance between 90% and 100% during the first 10 years and 80% for the subsequent 15 years. In the long term, the investment cost in photovoltaic systems is recouped after nine to 10 years thanks to savings in electricity bills,” says Olivares. “Therefore the investment itself does not represent more than 20% of future savings,” he continues.
One of Desmex’s obstacles has been the lack of awareness among society about the use of renewable energy technologies.
“The biggest barrier that we found at the outset was the lack of information available to people about photovoltaic systems. Every-one was worried about global warming and thought that they were helping just by cutting down their consumption: switching off lights, purchasing low-energy devices or other mea-
sures that were changing consumption habits, when the hardest thing for a client is precisely that: changing their consumption habit,” Oliva-res recalls.
Carlos Olivares guarantees that clients do not need to change their consumer habits. They can continue, but by using photovoltaic systems. For large consumers, says the execu-tive, the energy savings start 12 months after the product’s installation.
“Environmentally speaking, with each one of these systems you are preventing the emis-sion of tons of carbon dioxide into the atmo-sphere. Photovoltaic energy is a clean energy that has no moving or mechanical parts; the so-lar energy has contact only with the panel and produces electricity. Neither does it need much maintenance,” he adds.
Today, Desmex Solar has installed its tech-nology in homes, hotels, industries and exhibi-tion centers. Therefore, it has created an origi-nal scheme of store-show rooms in San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato; Guadalajara, Jalisco and Monterrey, Nuevo León, which give clients first-hand experience of the technology. n
www.desmexsolar.com
IN THREE YEARS, THE COMPANY HAS INSTALLED SO MANY PANELS ACROSS MEXICO THAT IT EQUALS A TOTAL POWER OF 500 KILOWATTS, IN TERMS OF ENERGY CONSUMPTION.
32 Negocios Photos COURTESY OF KIOTO CLEAR EnERGY GROUP
“We look to the Sun as an irreplaceable source of energy,” is the philosophy of Ki-oto Clear Energy Group, the leading Eu-ropean manufacturer of solar heaters.
Just one year after beginning operations in Guadalajara, Jalisco, the Austrian-based com-pany is exporting from Mexico to the US and Latin American countries such as Guatemala, Uruguay, Brazil, Chile, and Costa Rica.
“Four years ago, headquarters analyzed the possibility of increasing its market presence in the Americas. Manufacturing in Europe and sending the product to America is difficulty and costly,” explains Hons Sthuepz, the com-pany’s commercial director in Mexico, speak-ing about the company’s interest in setting up in Mexico.
Kioto Clear Energy Group: European TechnologyMade in MexicoEurope’s leading solar-heater company decided to set up operations in Mexico to supply the US and Latin American markets.
“After considering various countries in the continent, we chose Mexico because it was easier to export to North, Central and South America from here,” he adds. “And after one year we have increased production by 80%.”
In July 2009, Kioto Clear Energy Group inaugurated its plant in Guadalajara with an initial investment of around 5 million usd, in a factory space measuring roughly 3,000 square meters, currently employing 25 experts in re-newable energy source technology.
Before it had officially opened for business, the European company already had a list of clients interested in its products: Rotoplas (the Mexican water-tank manufacturer), Casolar, Ecovent, Mangofar, to name just a few.
This was Kioto’s first expedition outside Europe to sell its technology to the majority of the American continent and even Africa.
In Step with the Global TrendAccording to Kioto Clear Energy Group, there are currently three megatrends in the energy sector: sharp rises in the prices for convention-al energy; growing uncertainties with regard to supply –especially in the case of energy from fossil fuels– and the climate change discussion and global warming. Therefore its objective is to transfer a sizeable share of energy supply in the world to solar energy systems.
Kioto Clear Energy has two divisions: one thermosolar and another for photovoltaics. With total revenue of 250 million usd, Kioto Clear Energy Group is one of the world lead-ers in the renewable energy market.
In Europe, it has 30% market share and in 2008 it produced almost 1.1 million square me-ters of panels to heat water.
In Guadalajara it is producing photovoltaic modules, plate heat-exchangers and other com-ponents for the thermosolar energy division.
By 2010, Kioto Clear Energy Group intends to make a profit of approximately 7 million usd at its Mexican plant, which exports 5% of its production.
European Thermosolar Equipment from MexicoKioto Clear Energy Group’s components and thermosolar systems produced in Gua-dalajara are the result of a long-term re-search process.
Its product range includes the GreenOne-Tec family of collectors which have aesthetical
by ANTONIO VÁZQUEZ
JUST ONE YEAR AFTER BEGINNING OPERATIONS IN GUADALAJARA, IN THE STATE OF JALISCO, THE AUSTRIAN-BASED COMPANY IS EXPORTING FROM MEXICO TO THE US AND LATIN AMERICAN COUNTRIES SUCH AS GUATEMALA, URUGUAY, BRAZIL, CHILE, AND COSTA RICA.
mexico’s partner KIOTO CLEAR ENERGY GROUP
designs that have received a number of innova-tion and environmental prizes.
The cost of Kioto Clear Energy Group’s ther-mosolar systems starts at 530 usd in Mexico.
“Firstly we guarantee quality because we are using European technology that has been developed over the past 30 years. We also of-fer very high-performance products. That’s the major difference,” says Sthuepz.
And then there are the savings. A device that measures less than 2 square meters generates av-erage monthly savings of 40 usd in gas consump-tion. In the industrial sector, this saving can be as high as 60% in terms of the energy consumed to heat water. In Europe, according to Sthuepz, a 50-liter water tank that uses a Kioto Clear En-ergy solar heater can save up to 100 kilograms of gas per month.
“This all has a positive effect on the envi-ronment because it means you’re not burning
gas to heat water and you’re saving energy, which also generates savings in time in mon-ey,” he adds.
Kioto Clear Energy products carry a 10-year guarantee and Hons Sthuepz says that the investment is recouped within a maxi-mum of four years.
The executive is confident that the plant in Mexico will continue its growth. In his opinion, programs such as Green Mortgage (Hipoteca Verde) being promoted by the Infonavit national housing fund will raise awareness of the importance to the econo-my of using renewable energy technologies.
“Ultimately, I believe that people think about saving on electricity more in financial terms than in saving the environment. That’s the case the world over,” he concludes. n
www.kioto.com
IN GUADALAJARA IT IS PRODUCING PHOTOVOLTAIC MODULES, PLATE HEAT-EXCHANGERS AND OTHER COMPONENTS FOR THE THERMOSOLAR ENERGY DIVISION.
34 Negocios Photos COURTESY OF IBERdROLA
As the energy it provides, the his-tory of Grupo Iberdrola is one of constant transformation. Born from the merger of Hidroeléc-
trica Ibérica and Hidroeléctrica Española, the energy group has more than 100 years of ex-perience under his belt and the last decade of its existence has been marked by the expan-sion and consolidation.
Today, Grupo Iberdrola is the first Spanish energy company, the first global wind power producer and one of the four world’s major energy companies. It has presence in over 40 countries, more than 28 million customers and creates about 33,000 jobs worldwide.
With geographical focus in the Atlantic re-gion –which includes Europe, Latin America and the US– the group’s installed capacity amounts to 43,600 megawatts (MW).
A Commitment to Sustainability Iberdrola Renovables held its first Annual General Meeting in 2008. Today it ranks as the world leader in wind power installed ca-pacity and is at the forefront of offshore wind energy, with the largest number of projects in the sector.
The company –one of the biggest drivers of growth of Grupo Iberdrola, who owns 80% of its social capital– avoids the emission of nearly 10 million tons of carbon dioxide (CO
2)
Expansion with Renewed EnergyIberdrola, the leading company in wind energy worldwide, continues its expansion plans and consolidates its presence in Mexico
into the atmosphere through the use of green technologies to generate renewable energy.
Iberdrola Renovables focuses primarily in Spain, the US and the UK, but has a significant presence in Greece, France and Poland and assets in Germany, Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Brazil, Mexico and Hungary. It also has pres-ence in Guatemala, Estonia, Bulgaria, Roma-nia, Cyprus, Canada and China, among other countries.
At the end of the third quarter of 2010, its net profit reached 250 million usd. In Septem-ber 2010, the company registered 12,006 MW of installed capacity.
2009 and 2010 were years of consolidation for Iberdrola Renovables. Today the compa-ny has facilities in 12 countries and has a total installed capacity in Spain of 5,593 MW; 4,314 MW in the US; 910 MW in the UK and 1,189 MW in the rest of Europe and Latin America.
In 2009 Iberdrola was ranked first in in-creasing wind power in the US, where the company is the second wind power operator
–with presence in 23 states– and has earned nearly 1 billion usd in grants form the Trea-sury Department for encouraging the use of renewable energy.
In the UK the picture is equally optimistic. There, the company is a leader in wind en-ergy. It owns the Whitelee wind farm in Scot-land –which is the largest in Europe, with 322 MW and since 2009 is working in expansions to reach 593 MW. In addition, the company has began the construction of Arecleoch, a 120 MW wind farm that will be one of the largest in Scotland.
The company has continued its expansion in Europe through the development, along with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, various wind projects in Hungary and Poland.
In Spain, the company’s wind power, in-creased by 393 MW in 2009. It also has 342 MW in mini hydro plants, a 50 MW solar ther-mal plant in Puertollano and its first forest bio-mass plant in the municipality of Corduente.
mexico’s partner IBERDROLA
And the good news continues. Iberdrola reached its record of wind production be-tween January and September 2010: 18 mil-lion 91,000 kilowatt hours (kWh) in its facili-ties worldwide, representing an increase of 20.2% over the same period last year.
Latin America: Expanding Market Latin America is a key point in the strategic plans of Iberdrola Group, having Mexico and Brazil as its major pillars.
The company’s relationship with Latin America goes back more than a decade. The Group is mainly in Mexico and Brazil, but also does business in Guatemala, Bolivia and Chile.
Iberdrola has 9.7 million delivery points –almost as many as Spain– in the region and its production amounts to almost 27% of the group’s total.
In Mexico, the group installed capacity amounts to 5,000 MW, which positions it as the number one private energy producer
and second overall, only surpassed by the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE).
Iberdrola’s history in Mexico began with the coming into operation of a combined cycle plant in Monterrey in 2002 and the award of combined cycle Laguna II (500 MW) in the same year.
In 2004 the company was awarded a contract to build the combined cycle plant Tamazunchale, of 1.135 MW, and in 2006 it began operating Altamira V, the largest com-bined cycle plant in Mexico, representing an investment of 550 million usd.
Mexico: key piece Mexico participates with 5.7% of Iberdrola’s global sales, higher than any Latin American country.
The pace in which the company has gained contracts in the country for the last 10 years has been a key factor in its expan-sion. In the past two years, Iberdrola has won three electricity infrastructure related contracts and, although it has just six ap-proved and in operation projects, it manages a quarter of the gigahertz and megawatts to-tal capacity authorized by the Mexican gov-ernment to private producers.
In January 2009 Iberdrola opened La Ventosa, its first wind farm in Mexico, locat-ed in the municipality of Juchitán de Zara-goza, in the state of Oaxaca.
La Ventosa marked a milestone as the country’s first wind farm developed entire-
ly by private enterprise. With an installed capacity of 80 MW and 94 wind turbines manufactured by Gamesa, La Ventosa was registered by the executive board of the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). The project avoids the emission of 180,000 tons of CO2 per year.
The good news for Iberdrola Renovables in Mexico didn’t end there. In March 2009, following an international bidding contest, the company was awarded the construction of a second wind farm –La Venta III– on Mexican soil. It is no coincidence that the new project is also in the state of Oaxaca, in the municipality of Santo Domingo Ingenio, as this area is characterized by strong winds. That is why there are plans to install a total of 500 MW in the medium term.
The construction –by Iberdrola Ingeniería y Construcciones– started in May 2009 and completion is expected in late 2010. The park will have 103 MW capacity and 121 Gamesa wind turbines. The contract states that Iber-drola will supply power to CFE for the next two decades. The wind farm production is equivalent to the supply that a 200,000 people community would require and will reduce 150,000 tons of CO
2 emissions annually.Recently, Iberdrola won another contract
worth 70.1 million usd for the construction of two power lines of over 220 kilometers (136.7 miles) and two power substations, all linked to the the 750 MW La Yesca hydro-electric power plant, in Jalisco. n
Photos COURTESY OF ACCIOnA EnERGÍA36 Negocios
For over 20 years, Acciona Energía has been among the leading com-panies in the renewable energy sector. Primarily focused on wind
energy, it is one of the largest developers and builders of wind farms in the world. But the company does not neglect other renewable power generation technologies such as solar, thermal, photovoltaic, hydro power and bio-mass. The company also manufactures wind turbines and produces and sells biofuels.
With more than 2,200 employees in 15 countries, it is the energy division of the Spanish group Acciona, leader in infrastruc-ture and services aimed at sustainable devel-opment and social welfare.
In the field of renewable energy Acciona is focused on three main sections: project de-velopment, production and sale of electricity and manufacting and sale of wind turbines.
At the end of 2009, Acciona Energía had installed 8,892 megawatts (MW) in re-newables. The company produced a total of 12,968 GWh (million kWh) in renewable en-ergy installations. Attributable production amounted to 11,752 GWh.
Acciona Energía also operates and gives maintenance of several plants built for third party clients –totaling 1,200 MW– and sells the power generated by other renewable en-ergy developers. In 2009, the company sold 9,726 GWh in Spain, of which 8,272 GWh corresponded to wholly owned facilities.
The sale of wind turbines designed and manufactured by its subsidiary Acciona Windpower has successfully placed the company in the world’s top-10 in just five years. Between 2004 and 2009 the company assembled 2,139 turbines, representing a to-tal capacity of 3,211.50 MW. In the first half of 2010 Acciona Energía’s businesses amount-ed to more than 1 billion usd.
The company has more than 200 compa-nies registered –most of them devoted to the development of wind farms and production of aeolian energy– in 19 countries. Renew-able electricity production of the member firms of Acciona Energía in 2009 avoided the emission of 7.86 million tons of CO2.
Among the qualities that distinguish the company from its competitors is the con-stant quest to integrate its facilities in their environment while providing added value. This may include covering the plants so they
In the Race for More Clean EnergyAcciona Energía continues to make Mexico a key piece in its commitment to renewable energy.
mexico’s partner ACCIONA ENERGÍA
are not visible to the naked eye; building sculptures or paths for walking and biking and restoring old buildings.
Acciona Energía in Mexico Acciona’s presence in Mexico goes back more than three decades in which the company has participated in sever infrastructure develop-ment projects.
Some of the projects that Acciona has been undertaken include the campus of Poly-technic University of San Luis Potosí –which included the design, construction, financing, equipment and maintenance– and the Bajío High Specialization Regional Hospital –in this case, the company was in charge of the de-sign, construction and management of non-care-services– in León, Guanajuato.
The company, which employs 2,500 peo-ple in Mexico, offers design and construction of residential buildings. In 2009 it partici-pated in the biddings for the construction of the largest wastewater treatment plants in Mexico.
In October 2009, Stephen Morrás, Gener-al Director of the Energy Division of Acciona, participated in the Global Renewable Energy Forum held in León, Guanajuato, organized by the Mexican Ministry of Energy and the United Nations Industrial Development Or-ganization (UNIDO).
Morrás took the occasion to advocate the need for an Energetic Transition Plan more ambitious than the currently existing inter-national agreements, to ensure global en-ergy supplies and halt climate change. In his speech, Morrás stressed the importance of Mexico in the global picture of renewable en-ergy and renewed his intention to cooperate with the country.
The largest Wind Farm in Latin AmericaIn January 2009, Acciona Energía opened the first phase of Eurus wind farm, an am-bitious group project developed in conjunc-tion with Cemex. With an investment of 550 million usd, the project was completed in November of that year, giving birth to one of the largest wind farms in the world, the largest in Latin America –with 250.5 MW of total power– and the second largest for emis-sions reduction registered under the Kyoto Protocol.
The park has 167 wind turbines of 1.5 MW each –Acciona Windpower technolo-gy– and avoids the emission of 600 thousand tons of CO2 annually. Located in an area of 2,500 hectares leased in the ejido La Venta, Eurus generates energy equivalent to that consumed by a population of 500,000 in-habitants and covers 25% of Cemex’s energy requirements.
In June 2010, ten financial institutions linked to global or regional public institu-tions and some of them specifically targeted to support sustainable projects in develop-ing countries, signed financing agreements for the park. The agreements totaled 375 million usd, the largest credit awarded to a renewable energy facility in Latin America.
Oaxaca II, III and IV In March 2010, Acciona Energía won con-tracts for the construction and operation of three wind farms, also located in the state of Oaxaca, in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec.
The parks –called Oaxaca II, Oaxaca III and Oaxaca IV– are expected to begin oper-ating in 2011. Each one will produce 102 MW. A total of 204 Acciona Windpower turbines of 1.5 MW will be instaled.
This investment –estimated in more than 630 million usd– consolidates Acciona’s business relationship with Mexico.
Mexican Federal Electricity Comission estimates that the average annual electricity production of all three parks will be of 1129.3 GWh. Acciona Energy said in a statement that as a complement to the sale of energy, the production of these parks will obtain and sell Certified Emission Reductions (CERs), Mexico being a country that can benefit from the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM).
Acciona Energía has announced an inter-national strategic plan for the 2010-2013 pe-riod. The goal is to build 2,400 MW of wind power. The Oaxaca parks represent 12.7% of the company’s global wind energy target. n
38 Negocios I The Lifestyle38 Negocios Photo ARCHIvE
“Mexico has a tremendous resource at hand and we should get more from of it. Our country receives double the solar radiation of Germany, for example, and
that is a huge advantage to undertake specific actions to promote the growth of more eco-friendly electric systems. In that task, govern-ments, the private sector, civil society and, of course, research centers across the country should be involved,” says Vicente Estrada Ca-jigal, president of the Mexican National Solar Energy Association (ANES, for its acronym in Spanish).
Why not turn this paradise into wealth and environmental health? Estada Cajigal spoke to Negocios about the current use and future de-velopment of renewable energy in Mexico.
—What is the National Association of Solar Energy and what are its lines of action? We have been working for over 30 years. We are a private Mexican nonprofit association that began with academic purposes. However, over time, with the expansion of the market and op-portunities in the world of renewable energy, we evolved and extended our influence.
Mexico: Land of the sun
Although we are called National Solar Energy Association, our scope of action covers all renewable energies, because all of them, in one way or another, are a consequence of solar energy.
Currently we have around 900 members from very different backgrounds. Many of our associates are renowned companies, both Mexican and international.
Certainly we are facing new times but we have maintained our main line, since ANES was formed to be a forum where ideas and challenges in the use of solar energy and other eco-friendly energy sources, could be shared and discussed.
—What is Solar Energy Week and what is its significance? From 1976 to date, in October of each year, we meet for a week and offer training courses and conferences on the most relevant advances in renewable energies.
For 34 years, the National Solar Energy Week has been held in different cities of the country, always hand in hand with an aca-demic institution, most of the times a local university.
The idea of doing it together with the educational system is to permeate the ideas of renewable energy among society and espe-cially among students, who are the future of Mexico.
—How widespread is the use of renew-able energy in Mexico? This technology is not new. In fact it has been used for many years. Certainly we know little about the electrification of some rural schools in the country, for example, carried out using renewable energy.
There have been several programs in Mex-ico promoting the use of photovoltaic systems in communities where it is difficult to access
interview VICENTE ESTRADA CAJIGAL
the Federal Electricity Commission’s (CFE, for its acronym in Spanish) grid.
In the early 1990s, for example, about 50,000 systems of that type were installed, particularly in Southeastern states. I repeat: we know little, but the use of renewable energies, taken at the time by the Mexican government, was one of the largest programs installed worldwide.
—If all the sources of renewable energy are somehow related to solar energy, then Mexico has a huge wealth to take advantage of. Definitely. In gross terms, Mexico receives more solar radiation than other nations and
there are several projects related to renewable energy underway.
There is hydro power, for example, which has been used for a long time in the country. In fact, the CFE has several hydro power plants operating and generating thousands of megawatts. The use of wind power has also grown in recent years: last year Mexico had the highest rate of global growth in the use of such systems. There is also biomass energy and geothermal energy, also used by the CFE in at least three regions. In fact, Mexico ex-ports geothermal energy to the US. There are market niches that can be more and better approached. There is certainly much more that can and should be done.
“WE KNOW LITTLE, BUT THE USE OF RENEWABLE ENERGIES, TAKEN AT THE TIME BY THE MEXICAN GOVERNMENT, WAS ONE OF THE LARGEST PROGRAMS INSTALLED WORLDWIDE.”
40 Negocios Photo ARCHIvE
—How expensive is access to renewable energy? The price of these systems has come down significantly. The current trend is that photo-voltaic or solar-electric systems, for example, are lowering their rates to the extent that its use is spreading. That is happening every-where. I would say we are very close to the moment when solar energy technology will be affordable for almost anyone.
In Mexico, we should seize this great “sub-sidy” that nature gave us. Namely the constant presence of solar radiation. We are rich in that resource.
—From the point of view of ANES, what are some viable options to migrate permanently to the use of renewable energy? As individuals is just a matter of simply taking the plunge and spend part of our economic resources to invest in a solar energy system. The good news is that the investment is made once and then the sun does its part. Nobody has to pay for these solar radiations we al-ready have on hand.
I believe the banking system may also allo-cate funding to make this change. Today there are loans for buying cars, which are finally contaminants, why not consider providing loans for people or companies to transform their lives using non-polluting renewable energy? I think that’s entirely possible. Maybe we need to expand the vision and find the niche market that is before our eyes.
—Is the technology currently used in Mexico national or from overseas? In the case of water heating systems, for ex-ample, you can find Mexican factories with at least 60 years of experience producing and developing these systems. In the case of photo-voltaic systems, there is 100% Mexican devel-opment as well as imported technology. In the same extent you can find national companies and firms with foreign capital operating in the country.
There are several manufacturing facilities dedicated to the assembly of photovoltaic modules and solar cells. However, given the current market conditions and the environ-mental urgency, more investment in technol-ogy development is desirable.
—What are, broadly speaking, the chal-lenges of renewable energy in Mexico? As in many other areas of knowledge, there is a separation between what is generated in universities and research institutions and what businesses are doing.
We have begun working on an initiative to form the first Mexican Renewable Energy Clus-ter and have also formed a consortium compris-ing 16 companies with clear goals, including technological development.
I believe that this mechanism can help break the barrier between what the market demands and what research centers are generating across the country.
The government of the state of Morelos has offered us to take part in its industrial strengthening strategy. Hopefully by the end of 2010 we will establish a civil association in which ANES, the 16 companies we are working with, the government of Morelos and some educational institutions will join efforts to foster the use of renewable energy technologies.
—Is there any study identifying where in the country renewable energy is most used and where is it more needed? At this point we have not found precisely what states or cities draw more from these systems.
Derived from the current energy bill, the Program for Integral Development of the Use of Renewable Energies was developed. Although we consider that program could be improved, it certainly includes several actions to promote the use of photovoltaic systems mostly in rural areas from Guerrero, Oaxaca, Veracruz and Chiapas.
There is a long way gone. I would say that there are industries, hotels, residential developments and individuals all around the country that are already using solar heating systems, for example.
What I am sure of is that we will see a growth in the installation of these renewable energy systems in the next few years. Solar radiation is a resource that we have virtually in the whole country but there are places like Sonora or Baja California in which it is stron-ger than in other regions. The ideal would be to use that abundance to shape systems that benefit other states or cities in Mexico. I think it will happen sooner than later because our country is not free of environmental problems nor of the climate change experienced by the entire planet. n
“I BELIEVE THE BANKING SYSTEM MAY ALSO ALLOCATE FUNDING TO MAKE THIS CHANGE. TODAY THERE ARE LOANS FOR BUYING CARS –WHICH ARE FINALLY CONTAMINANTS– WHY NOT CONSIDER PROVIDING LOANS FOR PEOPLE OR COMPANIES TO TRANSFORM THEIR LIVES USING NON-POLLUTING RENEWABLE ENERGY?”
The lifestyleT h e C o m p l et e G u i d e of t h e M ex i c a n Way of L i fe .
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Michel Rojkind: MexicanIdentity
UnderConstructionp. 44
42 Negocios Photos COURTESY OF BAnCO dE MéxICO / PAULInA LóPEz
FASHION DESIGN
NUMISMATICS
MExICAn TALEnT TO THE CATwALK
Mexican Coin Declared World’s Most Beautiful
New York’s world famous Waldorf Astoria was the perfect scenario for Mexican fashion designer Paulina López to present Rainbow 2011, her new collection, during the last edition of Couture Fashion Week, in September 2010.
Couture Fashion Week is a dazzling show-case of top-notch international designers and Paulina López has been there twice.
With her motto “Always Woman, Always Feminine,” the Mexican designer has sur-prised with her pioneering concept. A funda-mental element of her signature style is her experimentation with hand stitching giving
Mexico won the Mint Directors Confer-ence’s (MDC) Prize to the World’s Most Beautiful Coin Minted in Silver for the coin called The Revolutionary Train, which was minted to commemorate the Centennial of the Mexican Revolu-tion. Twenty two coins struck by mint houses from all over the world –includ-ing those from countries like Germany, Austria, Australia, Canada, Korea, Denmark, Spain, Finland, France, UK, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Lithuania, Poland, Portugal, Singapore, Thailand and, of course, Mexico– participated in the competition held during the XXVI MDC in Canberra, Australia.
The nominal value of the Mexican coin is 10 pesos; it has a diameter of 48 millimeters and a weight of 62.2 grams of pure silver law 999 –equivalent to two troy ounces. This is the second time a Mexican silver coin has earned a dis-tinction from MDC.
mdc2010.com
life, body and a sense of uniqueness to her designs.
Inspired by Greek nymphs and fantasy di-vas, Rainbow 2011 is a colorful and innovative collection, which captivated for its sophisticat-ed, elegant and contemporary proposal. Along with Lopez’s designs, Rainbow 2011 featured the original creations of Mexican designers Isabel Molina –Malosa brand shoes–, Shula Atri –Shuvi Luna purses– and Marcela Soto –founder of Olga Betancourt jewelry brand.
www.paulinalopez.com.mx
The Lifestyle briefs
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MExICAn HERITAGE TO THE wORLd
CULTURAL HERITAGE
LITERATURE
The “Ñ” Party
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organiza-tion (UNESCO) could soon de-clare Mexican cuisine a Master-
piece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity. For the second time in five years, Mexico seeks the recognition of its cuisine, which is an integral part of the country’s
centuries-old cultural traditions.Back in 2005, UNESCO rejected a re-
quest for “Intangible Heritage” status saying that the focus of Mexico’s candidacy was too difficult to interpret. The original application was made on the basis of the country’s use of corn in its diet, a tradition stemming back some 7,000 years.
From November 27 to December 5, book lovers will once again convene in Guadalajara, Mexico for the Guadalajara International Book Fair (FIL, for its acronym in Spanish).
After Frankfurt Book Fair, FIL is the second largest book expo in the world. Last year, more than 600,000 people visited the fair, including 17,000 publishing profes-sionals and about 1,900 publishing houses from over 40 countries.
Since 1993, it is a FIL tradition to present a guest of honor every year to show-case the many literary traditons and cultures that make up Latin America. This year, the choice has fallen on Castilla y León, a Spanish region made up of the nine provinces Avila, Burgos, León, Palencia, Salamanca, Segovia, Soria, Valladolid and Zamora. In addition, this extensive region is considered the birthplace of the Span-ish language and a bridge between Spain and Latin America.
Regardless if visitors are attending for professional reasons or just to have fun, there are more than 3,000 book-related events to choose from.
www.fil.com.mx
This time around, the application has widened its focus to include basic Mexican staples other than corn, such as beans, squash, chile and agave. Mexico’s application to UNESCO stresses that the country’s ingredients, recipes and food-related customs embody “a complex cultural system of agricultural practices, traditions and symbolism imbued with re-ligious meaning and steeped in ritual” that should be protected and preserved. This year’s application features the traditional cuisine of the Mexican state of Michoacán as a paradigm of Mexican gastronomy.
A country’s cuisine has never previously qualified as an Intangible Cultural Heritage. Mexico was the first country to nominate its national cuisine as such, a special designa-tion already granted to Mexican traditions such as the Day of the Dead festivities.
The traditional Mexican Purépecha chant Pirekua, is also a candidate for the “Intangible List.” The chant juxtaposes pre-Hispanic and colonial elements, such as the Tarascan language and European instruments.
The third and final Mexican candidate on the list is the Chiapa de Corzo Parachi-cos dance from Chiapas.
44 Negocios I The Lifestyle Photo COURTESY OF ROjKInd ARqUITECTOS
MiCheL rojkind: Architectural Record magazine has named the Mexican architect –who approaches each project as a creative and social challenge– as one of the most innovative in the world.
Mexican identity in Michel Roj-kind’s architecture is not found in a design full of traditional reminiscences, but in how he
reflects Mexicans’ character: chaotic, ingenious and with a great sense of humor.
“Are you Mexican because you wear a cowboy hat, or are you Mexican because you laugh at life, at death, because you are socially ingenious, chaotic and uncritical by nature? To me it seems there’s a different way of repre-senting what it means to be Mexican. At least in our work, in my architecture, there’s a sense of humor,” says Rojkind (Naucalpan, Estado de México, 1969).
Rojkind belongs to a generation of archi-tects who have little relation to the school of Luis Barragán, the only Mexican Pritzker Prize winner (1980).
His teachers –Alberto Kalach, Enrique Norten, Isaac Broid, and Miquel Adriá, with whom he set up shop at the outset of his ca-reer– had already broken with Barragán’s school and Rojkind learned from an architec-ture that had more international references.
Rojkind’s image does not fit into any kind of archetype. Casual, extrovert and approach-
by FRANCISCO VERNIS
Mexican Identity Under Construction
able, he seems to be in no hurry. However, he is always up to something. The only label that he accepts is that of constant movement and the non-applicability of labels.
That was his premise when he began work-ing alongside Broid and Adriá in 1999, and it was for that same reason that he set up his own firm in 2002. The list of his projects is the best proof that the young architect is always on the look out for new challenges.
The National Videotheque in Mexico City; luxury residences in large housing develop-ments; bars; corporate buildings; museums and many public works all combine to form an innovative list of projects which led the Archi-tectural Record magazine to consider Rojkind as one of the ten best Design Vanguard firms in 2005.
“I don’t like the comfort zone at all. The zone you already know, where it’s easy because you’ve already done certain things,” says the ar-chitect. “I don’t like repetition because I feel like I’m not evolving, I’m not making progress in a personal search.”
Rojkind studied architecture at the Univer-sidad Iberoamericana and architecture has al-ways been his passion. However, he was also a
interview MICHEL ROJKIND
successful musician and formed part of Aleks Syntek’s y La Gente Normal with whom he re-corded several albums.
He recognizes that, thanks to music, he was able take the time to develop his own architec-tural language without being forced to work on projects that did not completely satisfy him.
“The great thing about music is that it gave me financial stability to be able to create the type of architecture that I really wanted. I was never under the pressure that I had to have a firm and produce architecture to pay the bills. Being a musician gave me the advantage of approaching friends and proposing them architectural proj-ects, even though they didn’t have to pay for my work, just so I could show them what I thought would suit them,” says Rojkind.
One of the habits that the music instilled in him was team work. Ever since he begun to work, Rojkind has sought to incorporate other architects or artists from different fields into his projects. For example, he worked with industrial designer Héctor Esrawe for the design of the Tori Tori restaurant in 2009 and with graphic designer Ernesto Moncada on the project for a new build-ing for the Museo Tamayo in Estado de México, as well as with urban planners such as Arturo Ortiz on various competition projects.
Being a musician also taught him to avoid ste-reotypes and not to hesitate in involving himself in other areas such as industrial design, which led him to create Agent, a company dedicated to product innovation, which makes everything from a transparent football to a luggage set for the contemporary traveler.
“Agent was created in the middle of the finan-cial crisis, when everyone was beginning to pan-ic,” recalls Rojkind. “For me the real crisis comes when you stop thinking, not when there’s a finan-cial crisis. Everyone was sort of paralyzed and we decided to open a product design company, with-out having any clients on our books. We wanted to be provocative.”
46 Negocios I The Lifestyle
—How did you decide to set up your own firm after working with Broid and Adriá?I wanted to experiment more with my own processes without committing my partners to take the same direction. I decided that we should go our separate ways; working together on other projects, but each going his own way.
I separated with the idea of continuing to work with whoever I chose, because I’m a firm believer in collaborations. I frequently give conferences outside Mexico, one of them is called Contagious Risk where I talk of the importance of taking the risk of infecting your-self with other minds, other ways of seeing a project, other ways of designing.
We are normally a small firm with less than 20 employees, but each project involves around 120 people, because there’s a finance officer, the economist, a sociologist, a land-scape architect, or other architects with whom I sometimes want to work with.
I think it’s a generational shift. Our generation is much more open to collaboration. Networking, what you have within your grasp, gives you the possibility of working with whoever you want and whenever you want—there are no limits.
—Do you work with people from other professions?I give classes at the UNAM, at the Iberoameri-cana and I work as a guest lecturer at other
universities. So you see that today, with the tech-nology that exists, it’s very easy to propose things that can’t be done. Architecture has to be built and I talk a lot about digital design meeting local production.
The importance of being able to produce in whatever medium you want is how you work with the ironsmith, the bricklayer, the tinsmith, all the right people to be able to build the thing that you want and not be constrained by the construction industry.
That’s sometimes what we do: we bring people from non-construction disciplines to help with what we want to do, because we also select each project as a unique one, our firm doesn’t repeat projects.
If you come to me I’ll make you a tailor-made suit, because you are different, your finances are different, your project’s geography and political and social environment are all dif-ferent. All the ingredients mean that the final product is unrepeatable.
Photos COURTESY OF ROjKInd ARqUITECTOS
interview MICHEL ROJKIND
national Videotheque Mexico City
f2 house Condado de Sayavedra, Estado de México
Pr34 houseTecamachalco, Estado de México
MP3 ApartmentColonia Condesa, Mexico City
falcón buildingSan Ángel, Mexico City
bar boskaSan Jerónimo, Mexico City
Parque del relojPolanco, Mexico City
Chocolate MuseumToluca, Estado de México
nestlé research CenterQuerétaro, Querétaro
r432 TowerPaseo de la Reforma, Mexico City
Tori Tori restaurantPlace: Polanco, Mexico City
works
By creating each project as something unique, you go out looking for who you think the right people are to carry out the local production. All the components you need for your architectural project to be buildable.
—How important has architecture become in Mexico?It has become quite fashionable, we could call it the Guggenheim effect. When that museum was built in Bilbao, it put the city on the map. Ever since, architects don’t want to build cathedrals, they want to make museums to put countries on the map. Architects have recovered a certain status and design has become quite popular.
Mexicans are very sociable. When they build their houses they often design for other people rather than themselves and this has been a ma-jor obstacle. I tell them not to design for people coming to their house, but for themselves.
There are two angles: how to explain to them the most human and simple aspects of design, not the pretentious part, and the part when they begin to realize that design is important, that design adds value.
—Why do you think art is what is raising Mexico’s profile?Maybe because you’ve got other media. Ulti-mately you’ve just got your head, a good pencil and inspiration with which to develop your ideas.
In terms of art, Mexico is full of talent, there is plenty to inspire you. It’s a country which makes you think the whole time. I love it.
People complain about Mexico but any-where else you have time to do nothing, not think; in Mexico, however, you’re forced to think of alternatives, to be ingenious.
—How difficult is it to be an architect in Mexico?I don’t see it as being difficult because things are moving the whole time. My friends in other countries complain about the financial crisis. In Mexico there was a crisis but people kept on building.
I think that the opportunities are always there; there’s always someone asking you to un-dertake a small remodeling project and then you start to do more, that’s how we all started out.
Public spaces need to be worked on, in the re-sidual parts of Mexico City which are abandoned or in old buildings which need to be regenerated for the city to revive itself.
If you’re just doing the designs, then your options are a little more limited; the client always has some relative who’s an architect and then you’re told to get lost. But if you come up with a design strategy, then you become the client’s adviser. The strategy is to start to see where the opportunity niches are, to bring together the right team to make
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a genuinely sustainable piece of architec-ture. I mean, you need to close the circle: with social and financial sustainability the projects can permeate, send down roots all around and create benefits.
Conceiving a strategy is key to be able to design. First of all, you’ve got to think about each aspect and then you design the archi-tecture: that’s the final piece of the puzzle.
—What has been your experience of this process?The Chocolate Museum is an example Nestlé invited us to participate in a competition where they asked to create a walkway through the fac-tory so that children could come to visit it.
When I went to speak with them and spent 40 minutes crossing the city, I thought that by the time the children arrived at the factory they’d be depressed: they would imagine Willy Wonka and when they saw the traffic, the number of identikit industrial buildings, they’d be missing that something special.
We also realized that no chocolate mu-seum existed, and this is a 100% Mexican foodstuff and part of the country’s history. I arrived at the appointment and proposed
making a museum for them to give some-thing back for what they were selling.
I’m interested in working as an architect but not in keeping my thoughts to myself when working with a client. I’m never going to go along with their ideas just to get the commission. My work as an architect –and this is why people hire my services– is to question and give advice in order to reach the right decision.
Nestlé’s VP presented the project in Swit-zerland: they approved it and it was a hit. It was nominated in London as one of the 10 best build-ings around the world.
So we could undertake a second project with the same company in Querétaro. They began to understand the added value of design.
—What would you never do to sell a project?I’m very optimistic and for me there are no bad clients, I’ve always believed that you can improve, although I have sometimes come up against brick walls, I take a perverse pleasure in taking on projects I’ve never done before.
For example, in the Nestlé Querétaro project, the local authorities asked us for the design to have arches which would be
Photo COURTESY OF ROjKInd ARqUITECTOS
in harmony with the city center, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
At another point in my career I might have panicked and told me client: “I’ve got a friend who makes beautiful arches and loves cantera stone, I’ll give you his number.” But instead I thought about re-approaching the arches, by making more contemporary vaults, something more fun. We showed it to the local officials and they loved it.
—What’s your dream, what would you love to do?I’m doing what I love. I can say that I’m very happy; like with Agent: I wanted to make a football and we’re making it.
We have a project underway with Agent on cemeteries: we’re going to revisit the whole issue of cemeteries which is some-thing I’m passionate about. Cemeteries are very sad and somber and there’s a massive amount of history lost in a cemetery.
I’d also love to work on an old-people’s home, so that people can have more fun at the end or their lives.Rather than having a project like a museum or a cathedral, I want a project that really causes a stir in society. n
competitions
date: 2009Winner of Project for new Museo rufino Tamayo Place: Atizapán, Estado de México
date: 2010honorable mention for restoration of Mexico’s national records office (Archivo General de la nación)Place: Antiguo Palacio de Lecumberri, Mexico City
date: 2008invited to participate in hotel Code horizon projectPlace: Dubai
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Imagine this: satellite images of Mexico City in 2030 revealing a cityscape of count-less flowerpots helping inhabitants and visitors breathe purer air.
The architect of this idea is Mexican José Antonio Flores, a biochemist, architect and expert in sustainable urban development and founder of Efecto Verde, an organization that seeks to oxygenate the vast expanse of rooftops that crown the Valle de México’s metropolitan zone.
This urban landscaping model –cheaper and lower maintenance than traditional ones– has become a win-win sustainable business model.
Founded in 2006, Efecto Verde plans to pro-vide plant cover in 40% of Mexico City’s urban area, one of the world’s largest and most popu-lated cities where rooftops are increasingly the only available spaces left.
José Antonio Flores explains that the idea is to generate “a metastasis with one cell, on the roof of a building, which then spreads around the block and then the entire neighborhood, until the entire city is covered in plant life by 2030.” Recently, the ball began rolling with the Moras office building –located at Moras 850 in Mexico City– where Efecto Verde covered 400 square meters of rooftop.
But this low-cost, or even zero-cost, green-ing is just the final stage of a clean process.
Work begins with the recycling and use of various types of plastic and metal –the most difficult materials to degrade in open-air garbage dumps. The next step is to raise
A seamless Link between business and environment
the money for the organization through the sales of this waste and its use in manufactur-ing special flowerpots. That is followed by the production of low-maintenance plants that are suited to the climate of Mexico City’s rooftops. The profits will be spent on reviv-ing 700 hectares of chinampas in Xochimilco, an area declared as a World Heritage Site by Unesco in 1987.
“Efecto Verde is not aiming to carry out the entire project, instead we want individu-als and the private sector to get involved”, says the founder. So far Mexico’s Banamex, through Fomento Ecológico Banamex, the Iberoameri-cana University and the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) have all signed up –the latter providing expertise on low-main-tenance plants that are suitable for Mexico City’s rooftops. Entrepreneurs from Chile and Brazil have also expressed interest.
The plan is also to involve large housing con-struction companies and supermarket chains.
Perhaps Efecto Verde’s greatest advantage over other systems is that the plants are placed in independent and easy-to-move pots.
The modular system is also José Antonio Flores’ idea. It uses double-bottomed con-tainers: rain water is stored below and soil is placed above. They are interconnected by a mechanism that gives plants access to water during the dry season. In contrast to other rooftop garden systems, the pots are small so the roofs can be gradually “greened”. They are also raised above the roof surface, pre-venting any damage to building structures
and making cleaning easier. “Each self-wa-tering plant pot stores six liters and six pots cover one square meter. The rooftops will store hundreds of thousands of cubic meters of water in total!,” declares the creator of the project, surprised by his own idea.
More surprising still is the speed at which this urban developer has learned the ropes of business. He finalized the mould of his modular system in November 2009 and it is now being manufactured by Viñoplastic – in which he is a shareholder – that can produce a self-watering plant pot every 20 seconds. “Our production capacity is for 60,000 pots a month but we can easily triple that amount,” says Flores.
What kind of plants can survive in a self-watering plant pot in a Mexico City rooftop? “In collaboration with the UNAM Botanical Garden we identified species that can sur-vive with almost zero-maintenance,” explains Flores. “Most are succulent varieties. Where maintenance is possible, you can plant lettuce, celery, chard, spinach, herbs, almost every kind of chili, tomato, soy, carrot and even corn and beans.”
The best business aspect is that by reach-ing the target of greening 40% of Mexico City’s urban landscape, every year the city rooftops will provide 7 million cubic meters of rain wa-ter to the environment –which currently ends up in the drainage system – and the garbage dumps will be free of 2.4 million tons of recy-clable plastic. n
www.efectoverde.org
50 Negocios I The Lifestyle
in the decade of global warming, sustain-ability is undoubtedly a hot topic in the field of architecture around the world, not just as a “green” trend that has become a
marketing strategy. In Mexico there are an in-creasing number of projects that seek to miti-gate both the environmental impact of buildings as well as uncontrolled urban sprawls.
This is movement being spearheaded in Eu-rope, specifically in the Nordic countries, as well as in China and the United Arab Emirates in the Asian continent, and also in the US. In Mexico the movement has been reflected both in archi-tect’s personal interest in reassessing the rela-tionship with the environment, as well as from a social perspective.
In recent years, Mexico has implemented regulations that certify the sustainability levels of new constructions and that offer tax incentives to those companies that can prove that they are preventing or reducing the emission of pollutants.
In November 2008, for example, the Sus-tainable Buildings Certification Program was published, in order to promote and increase
the reduction in polluting emissions and the ef-ficient use of natural resources in the design and operation of buildings in Mexico City, one of the largest cities in the world.
Green loans and mortgages are also being promoted. Since 2009, it has been compulsory for mortgages that have received a subsidy from the National Housing Commission (CONAVE, for its acronym in Spanish) to incorporate eco-tech-nologies such as thermal insulation, water saving devices, solar panels —which save up to 34% in electricity— and electricity saving light bulbs that reduce electricity consumption by up to 70%.
That led to the expansion of the Institute for National Housing Funds for Workers (Infona-vit, for its acronym in Spanish) “Green Mort-gage” program, which in 2009 was applied to 120,000 housing loans. 170,000 more of such loans are expected for 2010 —with 107,000 given up until the third quarter of the year— ac-cording to Estela García, Infonavit’s Manager of Sustainable Housing.
That is combined with the scientific back-ing and implementation of new technologies to eco-architectural designs of international renown, led by firms such as VMA Arquitec-tos, KMD Architects and Arditti + RDT Ar-quitectos, three of the leading architectural firms in Mexico which share their perspective on this issue.
by MARÍA EUGENIA SEVILLA
Three VieWs on susTAinAbLe ArChiTeCTure
Photo COURTESY OF vMA ARqUITECTOS
architecture SUSTAINABLE ARCHITECTURE
VMA ArquitectosFor Víctor Márquez Arquitectos (VMA), the monumental architecture that characterized the 20th Century has now become irrespon-sible. In its view, sustainability must lie at the heart of design.
“For some years now, we have been setting a precedent: conceiving buildings with low-energy consumption,” says the firm’s founder.
Márquez, who has taught the environ-mental ethics seminar at Cornell University, is against “green as a fashion,” and considers that for it to work, sustainable architecture must also be profitable.
“If sustainability does not become a highly profitable business, it has no future,” continues Márquez.
For the architect and interior designer, sus-tainable designs must be based on eco-technol-ogy: scientific research that implies engineering innovations.
Their leading buildings in that regard include the Asociación de la Industria Química, the Peri-férico 1990 office tower in San Ángel and Mon-terrey Airport’s Terminal B, inaugurated last September, which will contribute to reducing the consumption of energy in the airport in the state of Nuevo León by up to 38% and is one of the first buildings of its kind in the world, in that its initial design hypotheses were based on scientific—rath-er than architectural—criteria.
“For each of these projects we used various strategies which include issues such as energy savings, the use of low-energy consumption con-struction technologies and water savings,” ex-plains Márquez.
Among his most ambitious projects is the mega residential and urban project called Mexós-fera Uno, in the west of Mexico City, which will give 7,000 families the chance to live in a natural reserve measuring 2 million square meters.
“It will be a new regulatory entity in which there will be no defined limits between na-ture conservation and residential zones,” Márquez says.
The architect began to integrate sustainabili-ty criteria into his work after his contact with the work of Thomas Herzog in Germany about ten years ago. But his involvement in global energy issues began in earnest when he was appointed a founding member of the TC Chan Center for Energy Studies and BS in Hong Kong. Currently his firm represents the center’s representation office for Latin America.
Márquez considers that the most complex challenge for sustainable design is that it re-quires higher levels of investment, as well as the undertaking of quantitative analysis and applied science.
Therefore, as Director of the new Ro-berto Garza Sada Center (CRGS) in Monter-rey —one of Latin America’s most important projects in recent decades in the field of de-sign— Márquez mentions the imminent inau-guration of an unprecedented study program in Mexico. “The CRGS will offer the first op-
portunity to study ‘Green Design’ outside the US, because we are putting together a series of programs that are green and sustainable from their outset. I have the vision that every designer who graduates from the Center will become a genuine extension of nature itself,” he explains.
“In Mexico there’s lots to do and I think that the most important thing is to begin by changing culture; this is a long-term mission and only happens through education,” he concludes.
52 Negocios I The Lifestyle Photo ARCHIvE52 Negocios I The Lifestyle Photos COURTESY OF KMd ARCHITECTS
KMD ArchitectsFounded in San Francisco, California, in 1963, Kaplan-Mclaughlin-Díaz Architects (KMD) has been developing architectural and interior de-sign projects in Mexico since 1985.
After designing projects such as the Centro Tecnológico y de Operaciones Santander Ser-fín in Querétaro, Hotel W in Mexico City and the El Encanto development in Punta Mita, Nayarit, KMD planned the new offices of the Cinépolis movie theater chain in the city of Morelia, a fully-working complex that rep-resents a step forward in sustainable design in Mexico as one of the most energy-efficient buildings generating savings of up to 30%.
With a “sculptured” shape, the iconic build-ing’s façade is glass clad which allows natural light to enter but regulates ultra violet rays and temperature; it uses natural ventilation by re-ducing the use of air conditioning; it has green roofs; it incorporates local vegetation and it is equipped with water treatment plants, among other ecological features.
The firm classifies this design as “Triple Green,” a concept that integrates energy sav-ings with the creation of spaces and environ-ments that improve the productivity of its us-ers to achieve a community impact in which living in harmony with nature is linked into daily activities.
“The focus on sustainability must not only be seen in the building itself but also in the method of community and urban de-velopment with social impact,” according to Carlos Fernández del Valle, Director and Se-nior Designer of the KMD office in Mexico. “An architectural project that does not dare to propose new or better ways of life is not very ethical,” he argues.
The firm has been developing its vision on sustainability for several years interna-tionally and it has gradually incorporated
that approach in Mexico since the 1990s. “It’s essential to understand that the design of space and use of energy must be thought of together and at the same time. We must design differently, prioritizing energy savings at the heart of every project,” Fernández del Valle explains.
KMD is a leading green design firm be-cause it incorporates state-of-the-art research in engineering, in order to include the neces-sary technologies from the conceptual design phase to optimize sustainability measures.
architecture SUSTAINABLE ARCHITECTURE
ARDITTI + RDT ARQUITECTOSSince it designed the Casa Club del Club de Golf Bellavista in 1997, in a Mexico City sub-urb, Arditti + RDT Arquitectos has developed projects with varying levels of sustainabil-ity, leading the company to receive the “Jorge Martínez Anaya” Intelligent and Sustainable Building prize which is awarded each year by Mexico’s Intelligent Building Institute (IMEI, for its acronym in Spanish).
In 2009, it won the prize for its design of the Corporativo CEO in Mexico City. A ground-breaking building focused on offering the most globally advanced concept in corporate offices, with a 15-story tower for offices on plots mea-suring almost 7,000 square meters.
“Designing for human beings, being com-mitted to the environment, developing intelli-gent technical solutions and making more ef-ficient use of resources: these were just some of this project’s premises,” explains Jorge Arditti, Director of the firm.
Made of recyclable materials, the building’s glass façade has a low-E window film which protects the interior from the thermal gain and provides the highest possible transpar-ency to maximize natural lighting, while to regulate heat gain, the building was oriented to make the most of natural shade. It also uses a rainwater harvesting system with filters to re-cycle the water.
Large scale eco-architecture in Mexico, as in the rest of the world, still represents a high investment cost whose recovery time is a con-siderable factor for developers.
A solution to the short-term financial limi-tations in their designs is to prepare them so that their installations can be scalable and can reach the future with a large level of sustain-ability in the new technology used.
Arditti welcomes the fact that in Mexico there are sustainable buildings that have re-ceived the LEED award (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) and, like his col-leagues, he underlines the importance that in Mexico there are financial and fiscal incentives to generate a new awareness of the need for equilibrium with the planet. n
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mexico AnD chinA Are closer thAn ever
Six months strengthening cultural ties between Mexico and China.
More than 2.9 million visitors to Mexican Pavilion.
More than 19,000 visitors per day.
Business seminars on investment projects and productive sectors in Mexico.
Business agendas with Mexican private companies.
56 Negocios I The Lifestyle Photos ARCHIvE
In late October and early November of every year, in the mountains of north-eastern Oaxaca, the Mixes hold their Feast of the Souls (Fiesta de las Áni-
mas). For a whole week, this community –which still uses its 260-day ritual calendar with 13-day months– prepares for the return of the souls of its dead.
For the Mixes, as for other indigenous communities in Mexico where pre-Hispanic traditions are deeply rooted, life and death meet each other during the ochavario, lasting from October 31st to November 8th. Accord-ing to their beliefs, during that period the de-ceased visit the land of the living and are able to taste their favorite foods.
From South to North –either using the current calendar or the indigenous tradition-al ones, with rituals lasting two or eight days– , the ceremonies that revolve around the “return of the dead” are held all over Mexico. These rituals remain a real celebration that might be incomprehensible for many and misunderstood by others but is part of the country’s culture and is a good example of Mexico’s traditional gastronomy.
The sweetness of the Mexican day of the deadThe typical “Pan de Muerto” and “sugar skulls” may well be symbols that recreate the pre-Hispanic traditions of honoring the dead. As much of Mexican culture, the Day of the Dead celebration is the result of a perfect syncretism of colors and flavors. This is a taste of that huge and delicious Mexican ritual to honor the death.
by CRISTINA ÁVILA-ZESATTI If there is something that no one can deny is that the Mexican Day of the Dead has very unique faces, flavors and colors. One of those flavors is sweet and was probably inherited from the respect –with no pain– of our an-cestors to the “passing away.” According to traditional indigenous beliefs, death is part of an eternal and indestructible circle and when it happens there is always the promise of return. Maybe that is why Mexico pre-serves this sweet tradition.
Celebrating LifeHistorians say that the Aztecs had two differ-ent ceremonies to commemorate the death of their people, held during the tenth and eleventh months of each year, while during the ninth month they commemorated the death of their children with music and food.
The main protagonist of Aztec death cele-brations was the huautli or amaranth, a grain that was eaten mixed with the blood of the sacrifices and sweetened with agave or ant honey. Upon arrival of the Spanish, the use of amaranth was banned.
“It was part of a symbolic ceremony of
culture DAY OF THE DEAD
drinking dead people’s energy and was prob-ably one of the first Mexican candies, but actually in pre-Columbian times sweet fla-vors were little appreciated. It is also likely that today’s Pan de Muerto has its origins in that ritual. Many things have changed since then, but we preserve many of the ceremo-ny’s roots and symbols,” says María del Pilar Fausto, a cook specializing in Mexican cuisine and a professor and researcher at the Culi-nary Institute of Advanced Studies (IGES, for its acronym in Spanish) of Querétaro.
Right. Our ancestors didn’t know much about sweet flavors. They used honey from maguey, ants and wasps and they had many varieties of fruit such as mamey, zapote, chi-cozapote, pitahayas and guavas.
The Spanish brought to Mexico some of the sweetest ingredients of the country’s current gastronomy. Cane sugar, cinnamon and nuts transformed Mexican palates and sweetened even more the country’s lively cult of death.
Sweet Reviving FlavorsPalanquetas, chichimbres, pemoles, alfe-ñiques, huesos de santo, tumbas de almendra, calabaza en tacha, calaveritas, acitrones de biznaga, glorias. They were all made of the fusion of Spanish and Mexican ingredients, colorfully and ingeniously dressed by Mexi-cans who found their own and sweet way to celebrate the return of their dead.
“Virtually every Mexican candy recipe dates from colonial times and has changed very little. What characterizes the Mexican candies is their completely handmade quali-ty. Traditional candies have been made in the same way for centuries, using with the same utensils: copper pots, wooden shovels, pans and ovens of clay or stone (...) and are made with the same calmness. That is the secret of their delicacy, “ says Jorge Hugenin, sales manager of Dulcería de Celaya, the oldest traditional candy maker in Latin America, founded in 1874 in Mexico City.
To be more precise, the colonial convents began the alchemy, the mix that emerged from all corners of the country and joined the traditional indigenous festivities and ritu-als for the dead.
Preserving a TraditionIn 2003, the Mexican tradition of the Day of the Dead was declared a Masterpiece of Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity, a dis-tinction awarded by the United Nations Edu-
cational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to cultural processes that remain and continue in time. Despite this, modernity has made a dent in this ancient ritual.
Elisa Neri Hernández is 60 years old. She comes from a family from Zacatecas. She learned the craft from her parents and seven of her nine brothers are engaged in tradi-tional pastries. Her specialty? Sugar skulls (calaveritas de azúcar), a true art of Mexican candy that few people preserve now. Her stall is located in a quiet street in the city of Zacatecas. In normal days she sells 20 to 30 usd. During the Day of the Dead, earnings do not exceed 50 usd.
“On these two days we have to sell every-thing. People do buy, although tradition is not as strong as before. I love what I do, although it is very laborious work that has to be done with no machinery, and I have to take care of my tools almost like my children, because some of them are not manufactured any-more,” says Neri Hernández.
But over time, tradition is not the only thing that has to be preserved. In some cases, over-consumption threatens the very roots
of the feast. This has happened for example with a distinctly Mexican ingredient, now threatened with extinction: the biznaga (bar-rel cactus), a cactus used to make the famous acitrón (sweet made with crystallized bizna-ga and bathed in syrup), a typical dessert of Mexican dry lands. Each fruit of this cactus takes between 20 and 40 years to become mature. The inordinate use of this product and the lack of planning in planting and care, has led the Mexican environmental authori-ties to ban its sale. Prohibition is far adhered to the letter, since today, even turned into a “rarity,” the candy can be found quite easily.
Unlike the camote, which exists and is prepared in abundance in various parts of the country, ingredients as the biznaga, des-serts as the “sugar skulls’ and various tools needed to preserve the sweet tradition of the Day of the Dead, should be closely monitored to avoid irreparable losses in a tradition and a ritual that for centuries have identified Mexicans and have made them feel proud.
It is not impossible. This might happen just like the barrel cactus reborns in the des-ert even when no one seeds it. n
58 Negocios I The Lifestyle
Mexico grows as any other great football economy, with a na-tional league whose annual investment in players, opera-
tional expenses and technology development beats that of leagues from countries such as Scotland, Croatia, Turkey and former Euro-pean champion, Greece.
In the world of football, anxiety and mar-keting play an equally decisive part. Jitters and profitability. Concerns and party. Foot-ball in Mexico generates 7 billion usd, rough-ly 0.7% of the country’s GDP, according to the study Football trends, fans and consump-tion in Mexico by Mexican market research agency De la Riva. The latest World Cup figures confirm the statistics: Adidas paid 8 million usd to be the official sponsor and de-signer of the Mexican football team’s jersey; the Mexican team received 23 million usd for playing four matches in the US, in their preparation tour before the World Cup; ac-cording to media analysts, the country’s two main television networks, Televisa and TV
Make the Most of the enthusiasmby PATRICIA PEñA*
If passion is profitable, then these are prosperous times for Mexico, considering that the country with 107 million inhabitants has a total of 85 million football fans, according to figures from the Mexican Football Federation (Federación Mexicana de Fútbol).
Azteca, will earn a total of 90 million usd for advertisements broadcast during the World Cup matchups in South Africa.
The Fédération Internationale de Foot-ball Association (FIFA) is a global economic corporation with yearly operations worth 500 billion usd. Mexico is 17th in the world’s national team ranking and yet, if one would consider football as an economic market, the country would rank in the world’s top five places thanks to the job creation, economic activity and consumption that football pro-duces.
Recent constructions of football “sanc-tuaries” are proof of the sector’s economic potential. In November 2009 the Corona Sta-dium was inaugurated as the new home to Santos, a team from Mexico’s First Division. The project had an initial investment of 100 million usd, with a capacity for 30,000 spec-tators and with plans for 2011 of harboring 40,000 fans and adding a shopping mall to the facilities within the roughly 40 acres that make up the “Santos Modelo Territory.”
Stadia, infrastructure, technology, they’re all a generous legacy from football. In Za-popan, Jalisco, the construction of Chivas de Guadalajara’s stadium, with Chivas con-sidered one of the country’s two best sup-ported clubs, is now in its final stage. With its name still to be defined depending on the final sponsor, the Chivas stadium bears a 130 million usd investment. Its construction moti-vated the involvement of local authorities in order to create the necessary road links to connect the stadium area with the metropo-lis, given the fact that during the stadium’s construction, new university facilities dedi-cated to football were built around that area, as well as more than one sports complex, like the Pan-American Villa which will host the Guadalajara 2011 Pan-American Games.
The economic support for the Chivas sta-dium’s final construction stage came from the sale of one of its new rising stars: Javier “El Chicharito” Hernández who, before even having been called to form part of the nation-al team, was purchased by English football
Photo CELSO FLORES
the lifestyle report FOOTBALL PASSION
club Manchester United for 9 million usd. Javier “Chicharito” Hernández is the
prototype of the new Mexican player that schooled his feet in one of the 5,000 schools affiliated to Mexico’s 18 professional teams. No more are there players emerging from the barrio that haven’t gone through the pro-cess of talent scouting, formal practice, selec-tion and training in centers that belong to the teams making up the First Division league. Football clubs are now franchising schools with their names, schools that offer training, business management and advertising. They charge from 10 to 65 usd a month, apart from registration, uniforms, tournaments, leagues and travel expenses. The football school busi-ness is definitely profitable and that is why international clubs such as Real Madrid, Bar-celona, Atlético de Madrid and Inter Milan have launched schools in Mexico City, Jalisco and Nuevo León, where they charge their students 45 to 120 usd a month.
Pachuca football club was one of the first to genuinely put management skills into
practice. In 10 years, starting from when they joined the First Division league in 1998, they’ve won five national leagues as well as five international tournaments, thus consoli-dating the club’s popularity and its business empire, ranging from restaurants all the way to a Football University. Pachuca went from being a team with an annual loss of 2 million usd to becoming a team that now earns 130 million usd a year.
The most popular clubs in Mexico, América and Chivas, opened stores with of-ficial Águilas and Chivas products. It was an economic boom. In the first year, they launched 20 stores with 900 official and ex-clusive products. Three years later, they had a total of 150 stores, following in the footsteps of the world’s great teams, such as Real Ma-drid and Barcelona in Spain and Inter Milan and AC Milan from Italy.
Time and resources are at the base of this new management together with an unusual Mexican creativity within the world of foot-ball. Chivas Guadalajara football club has
charged from 500 to 1,500 usd for a half hour get together with the Chivas players, who are literally hired for children’s parties.
The World Cup partyFIFA has 224 affiliates, more than the UN, and that is probably why every four years the World Cup works up a powerful elixir that bonds nations. The inauguration of the Germany 2006 World Cup was the most watched event in the history of television. The World Cup itself was watched in 214 countries through a total of 376 TV chan-nels that broadcast 76,000 hours of coverage, adding up to 26.3 billion TV viewers through-out the whole month that the tournament lasted. The final match between France and Italy gathered a total of 715 million direct TV viewers in the whole world.
In Mexico, specialists estimate that the two main television networks, Televisa and TV Azteca, earned 90 million usd in adver-tisements during the four months previous to the World Cup in South Africa (from March
60 Negocios I The Lifestyle Photo CYRIL ATTIAS
to June). Femexfut (the Mexican Football Federation) charged in Mexico and the US 100 million usd for broadcasting rights for the Mexican team, in addition to the 230 mil-lion usd that its main sponsors chipped in for having qualified for the World Cup.
Football works miracles when it takes over the silence in a country otherwise prone to hav-ing the noisiest and most cheerful fans. In Mexico, a country that loves making a racket at the slight-est provocation, the opening match in the South African World Cup between the host and Mexico beat all expectations in economic terms.
In Mexico City, the local government placed three large screens in the Zócalo, the city’s main square, with the intention of helping businesses around the historic downtown to earn little less than 320,000 usd. In Jalisco, the chairman of the Chamber of Restaurants and Seasoned Foods, Germán Ralis Cumplido, in-formed that the opening match exceeded the more moderate expectations of having a 15-
from mexico to the world cup
Mexico has participated in 14 FIFA
World Cups. The country has played
five inaugural matches: Uruguay 1930,
Brazil 1950, Sweden 1958, Mexico 1970
and South Africa 2010.
Mexico was the first country to host
two World Cups. The Azteca Stadium
is the only venue in the history of the
World Cup that has hosted two finals:
1970 and 1986, when Pelé and Mara-
dona were crowned respectively.
It is also said that the South African
Embassy in Mexico dealt with roughly
20,000 visas for Mexicans travelling
to the World Cup. Estimates indicate
that each tourist leaving from Mexico
for South Africa spent between 15,000
and 30,000 usd.
20% increase in sales, by reaching a 150% rise in sales, something that in turn spurred half of its affiliates to open in the early morning hours, in accordance with the World Cup calendar.
Sociologists say that football is a powerful mo-tivator for the masses. Every four years, hearts pound for 90 minutes and the rest of the party is simply entered in the books as income gen-eration, consumption activation and economic promotion for a country that loves dancing to the rhythm of the mariachis as much as to the beat of 22 players on the world’s football field. n
*Patricia Peña is a radio and TV producer, as well as
a sports journalist since 1993. She has won several
awards, including the Jalisco Journalism Award in
2001 and 2005, the award for Latin Ibero-American
Journalism Healthcare Network in 2006 (Premio
Iberoamericano de Periodismo Red Salud), and
the National Journalism Award for the Faces of
Discrimination in 2007 (Premio Nacional de Peri-
odismo Rostros de la Discriminación).
feedback IMPULSO VERDE
impulso verde:
by CRISTINA ÁVILA-ZESATTI
In 2010 the civic non-profit association Impulso Verde organized the first edition of a contest to find future business talent in the age of clean technologies. The Cleantech Challenge intends to create
a new synergy involving government, the private sector, capital funds and young entrepreneurs.
AT THE FOREFRONT OF TECHNOLOGICAL AND ECONOMIC CHALLENGE
62 Negocios I The Lifestyle Photo ARCHIvE
at the end of September, Mexican President Felipe Calderón openly accepted “having lived a para-dox” during a visit to Monterrey,
Nuevo León, to assess the damages left by tropi-cal storm Alex in the northern city.
“In a meeting with business leaders who sought federal government help for recon-struction, there were complaints that Mexico was taking on environmental commitments and promises to reduce emissions... [they said] that they needed to continue emitting carbon so that their industries could recover […] it was a significant paradox for me,” commented the Mexican chief during an international forum to discuss energy efficiency and access to more sustainable technologies.
In the framework of that same event, the President confronted directly one of Mexico’s key problems in environmental matters: un-awareness. Ignorance about our current forms of production is threatening not only what ap-pears to be a volatile and isolated concept, the weather, but is, in fact, threatening our very lives.
A Distinct Business VisionTwo and a half years ago, five young Mexican businessmen created Green Momentum, a company focused on the cleantech industry, which in many parts of the world is experienc-ing a definitive surge.
One of the goals of the company, whose headquarters are in Silicon Valley, California –the heart of new, world technologies– was to show the benefits of a non-contaminating econ-omy and help to drive the development of this sector in Latin America.
“Those who make up Green Momentum wanted to link the supply and demand of green technologies but along the way we re-alized that in Mexico there is a great lack of information on this kind of technology, not only at population level but also, and above all, in the business sector. We discovered that there is little demand and less supply in the cleantech sector, basically because it’s a poorly explored, almost unknown industry,” explains Rafael Carmona, one of the main partners of the business initiative.
Entrepreneurs to the core, far from be-ing disheartened, two of the five members of Green Momentum decided that the vir-tual inexistence of the business they hoped to embark on wasn’t necessarily an obstacle but rather a field of opportunity.
A TOTAL OF 177 PROPOSALS WERE PRESENTED. PARTICIPANTS’ AGES RANGED FROM 19 TO 80 YEARS AND THE NATURE OF THE PROJECTS WAS ALSO VERY VARIED, ALTHOUGH THERE WAS ALWAYS A COMMON DENOMINATOR: THE QUEST FOR DOING BUSINESS DIFFERENTLY, RESPECTING THE PLANET OR RESCUING IT FROM THOSE CUSTOMS THAT DO IT HARM.
feedback IMPULSO VERDE
If there were no supply and demand of green technologies in Mexico, then it would have to be created and, along the way, raise awareness that caring for the environment means nothing more and nothing less than car-ing for our lives and our heritage.
And so Impulso Verde was born: a non-profit civic association whose main aim is to seek, find and prepare, on one hand, new greentech talents in Mexico and, on the other, investors willing to inject capital into environ-ment-friendly technologies.
More than Drive, “Green Boost”Venture View 2010, an encounter held by the National Venture Capital Association in the US, determined that in spite of today’s deceleration of the world economy, venture capital around the globe is leaning more and more towards in-vestment in so-called clean technologies.
That’s where Rafael Carmona, director of Impulso Verde, and his companions found the first part of the equation. The second part was revealed a short time ago by the Federal Gov-ernment and Mexican President Felipe Calde-rón himself. The Head of State admitted that the cost of renewable energy in Mexico is too costly for the general population and authori-ties revealed that 2010 had seen more natural disasters than any other year this century.
Conclusion? In Mexico, both the supply and demand for green technologies must be created and, of course, the investment it requires. More than just drive, Mexico needs to give a real boost to the industry - and urgently. Rafael Carmona’s enterprise has grabbed the task by the horns.
“We’ll start by giving talks and conferences in universities, inviting young people to engage in something that is already a reality in other countries. We want to encourage them, for them to know more about this “technological revolution” and for them to see it as a niche for great opportunities, for pursuing a career and also doing business. The response, fortunately, was overwhelming, which encouraged us to take the next step, and it has been a huge step.”
Clean Energies: a Technological and Economical ChallengeFor Impulso Verde, the first premise of the equation was a given. The problem had to be solved and the staggering response from young people was their “Eureka!”
The creators of the non-profit association decided as a second great step to organize a
platform that went beyond motivation and opened a space for creativity. Cleantech Challenge was that step: a kind of tourna-ment-contest combined with an innovative, business incubator vision for new talents and new proposals.
In October 2009 Cleantech Challenge launched its first invitation to find the best clean technology projects. The only restric-tions? That they were applicable in Mexico and were recently created or in their first launch stages.
A total of 177 proposals were presented. The ages of participants ranged from 19 to 80 years and the nature of the projects was also very varied, although there was always a com-mon denominator: the quest for doing busi-ness differently, respecting the planet or res-cuing it from those customs that do it harm.
The jury, made up of representatives from Federal Government, state governments, in-vestment funds, academic and research insti-tutions, non-governmental organizations and business incubators and accelerators, made a short list of 64 competing teams. Then, in a one-by-one elimination process, much like a tennis game, they finally came down to five winning projects.
However, in this first edition of Cleantech Challenge all the participants emerged as winners. They all attended workshops on leadership, business plans and the creation of sustainable businesses and even when the contest was over, that option remained open to all the participants.
The small, and at the same time huge, difference was that those who took the first places obtained cash prizes and the possibility for their projects to be taken on by an investor whose confidence in them would make their “green dreams” a reality.
“It is very likely that in a couple of months, three of the five winning projects will close deals with venture capitalists that will give them the final push to put them into practice. That part is out of our hands but we are sure that it will bring results. During the contest process participants were given a lot of men-toring so that their proposals would be ac-cepted as businesses with a future,” affirmed Rafael Carmona.
For Everyone’s Sake, the Future Has to Be “Green”The future, in fact, is already here. Mexico can
confirm that in the saddest way possible. The climate change phenomenon is already upon us and unless we decide to confront it today, natural disasters will continue to take their toll on the country, with ever increasing force.
A recent study by the National Ecology Institute (INE for its acronym in Spanish) con-firms that there is no entity in the Mexican Republic which is not now seriously vulner-able due to the past and ongoing excesses it has fallen into in the use of water, land and contam-inating agents.
The Federal Government, state and munici-pal governments are trying to implement some measures: a fiscal incentive plan is under study, for example, but as the President himself real-ized, the private sector must become involved. The bottom line is, businessmen and women must think and act “clean” and clean technolo-gies need capital. Other places in the world have an advantage over us.
“There are investors nowadays who are creating funds especially for investment in these types of projects, green projects, clean projects, and we know industrial and eco-nomic transformation is just a matter of time. What Impulso Verde wants is for Mexican entrepreneurs to have the strength to leverage this new era,” said Carmona.
And they are doing well. Preparations are already under way for the second Cleantech Challenge. The invitation for 2011 is not only looking to perfect the first stage but adds an in-teresting component: the incorporation of enti-ties around the country with greatest industrial development, such as Guadalajara, Monterrey, Mexicali, Tamaulipas and Querétaro.
The platform which seeks, finds and targets the new promises of climate-friendly compa-nies, has a future. The first time it was held, more than 50 national and international orga-nizations and institutions gave their support.
The Ministry of Energy (SENER), the Ministry of the Environment and Natural Re-sources (SEMARNAT), the US Agency for In-ternational Development (USAID), the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and the Mexico City’s Government are a few of the entities who have believed in and supported this initiative, which seeks new entrepreneurs with sustainable mentality and whose principal reward is to create clean tech-nology businesses for Mexico.
There is no doubt that, by finding winners of this kind, everybody wins. n
64 Negocios I The Lifestyle illustrAtion ARCHIvE
reoilBiodiesel production through the collection of used
kitchen oil made up of triglycerides and fatty acids.
Biodiesel is obtained through transesterification. Re-
oil engages in the collection, purchase and transfor-
mation of the oil from different kitchens in Mexico
City. This product is for sale it the European Union.
Tiresys On-site tire recycling system, which uses patented
machinery and processes. The purpose is to find a
solution for thrown away tires, avoiding burning and
abandonment –a source of dengue and disease–
and to find alternatives for reuse.
solbenBiodiesel production using jatropha curcas.
Through the Sustainable Communities program,
ways are sought to link agricultural production
workers directly with technological transfer.
the winners of the cleantech
challenge 2010LedA sustentabilidadA global proposal which address-
es the greenhouse production of
crops, waste water treatment and
an anaerobic biodigester that re-
covers biogas and fertilizers by
reusing organic solid waste from
the community. Inside the biodi-
gester, specially designed micro-
organisms work on the decompo-
sition of organic material.
impall AutotecniaDevelopment of “H
2-Combusti-
ble Hybrid Devices” to save 80%
of industrial fleet fuel and more
than 30% from private vehicles
by converting them to H2-com-
bustible hybrids at accessible
prices.
