Guatemala. Emergent Cold Latin America has obtained a new EDGE Advanced certification for sustainable construction, this time for its unit in the Guatemalan town of Palín.
For the company, Palín represents a strategic location because it is located between the country's capital and the port of Quetzal. In this plant, the savings in electrical energy reach 68%, in addition to a 41% reduction in water consumption and 63% less embodied carbon in the construction materials used in the building.
The EDGE (Excellence in Design for Greater Efficiencies) program, managed by the International Finance Corporation (IFC), an entity of the World Bank, recognizes projects that adopt sustainable solutions to reduce environmental impacts.
With this new certification, the company now has 11 EDGE Advanced units in eight countries, in addition to an EDGE Zero Carbon plant, being the first temperature-controlled food warehouse to receive this recognition.
Alain Eichmann, Managing Director for the Caribbean region at Emergent Cold LatAm, comments: "We have done an excellent job to reduce the impacts of
our operations across Latin America and I am excited to see the progress in the Caribbean region, for which I am responsible. We have achieved EDGE Advanced certification in the four countries where we have units in the Caribbean. In addition to Guatemala, in the region we also have sustainable buildings in Colombia, Panama and the Dominican Republic."
Expansion
The certification comes at an important time for the Palín unit, which is in the process of expanding. 9,200 positions will be added to the current capacity, reaching a total of 24,500 pallet positions, mainly for the storage of meats, fruits and vegetables.
Emergent Cold LatAm began operations in Guatemala in May 2022, following the acquisition of Bodegas Frías. In September of the same year, the first expansion of the Palín unit was completed, adding an additional 5,000 positions.
Currently, Emergent Cold LatAm has three units in Guatemala, located in Palín, Xela and Villa Nueva, which, together, have a storage capacity of 89,000 m³ and more than 20,000 pallet positions.
