As part of the Sustainable Construction Month, we celebrated the achievement of two environmental certifications in our business park. On the one hand, Logos, a state-of-the-art logistics building, obtained the EDGE certification, which recognizes efficiency in the use of resources. Meanwhile, the Life Zonamerica building, home to a sports club, received the MAS certification, which ensures best practices throughout its design and construction process.At Life Zonamerica, a panel took place with the participation of five sector leaders who exchanged views on sustainability, workplace financing, the role of academia, and the importance of certifications in building trust and creating a positive impact.Carolina Dovat, Director of Dovat Arquitectos—the studio that led the architecture of Life Zonamerica—emphasized the importance of mitigating the impact of construction “with the best possible tools.” She added, “Certifications give us the roadmap we need to meet specific milestones and measure how and to what extent we are affecting both the environment and people.”Sebastián Mauri, Senior Relationship Manager – Large Corporates and Sustainable Finance Leader at HSBC, stated that “the banking sector has the opportunity and responsibility to mobilize financial resources towards the right projects” and, for this, it is “very important” to integrate Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) factors into decision-making.In the same vein, Gustavo Ávila, Senior Director of Sustainable Finance and Corporate Finance at rating agency FIX SCR, noted that “the integration of ESG criteria is no longer an additional element, but rather a central one for all portfolio managers.” He also highlighted the importance of allowing “those who implement best practices to showcase them and serve as a beacon for competitors, encouraging them to make an extra effort to rise to the occasion.”The panel also included Jorge Arismendi, CEO of certification body LSQA, who stressed that “the goal is to challenge local practices and customs to achieve better development” and that the key lies in collaborative work. “First, we must adapt to local realities, and then comes the challenge of transforming practices and customs so that they truly become the ones we need to move forward,” he explained.For her part, Belén González, Director of the Global Center at the Technological University (UTEC), shared her perspective on how sustainability can be promoted from the educational sphere. “Uruguay can serve as a laboratory to generate innovations in sustainability. It is important to conceive academia as a space to test new ideas and to innovate at the national level with low risk,” she stated.In this way, we reaffirm our role as Uruguay’s leading Free Zone, where sustainability and innovation converge to drive new ways of growing and doing business.These certifications not only endorse the quality of our infrastructure but also consolidate a long-term vision: that of a park integrating companies, talent, and services under the highest international standards, contributing to Uruguay’s positioning as a strategic hub for sustainable development.
