Garnica: innovation through circular dismantling

The energy sector is currently undergoing a profound transformation as it moves towards more sustainable models. Aligned with this trend and with the aim of giving a second lease of life to our equipment and materials, at Garnica we are joining forces with SURUS, a circular responsibility consulting firm, to create our dismantling model that facilitates the reuse of equipment in accordance with circular economy principles.

Given the specific way in which we use this equipment, the option to scrap it would have been simple, though not particularly circular or financially profitable. This is why the SURUS team, in close collaboration with our staff, has catalogued all assets available for sale at Garnica’s Cogeneration Plant in Baños. We studied the needs of the market and launched an intensive marketing campaign. Combined with the large portfolio of clients already registered on the “Escrapalia” specialist auction website, this succeeded in generating healthy interest among competitors and interested companies, resulting in the maximum possible return.

Once the equipment was allocated, the loop was closed with invoicing, collection management and preparation of relevant orders, as well as managing deliveries and loading goods, performing the corresponding delivery checks, managing facility access documents, and coordinating activities wherever they were required to comply with relevant health and safety plans. In total, we calculate that this process has allowed us to avoid generating over 24,000 kg of waste and 123,640 kg of CO2.

There is no doubt that the replacement of equipment due to modernisation, and even the full dismantling of a cogeneration plant, can be an enormous source of useful, functional and material resources. Garnica has embraced this process as a means of promoting the company’s sustainable values and of maximising its economic, social and environmental value.