GESTÁN is a Galician business group specialized in the development and implementation of environmental solutions for companies, contributing to their economic, social and environmental sustainability. Over the decades, they have expanded and diversified their activity to the areas of waste, water and bioenergy.

The seed of the GESTÁN group, currently made up of 6 companies and more than a hundred employees, was in a small family company that collected and transported waste. How was the process of picking up the baton and leading this transformation?

Yes, my father had a small company, Contenedores Pardo, formed by himself as a freelancer and 3 or 4 people in his charge. At the time, when he was approaching retirement age, he proposed to my brother and me to enter the incipient environmental business that was being born. He was convinced that it had great projection. So it was that my brother Luis, having just finished his degree, and myself joined the project that was the seed of what is now the GESTAN Group. 

The group as such was founded in 2002. In 2016 we made the leap to an industrial building in the Arteixo industrial estate in A Coruña, on a plot of 3,700 square meters, to which, more recently, 10,000 more have been added to house a container logistics center. The development of the different needs that have been created in the environmental sector, together with innovation and the implementation of new lines of business, has allowed us to have 6 companies and a staff of 125 people. 
 
What main lines of business is the group currently focusing on?

We are particularly focused on waste treatment and biofuel production. Our main lines include the recovery of non-hazardous waste (construction and demolition waste; wood and bulky waste, such as furniture and mattresses, for example).

As far as biofuels are concerned, we focus our activity through Biomasa Forestal, a factory located in As Pontes dedicated to manufacturing and marketing pellets, both for energy purposes and as pet litter, a line that we introduced a few years ago. 

Over the last few decades, they have expanded and diversified their activity, betting, among other sectors, on bioenergy and biofuels. What opportunities does this sector open up for Galicia?

Today it seems clear that we need a new model that progressively and relatively quickly abandons the use of fossil fuels. We cannot continue with the level of CO2 emissions that we expel daily into the atmosphere at a global level. That is why we believe that the bioenergy and biofuels sector, which has already experienced significant growth, especially since the pandemic, is set to grow in the coming decades. And this opens up many possibilities, both for providing new solutions to the industry and for generating new talent and, without a doubt, a great space for innovation.

What role has R+D+i played in your trajectory to become a leader and reference in Galicia as an environmental services company? What is your innovative focus on?

Innovation is very present in different areas, not only in projects of broad scope, but also in processes in areas such as personnel management, finance, logistics, among others, where process improvement can play a differentiating role. 

For 2024 we have two important lines of work, both in collaboration with other organizations, as we consider that this is the best way to carry them out, since each one puts its knowledge in what it is a specialist in and in this way better objectives are achieved. 

We already have the Estrada project underway, aimed at researching mechanisms for converting complex polymeric waste with a high environmental impact into new materials, such as thermoplastics derived from PVC and ABS and rubber from conveyor belts at the end of their useful life. And Smart2ReDuCe, an industrial research project in digital technologies, seeks to improve the competitiveness of the CDW recycling sector. The key to this project will be separation through artificial vision and advanced photonic technologies.

She is also the co-founder of Cafés Lúa, a well-known local brand dedicated to the world of coffee, which has nothing to do with GESTÁN's activity. What has this experience given you as a businesswoman?

The experience of Cafés Lúa, a project that I started quite young, taught me a lot about the obstacles that must be overcome in any business. That resilience that is so much talked about now is a concept that I learned early on, when I started Cafés Lúa, a company that also operated in a fairly male-dominated environment, where I also had to overcome some barriers.