Sustainability is in our DNA

Since its foundation, ARQUILED has identified itself with sustainability and efficiency principles. In fact, we were founded with a clear and precise focus: to provide efficient lighting by maximizing LED technology’s benefits. This has always been our DNA.

Over time, as the business evolved and our interaction with customers expanded, the scope of our activity has broadened beyond lighting, but “efficiency” remained the common denominator in everything we do. Including water efficiency solutions in our portfolio, for example, is a logical and natural step. Our activity is always based on sustainability, both as a mission and as a point of differentiation.

 

Companies for sustainability

It is within this context that we subscribed to BCSD Portugal Charter of Principles – the Business Council for Sustainable Development, which brings together and represents national companies that are actively committed to sustainability and is one of the drivers of the transition to a low-carbon economy that values ecosystems and generates well-being in society.

And we are in good company, as over 170 national companies are represented, with a broad sectoral representation.

We identify ourselves with the principles, objectives and vision expressed in this framework. Subscribing to it is an additional step towards our environmental and social commitment. And therefore, it compels us to systematize and reflect even more on our actions and their impact, both as an organization and as individuals.

Implemented by Jornada 2030, the common companies’ agenda for sustainability in Portugal, the document is aligned with the strategies of the European Union (EU) and Portugal, with the European Green Deal and the Paris Agreement, and with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

 

ARQUILED and the Sustainable Development Goals

At first glance, our company’s activity essentially focuses on three SDGs:

• SDG 6 – Clean water and Sanitation
• SDG 7 – Renewable and Affordable Energy
• SDG 11 – Sustainable Cities and Communities

This conclusion is reasonably obvious to an outsider. Also, the following SDGs have always been and will remain part of our culture:

• SDG 5 – Gender Equality
• SDG 8 – Dignified Work and Economic Growth

Regarding SDG 5, ARQUILED was recently awarded the Equal Pay Seal. But the most interesting thing is when we begin to reflect on other SDGs, which are not so obvious, and realize how some of them also relate to our work, even if indirectly.

Let us look at SDG 3, Good Health and Well-being, as a first example. It has been shown that there is a direct correlation between public health and access to safe drinking water. In the absence of safe drinking water, diseases such as cholera and dysentery, among others, begin to emerge. Water efficiency, combined with guaranteed water quality, actively contributes to better public health.

Now consider SDG 15, Life on Land. By promoting the use of luminaires with warmer color temperatures, we reduce the emission of blue light, thus protecting fauna and their circadian rhythms. The same applies to smart luminaires, which reduce light output whenever the light is unnecessary, drastically decreasing light pollution.

I personally recommend this analysis to all companies, regardless of their business area or size. It not only alerts us to the environmental impact of our actions and activities but also motivates us to be increasingly responsible, adding to a global goal. This is also why we encourage all companies to subscribe to the benchmark of good sustainable management practices which is the BCSD Charter of Principles.

 

Miguel Allen Lima
ARQUILED CEO