In 1990, after recently graduating from Industrial Engineering, Victoria Serrano Pérez arrived at the Las Tunas Stainless-Steel Company (Acinox). She joined all her energy and knowledge to the other people helping to take the first steps in this industry, which was the origin of the iron and steel industry here.
I met her at that time. After more than three decades, Victoria maintains the enthusiasm she had then. "I am very proud to be a founder and part of the large group that remains and contributes to the company consolidation.
Since those years, she became an environmental specialist, and clinging to the responsibility it entails, she turned her passion for defending the natural environment into a commitment to mitigating the damage that waste could cause beyond the walls of the plant.
She did this in a very complex scenario due to the aggressiveness of the waste generated by these productions. And, although he does not attribute his successes to his work, in such a sensitive issue, his efforts and the proactive way of facing challenges with the application of science and innovation have a lot to do with it.
Acinox Las Tunas is the only dirty industry in the country to be awarded the National Environmental Prize, which it won in 2007.
"The achievements are the result of a management committed to environmental issues and of a workforce that has the importance of these issues at heart to achieve steel production on a sustainable basis".
How do you manage this activity in the industry?
"We understand the environment not as a risk, not as a threat, but as an opportunity, and we have been managing it scientifically, applying science and innovation as required today. This has allowed us to develop responsible work in the management of water and forestry resources, and the highly polluting waste, for example.
"We have a well-designed environmental program with objectives, principles, goals, actions, and management plans in place, based on the identification of the environmental impacts of each of our processes".
Do you feel professionally and humanely fulfilled in this company?
"Yes", she affirms categorically, and she describes, without boasting, the opportunity to apply the results of scientific research to the processes, and her repeated and successful participation in territorial, national, and international forums held on the island.
"The first event, he recalls, was Cuba, Health and Work, where I presented a study on occupational diseases that could manifest themselves in the company".
His extensive curriculum includes national exchanges such as the Metal Metallurgy and Recycling Convention, and other territorial exchanges related to technologies for cleaner production. It was precisely for his contributions in this field that he received an award from the United Nations for Industrial Development in 2006, which he speaks of with a precise combination of modesty and pride.
Now, with the accumulated experience and the same vitality as in the early days, he is working on the implementation of a circular economy, which he describes as a term that goes beyond the use of surplus and waste raw materials. She also ventures into other good practices that have provided Acinox Las Tunas with the opportunity to diversify its production, clean up the working environment of these wastes, and obtain economic income that helps to overcome current challenges.
Convinced of these advantages, she speaks enthusiastically about the use of electric means of transport, LED lamps, photovoltaic panels, translucent roof tiles, solar heaters, and reuse of used oils... and continues to consider resilience in the conditions imposed by the acceleration of climate change due to the irrational behavior of modern societies as a real possibility.
