At Grupo Rotoplas, innovation is reflected in our new solutions and business models aimed at improving customer and user experience. Convinced of our mission, and aware of the challenge posed in terms of access to water and sanitation, we have deployed actions to boost socioeconomic development and safeguard water as a resource for the future.
In the world, one third of the population lives in water-stressed countries, and by the year 2025, this number is expected to increase to two thirds (World Compact, 2016). Regarding Latin America and the Caribbean, we face situations of low water availability and high water stress, which have humanitarian, environmental, and economic effects. Access to water and sanitation will be further affected by factors such as inadequate wastewater treatment, population growth, and the effects of climate change.
The region presents a highly heterogenous spatial distribution of water resources. Its geography implies a climatic diversity that, joined to climate change, results in a greater occurrence of natural disasters such as hurricanes, floods, and droughts4
In the 14 countries where we are present, the uncertainty regarding the characteristics of future hydrological events leads us to develop a series of strategies and solutions to guarantee water security for the population regardless of any scenario. In 2017, we continued to identify and classify risks and opportunities derived from climate change, in order to implement mitigation measures.
The experience and knowledge acquired through the projects that we carry out with government and NGO customers make us aware of the impact of our solutions in terms of health, education, and empowerment of women. Thus, we have identified the forums and events related to water, innovation, and socioeconomic development where we can participate and contribute our knowledge and experience. Our operations in Mexico, Peru, Brazil, and Guatemala participate in various events together with third parties to expand the scope of our initiatives and solutions, and foster awareness and water culture.
We worked on fostering and sharing knowledge regarding the needs for water and sanitation. To achieve this goal, we collaborate with universities, research centers, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and the private sector. On the other hand, we are developing a publication on our strategic contribution to Sustainable Development Goals n°6 and n°9 to report and share these efforts and results with our stakeholders.
We believe it is essential to support initiatives that lead to a positive transformation of the communities where we have operations and generate awareness on the use of water resources. One of the initiatives we foster is encouraging the adoption of healthy habits, favoring water consumption and reducing by 34% the consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages and by 16% the waste related to bottled drinks. The installation of over 4,600 drinking water fountains will benefit over 600,000 children and teenagers.
Moreover, we have established an alliance with Dow to build sustainable housing. This alliance resulted in a pilot project for sustainable housing in a rural area of the Sierra Tarahumara in Chihuahua.
On the other hand, we made a commitment with the rural communities of Nayarit and Jalisco, Mexico, installing our outdoor toilets with biodigestor, which enable a primary level treatment of wastewater, and thus helping the beneficiaries of 70 plots of land to ensure the quality and safety of the food produced.
The will to offer solutions that meet communities’ water and sanitation needs has led us to form alliances with various players in the countries where we have operations; thus, we have set up over 490,000 rain harvesting and outdoor toilet with biodigestor systems that have improved the standard of living of over 2 million people in Latin America since they were launched. In 2017, we met the needs for access to water in urban areas through the launch of the Urban Rain Harvesting System, which optimizes space and makes it possible to harvest around 1.4 million cubic meters of water that Mexico receives annually in the form of rainfall9.
Moreover, we have established an alliance with Dow to build sustainable housing. This alliance resulted in a pilot project for sustainable housing in a rural area of the Sierra Tarahumara in Chihuahua.
On the other hand, we made a commitment with the rural communities of Nayarit and Jalisco, Mexico, installing our outdoor toilets with biodigestor, which enable a primary level treatment of wastewater, and thus helping the beneficiaries of 70 plots of land to ensure the quality and safety of the food produced.
The will to offer solutions that meet communities’ water and sanitation needs has led us to form alliances with various players in the countries where we have operations; thus, we have set up over 490,000 rain harvesting and outdoor toilet with biodigestor systems that have improved the standard of living of over 2 million people in Latin America since they were launched. In 2017, we met the needs for access to water in urban areas through the launch of the Urban Rain Harvesting System, which optimizes space and makes it possible to harvest around 1.4 million cubic meters of water that Mexico receives annually in the form of rainfall9.
Sytesa has enabled us to foster the water cycle’s economic, ecologic, and operational sustainability through wastewater treatment for responsible discharges and/or recycling. With a presence in 32 states of the Mexican Republic, we treated over 6,496,416 m3 of wastewater in 2017.
For us, water culture begins with our collaborators. Thus, in 2017, our Onboarding included visits to our plants, marketing routes, and communities where our solutions are set up in order to sensitize and transform our collaborators into ambassadors of a new culture of appreciation of water resources.
Our participation in water-related forums and events and socioeconomic development also offers an opportunity to drive and spread the water culture. For instance, the First State Encounter of Water Culture in the State of Mexico enabled us to sensitize over 300 elementary and middle school students on how to care for water, encouraging them to become the agents of change.
Moreover, we continued to promote our “Fan del Agua” (Water Fan) platform with contents prepared in line with the global water agenda and the most relevant topics regarding the sustainable use of this resource. The platform reached +375 thousand fans, +20,500 monthly hits, and 91,569 users, on average.
Aware that a change in culture comes with the new generations, we continue to offer training, workshops, conferences, and expos at universities and for the general public, reaching +34,000 participants in the year. We also sponsored the inauguration of a new permanent space in the Papalote Museo del Niño interactive museum in Mexico City. Through the activity called “Catch the water!”, our goal is to teach kids about the water cycle through games and to make them aware of how to use, save, and care for this vital liquid. With this activity, we managed to reach +750,000 people.
The university environment, and particularly a collaboration with Universidad Iberoamericana, provided us with the possibility of expanding our understanding of water consumption through research carried out on water uses and consumption habits in Latin America.
