Reducing greenhouse gases is one of the main tools to combat climate change. Most countries agree that it is necessary to develop decarbonisation and transition programs towards a greener and more sustainable economy.

The new president-elect of the United States, Joe Biden, has already announced that one of his highest priorities is the implementation of a Green New Deal that involves resuming the path of the Paris Climate Agreements.

The goal of the new Democratic Administration is to lead the fight against the climate emergency by revitalizing the energy sector and driving the growth of its entire economy.

Along the same lines is the EU, which advocates achieving climate neutrality by 2050. To achieve this, it is essential to undertake the decarbonisation of the current energy model.

Furthermore, the covid-19 pandemic has shown how important it is to live in a sustainable world. The latest proposals presented by the Government of Spain also go in this direction.

An example is the Integrated National Plan for Energy and Climate 2021-2030, which aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 23% compared to 1990.

The project establishes a series of guidelines that should guide investment to transform the productive and economic fabric, and raises an investment of more than 240,000 million euros.

Its pillars focus on a change in the energy generation model towards clean instruments, the transformation of buildings into energy saving models, the creation of a large fleet of electric cars and the urban transition towards cities with low emissions.

In recent weeks, the Government has also published the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan for the Spanish Economy.

This roadmap, which will guide the implementation of the 72,000 million euros of European funds until 2023, pays special attention to the ecological transition.

To achieve all these objectives, it is essential to raise awareness among the entire population and join forces. Only in this way will it be possible to move towards a production model that is far from fossil energy sources and carbon emissions.

“We must build a green economy, which requires a great change not only in how we do business but also in how we live,” said the president of Banco Santander, Ana Botín recently.

The bank works on numerous sustainable projects aimed at preserving the health of the planet. In line with its Responsible Banking strategy, the entity has committed to financing or facilitating the mobilization of 120,000 million euros between 2019 and 2025 and 220,000 million until 2030 to combat climate change. Only last year, it allocated 19,000 million euros for green financing.

Thus, Banco Santander has adhered to the Collective Commitment to Climate Action to accelerate the transition of the financial sector towards a low-carbon economy.

Also to the Alliance for Green Recovery (Green Recovery Alliance), promoted by the European Parliament, to support and promote the mobilization of green investment packages that act as accelerators of a transition towards climate neutrality and healthy ecosystems. In addition, at COP25 held in Madrid last year, the entity committed to being carbon neutral in 2020.

The bank’s commitment to the environment goes back a long way. Already in 2019, it was the world leader in financing renewable energy projects, with a total portfolio of 10,030 million euros at the end of the year distributed in 17 countries (166 wind and 145 solar projects), avoiding the emission of 63 million tons of CO2.

Also last year, the bank issued its first green bond worth 1 billion euros as a starting point for a sustainable global emissions plan and in June 2020 it issued a second bond for the same value.

At COP25 held in Madrid last year, the entity pledged to be carbon neutral in 2020

At the local level, the entity promotes numerous initiatives in the countries in which it operates to achieve its global objectives and also promote sustainable growth among its clients.

One of the last carried out in Spain has been the creation of the first seal evaluated by AENOR that qualifies the sustainability of Spanish SMEs to help companies with up to 50 million in turnover to obtain a sustainability rating that allows them to differentiate themselves from their customers and suppliers and to structure, know and improve the information and the level of implementation of areas of sustainability that may be needed in certain public tenders.

January 2020. Fundación Grandes Amigos, which has been working since 2003 to prevent and alleviate the loneliness of the elderly through the creation of affective bonds and neighborhood support with volunteers, receives one of the 2019 Social Value Awards from the Cepsa Foundation.

The distinction is a vital economic injection to reinvent itself when, shortly after, the health crisis explodes.

“It is allowing us to promote two lines of work that we have been developing and that are increasingly necessary: ​​facilitating a volunteer to accompany the elderly person alone to medical appointments or administrative procedures, and maintaining our program of emotional support by telephone [which includes video calls even sending letters], launched at the beginning of the pandemic, and which will continue to function when it ends, after its good results ”,

“One of the issues that we value is that, regardless of the group to which it is directed, the project has an innovative component, either because of the approach that differentiates it from the rest, because of the tools it uses or because of the ability to face new challenges” , says Cristina Ortiz, director of Fundación Cepsa.

“We have verified that many entities have adapted in an exemplary way to the crisis caused by Covid-19, with innovative initiatives based entirely on new technologies,” he adds, referring to the 435 projects that are nominated for the 16th edition of the Social Value Awards, the 2020 one, presented in September. Record of candidatures and also of economic endowment, which increases by 100,000 euros, reaching 500,000.

“The elderly are the main affected by this crisis,” warns Palacios. But there are other vulnerable groups that are also very affected. Unemployed, sick, people with functional diversity, ethnic groups, childhood, youth and adolescents, victims of gender violence …

Behind such a generic word as “collective” there are always concrete faces.

Cristina Ortiz remembers “as if it were yesterday” that of that mother with her daughter diagnosed with congenital heart disease at the trophy ceremony for the 2019 edition in Madrid.

“It was exciting to see that this mother never felt alone to face her reality and received support from the professionals of the winning entity,” she describes.

“I felt great admiration when a young woman with different abilities showed us, with a wide smile, what had meant for her the help of another of the award-winning entities to promote her social inclusion and thus be able to practice one of her biggest hobbies , sport ”Indicates in another example.

Cepsa workers are godfathers and godmothers of the projects that compete for the social value awards

The Social Value Awards were created 15 years ago in response to “a need for change and improvement”, in Ortiz’s words.

“They were born with the objective of being able to carry out social projects in a fair and transparent way,” he adds.

They were delivered for the first time in 2005, in Huelva, with a distinctive element: it was (and still are) the professionals of the energy company who become solidarity godfathers and godmothers, proposing programs likely to be candidates, accompanying them during the process and being their representatives.

That first edition was so successful that it was extended to other geographical areas in which Cepsa has a significant presence: Madrid, the Canary Islands, Campo de Gibraltar and Portugal in 2009; Colombia in 2012 and Brazil in 2016.

That year, 2016, the Cepsa Foundation was created to channel the company’s social action, and these awards became its backbone. According to Ortiz, from the beginning they had the support of local and regional administrations.

“One of the changes that we have been observing in each edition is the trust that the entities place in this call for social assistance”, he emphasizes.

Fundación Cepsa maintains a “lasting bond” with the awarded entities. “It allows us to promote collaborations in corporate volunteering activities or in other projects,” says its director.

All have to send, at the end of the year, and as a control mechanism, the justification report. “In addition to the activities carried out, they detail the economic justification with the expenses that have been incurred for the implementation of the solidarity initiative,” he adds.

There are also follow-up visits. One of those that most impacted Ortiz was the Candelita entity, in Madrid, and its project Mirada en Violeta, to promote access to the labor market through cooking training for women victims of violence.

“They are admirable for how, despite fear, they took this opportunity to feel useful and be financially independent,” he concludes. Many of them already have a stable employment contract.

In addition to financially reinforcing the Social Value Awards, Cepsa is carrying out special work during 2020 to support actions that contribute to alleviating the consequences of covid-19.

Its employees have donated money to the food bank campaign to buy 480,000 kilos of basic products, which will ensure the feeding of more than 3,200 people for two months.

Cepsa Foundation offers emergency aid to food banks in Portugal. It has donated medical supplies in Colombia, contributed to the emergency kitchen set up in Huelva and supported the urgent medical movements of the Red Cross.

It has also delivered fuel cards to the health authorities of Madrid, the Canary Islands, Huelva and Cádiz to collaborate in the displacement of health and other groups that work in the fight against the coronavirus.

Together with the Persán Foundation, it has contributed money to supply cleaning and home care products to 18,000 vulnerable families in Seville, Huelva and Campo de Gibraltar.

Through its corporate volunteering program, Voluntas , Cepsa professionals collaborate with a telephone support initiative launched by Cáritas and with the sending of letters of encouragement under the impulse of the organization Nadie Solo.

Iberia’s parent company will be the first airline group to test this passport for coronavirus-free travelers

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) is working on a mobile application that will help travelers demonstrate their coronavirus-free status, which is one more twist to approach the so-called Covid passports.

The Travel Pass will display the results of the test for the presence of coronavirus along with the vaccine inoculation test, as well as a list of national entry rules and details on the nearest laboratories.

The application will also be linked to a copy of the holder’s passport to prove their identity.

Conglomerate IAG, parent of British Airways and Iberia, will be the first group to start testing it and it could reach Apple devices in the first quarter of 2021 and Android from April, IATA said.

Travelers will be able to share their status with border authorities or present a QR Code to scan.

In this regard, Qantas Airways noted on Monday that a Covid-19 vaccine will be necessary for its international passengers.

IAG will promote the Covid passport to recover international flights

In fact, the head of the airline, Alan Joyce, believes that it will very likely become a requirement for boarding around the world. “It’s going to be a common theme across the board,” explained Joyce.

The passport would save international travel. While international travel remains stalled amid a patchwork of local restrictions and closures , countries are beginning to incorporate tests to shorten or eliminate quarantines for arriving passengers.

To this must be added that the vaccines will still take a long time to arrive, so the strategy is based on implementing the technology to design mechanisms to confirm that one is free of the disease before traveling.

International SOS co-founder Arnaud Vaissie warned in an interview that there is a “tremendous fear of traveling and this is what we are trying to mitigate.”

Having to take the car and go to another town to do something as everyday as withdrawing money from the ATM. This is one of the great problems that emptied Spain is facing and one that affects more than half of the Spanish towns: 4,109 out of 8,131 municipalities.

And this has been one of the challenges that Banco Santander has recently solved within the framework of its financial inclusion strategy. A solution achieved thanks to the alliance with Correos, whose capillarity allows it to reach all Spanish homes, no matter how remote.

From the first quarter of 2021, postmen will be able to deliver money to homes and residents in that 75% of municipalities that do not have a Banco Santander branch, but do have a Post Office, They will be able to make withdrawals and cash deposits in the latter completely free of charge.

For 66% of the people who until now had to leave town to access their money, this initiative will change their day.

Financial inclusion and empowerment is one of the lines of action on which Santander focuses its responsible banking strategy.

Lara de Mesa, Global Director of Responsible Banking, summarizes these initiatives, explaining that “one of our challenges is to contribute to inclusive and sustainable growth.

We want to help people and companies to progress; we want to give access to financial services, financing, education and training to as much of the population as possible ”.

The bank committed a year ago, along with 130 other financial entities around the world, to contribute to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) set by the United Nations through the Principles of Responsible Banking.

Some of the challenges assumed by Banco Santander are to achieve the financial empowerment of 10 million people between 2019 and 2025, facilitate the mobilization of 120,000 million euros in green financing in the same period or help four million people through programs of social action between 2019 and 2021, to which 715 million have already been allocated since 2002.

The ‘Finances for mortals’ program aims to bring finances closer to the youngest and most vulnerable groups

De Mesa explains the motivations behind these initiatives: “Our employees want us to be a bank with a purpose, our clients increasingly demand responsible business solutions from us, our investors are paying increasing attention to the responsible banking agenda. , just like supervisors and regulators, and the communities in which we are present are facing challenges to which Santander has to contribute solutions ”.

In 2019, the initiatives launched by the entity in the field of financial inclusion empowered two million people around the world, helping the most disadvantaged to access basic financial services, offering specific products tailored to those who had low income or financial difficulties, and fostering resilience through financial education.

In the latter case, more than 580,000 people benefited from financial education programs in 2019 alone.

A year after that agreement on the SDGs, the pandemic has marked the entity’s agenda, which has focused its efforts on responding to the immediate problems of people and companies, with a focus on the most vulnerable groups.

In Spain, one of the most successful financial education programs is Finance for mortals , recognized as one of the main in the country in this area, both by the Bank of Spain and by the National Securities Market Commission (CNMV), with which is intended to bring finances to all audiences, with special emphasis on the financially most vulnerable groups.

Another of the initiatives promoted by the entity, together with the Spanish Banking Association (AEB) is Your finances, your future , which helps young people between 13 and 15 years old to face financial decisions.

But the commitment to education goes further and is something that is part of Banco Santander’s DNA.

The entity maintains a firm commitment to higher education for more than 20 years and, in response to the urgency and needs generated by the covid-19 crisis, has mobilized close to 30 million euros from its patronage in education to support students with financial difficulties, alleviate the digital divide and accompany universities in their digitization, develop programs to boost the employability of young people in the face of current labor market demands and finance university research projects to provide concrete solutions to the coronavirus.

The most prominent initiative has been the creation of the Supera Covid-19 Fund, in collaboration with Crue Universidades Españolas and CSIC, which has allocated 8.5 million euros to different projects to face the disease and its social impact, in addition to providing solutions for connectivity, webcams and computers to more than 15,000 university students in an unfavorable economic situation to continue with their studies.

During 2021, the residents of 75% of municipalities without branches will be able to operate in their Post offices

Social Action programs have advanced in the same direction, with dozens of projects aimed at helping the most vulnerable groups grouped under the Santander All slogan . Together. Now , which includes all the initiatives launched to alleviate the effects of the health crisis.

Among them is the Together Solidarity Fund , which has allocated more than 54 million to the fight against the disease and its consequences. Additionally, Santander has contributed another 16 million euros by redirecting funds from certain projects to the protection of those vulnerable groups most affected by the disease in several countries.

The way in which Banco Santander has decided to contribute to the SDGs related to the environment and the fight for a green economy is twofold. On the one hand, in the financial aspect: “We want to accompany our clients in their transition towards a low-carbon economy”, explains Lara De Mesa, global director of Responsible Banking.

On the other, the reduction of the environmental footprint of the entity itself. For the first of these challenges, it has been proposed to finance or facilitate the mobilization of 120,000 million euros between 2019 and 2025 and 220,000 million euros until 2030 to combat climate change, aligning its portfolio with the ecological economy.

Already in 2019, the entity mobilized 19,000 million euros in green financing, which made it a world leader in renewable energy financing.

In terms of reducing its environmental footprint, the strategy is focusing on reducing CO2 emissions through energy efficiency, renewable energy and offsetting other emissions.

The objective is that by 2025 100% of its electricity comes from renewable sources and that in the short term the use of unnecessary single-use plastic in its offices and buildings will be eliminated, in addition to committing to being, for the first time, carbon neutral in 2020, offsetting all emissions generated by its own operations.

Mobility is not yet electric, but it is already facing a transformation process that, although it is still in an early stage, will be unstoppable.

On a day-to-day basis, it is the most common means of transport that we see on the street that show the change most clearly, with more and more cars (such as the Volkswagen ID.3, the first CO2-neutral car in Spain). its complete life cycle) and zero-emission motorcycles circulating integrated into the traffic of our cities, but it is not the only sector that is pointing in that direction.

Electric cars have always felt more comfortable in the city due to their design and operation, because by driving at low speeds and being able to take advantage of braking to regenerate energy, they can increase their autonomy.

However, in the last 10 years they have doubled their range and are starting to position itself as a perfectly valid alternative for many private users to face long-distance trips.

This, applied on a larger scale, has made electric technology begin to be a viable option also for long-distance transport of both people and goods, which has resulted in a good number of companies developing models both of buses as of trucks to face these new tasks.

For both tasks, the most common technology is the hydrogen cell, which has some advantages for this type of heavy vehicle compared to conventional batteries, such as a faster recharge time than that of a conventional electric, something vital in trucks and buses that need large capacity energy ‘depots’.

There are already units rolling on the roads of Europe that homologate 400 kilometers of autonomy, but models that exceed 1,000 kilometers in range are also being developed and that are expected to arrive on the market for the second half of this decade.

However, the conventional battery option has also been implemented in vehicles of smaller size and volume, such as vans and light trucks, designed for medium-distance transport, which can travel up to 400 kilometers without going through a recharging point and, once in it, they can recover 80% of their autonomy in just 90 minutes.

Using vehicles with a clean and ecological propulsion system makes even more sense in the water, which is where waste from cities and industries often ends up without being properly treated beforehand.

In this field, electricity, whether in the form of batteries or as a hydrogen cell, is presented as an alternative to consider, because it provides a quieter navigation without sacrificing performance and, above all, much cleaner and more ecological.

This is the case of models such as the Q-Yatchs Q30 or RAND Leisure 28, which in the latter case allows speeds of up to 40 knots (74 km / h) with autonomies of up to 140 nautical miles (225 kilometers). The HYNOVA 40, meanwhile, combines both systems, counting on a hydrogen extender to increase the autonomy of its batteries.

Another peculiar alternative is that of the SeaBubbles, some vehicles capable of navigating on water at speeds of up to 6 knots (11 km / h) and, from there and up to 13 knots (25 km / h), they rise above its hydrofoils, “gliding” over the liquid surface. They have been conceived mainly as taxis to offer an alternative type of travel in places such as the Seine river in Paris or the beaches of Saint Tropez, and have a range of 40 kilometers.

Conquering the skies has always been one of the dreams of the human being, but the new electrical surge has provided the real opportunity to implement air transport within cities, with the aim of decongesting traffic and, at the same time, helping to eliminate pollution.

In such crowded spaces a very particular type of vehicle is required, which does not need large surfaces to land or take off, so the morphology of the popular drones, which perform both maneuvers vertically (its acronym in English are VTOL, ‘Vertical Take-Off and Landing ‘), is perfect for the job and has been adopted by most’ flying taxi ‘projects.

Companies such as Airbus, Uber, Boeing or Lillium (the latter with a design more similar to that of a microplane) have been working on their air taxis for months and even years, which at the moment promise ranges of up to 100 kilometers, with speeds of up to 170 km / h and maximum autonomies of 30 minutes.

Some are developing autonomous driving systems in parallel so that it can fly on its own (lowering the cost of the trip by not needing a pilot) but others have opted for a more conventional format, with a professional at the controls and capacity for up to four passengers .

According to different studies, from the middle of this decade the sector could emerge, although this also requires adequate legislation to regulate the air traffic of this type of vehicle.

The Spanish laboratory says it is in a position to produce 600 million doses per year to meet demand from outside the United States

The Spanish pharmaceutical laboratory Rovi has reported this Monday that it is prepared to begin manufacturing the vaccine of the American biotechnology company Moderna from early 2021.

Specifically, Rovi estimates that the transfer of technology from Moderna (a company without its own production capacity) will occur in the first quarter of next year, as reported by Rovi in ​​a presentation sent to the CNMV on the occasion of its Market Day of Capitals 2020.

Since then, Rovi has a manufacturing capacity of 600 million doses per year that will be destined for markets outside the United States, according to the update of the company’s strategy.

“Rovi will provide vial filling and packaging capacity through the acquisition of a new production line and equipment for compounding, filling, automatic visual inspection and labeling to support the production of hundreds of millions of doses of the candidate vaccine,” the presentation reads. Posted by Rovi.

Among the markets that could receive the vaccine produced by the Rovi laboratory is the European Union, since Moderna is in advanced talks with the European Commission to supply Europe with 80 million doses of the vaccine against Covid-19 (whose name is mRNA-1273 ), plus a purchase option for up to 80 million more doses.

For its part, Canada has exercised the option to purchase 20 million doses of the vaccine and Japan has signed a contract to receive 50 million doses. Finally, Qatar also has a supply agreement with the American biotech company.

Advances in the fight to find a vaccine.Moderna announced last week that it is in the final stages of its vaccine trial , which has shown 94.5% effectiveness in preventing coronavirus infections.

A week before Moderna, Pfizer also announced that its vaccine is 95% effective . In addition, Pfizer has already initiated the procedures to obtain regulatory approval for it.

The last Western laboratory to announce its advances has been Astrazeneca, which works in collaboration with the University of Oxford, and which has also announced that the effectiveness of the vaccine reaches 90% depending on the type of administration that is made.

Once the hurdle of finding a vaccine is overcome, the next challenge will be the vaccination campaign. For this, the conservation conditions will be key. Moderna’s vaccine is less demanding on cold conditions, but Pfizer’s should be stored at minus 70 degrees.

The two main workhorses of electric cars have been autonomy and recharging time. The first has already been solved with higher capacity batteries, such as those of the Volkswagen ID.3, which with alternatives of 58 and 77 kWh, offer up to 420 and 549 kilometers of range, respectively.

The second is still in process, and although it is progressing with the deployment of an increasingly widespread public charging network, there is still a long way to go. And that’s where a reliable and well-performing charging infrastructure at home becomes almost essential.

Because it will be our private gas station to supply us with electricity in less time than with conventional household plugs.

To meet that need, Volkswagen offers all plug-in hybrid or electric model customers with ID wall chargers. Charger, a simple solution, easy to use and with affordable prices. Above all, Volkswagen offers a qualified, personalized and professional installation and assembly service.

The equipment consists of a wall device (it can also be placed on other fixed surfaces) with a modern design and contained measurements (about 40 x 30 centimeters).

And it’s available with three trim variants, each with different customization options. In addition, it is even compatible with models from other manufacturers that use a type 2 charging connection, that is, with practically all European electric vehicles.

The customer can choose between three variants, all of them compatible with single-phase recharges of 7.4 kW (80% load between seven and eight hours for the ID.3) and three-phase of 11 kW (80% in six hours for the same model ), which can be chosen depending on the electrical installation of each home.

The first alternative is the ID. Charger (399 euros), the most basic model, which has an integrated charging cable to facilitate the process and avoids the hassle of taking it out and picking it up after the car and having a place to store it when you finish at home.

The ID. Charger Connect (599 euros) is the intermediate solution and adds additional functions, such as access protection via RFID, a radio frequency identification and communication system that, for example, prevents someone else in a community garage from using the charger.

And also Internet connectivity, either by Ethernet cable or by Wi-Fi, and all from a mobile application, either to control the charging processes, give permission to other vehicles so that they can use the charger, etc.

Lastly, the ID. Charger Pro (849 euros) includes all of the above and adds a meter with MID (Measurement Instrument Directive) certification, which allows you to accurately calculate and record electricity consumption, a very useful function for cars and company fleets.

The hiring process is very simple, it can be done online and allows you to configure the different options of the charging station at the click of a button: choose the 4.5 meter cable (free) or the 7.5 meter cable (per 50 euros), select the load capacity and specify the type of home where it will be installed.

Installation prices vary depending on whether it is a single-phase or three-phase system, whether it is a single-family home or a flat, and the chosen charger. And they cover a range that goes from 950 to 1,430 euros.

In the case of single-family homes, they do not depend on anyone outside to do the installation, but in garage spaces in neighboring communities it is necessary to connect the charging point to their own electricity meter and, although their approval is not required, they must notify the president of the community or the administrator 30 days in advance.

The service offered by Volkswagen includes a technical verification to assess the feasibility of the installation, home inspection, installation and configuration of the ID.

Charger and 24 months warranty. In addition, the price includes 15 meters of cable if it is a single-family home and up to 25 meters with its pipeline if it is a community of neighbors, a maximum of two wall steps, electrical protections and an electrical panel with IP sealing 65 – IK 09 – Class II and lock in case of floor installation.

If additional items, materials or services are required that are not included in the initially described standard package, additional costs may be incurred directly with the Volkswagen installation partner.

their physical work centers has been constant and growing. The end of telework, or at least its preferential nature, is just around the corner.

And it still happens that many workers have health and safety concerns about this situation. For this reason, companies are developing systems and technologies that guarantee work environments free from the threat of contagion.

“When we talk about a covid-free space, we mean that it is for people, employees and customers,” says José Daniel García Espinel, Director of Innovation at Prosegur, a company that works in the field of security.

“There are two types of technologies: some focused on the work environment, the building itself; and others focused on the specific safety of the employee ”. According to García Espinel, these systems, with a clear practical approach and far from science fiction, will soon reach most work environments.

“They are safe-employee technologies . The idea is that they give peace of mind and minimize the risk of contagion ”, he summarizes.

One of the measures that we could see shortly is the so-called digital company passport. Using a color code, this functionality, available on mobile phones, will indicate to employees whether or not they can enter the work environment when they are at access control.

The color code marks three different levels. If the passport is green, the employee can access. If it is in yellow, a case that occurs if the employee has been in contact with someone infected or has suspicious symptoms, he or she must telework and go to a health center to get the relevant checks. If it is red, the employee will not be able to access.

A fundamental element of the passport is the ability to perform self-diagnostics, a functionality that will determine the access color of the passport. Based on the protocols that each company has, the employee, before going to the office, can do a simple self-check on their health status.

“From the mobile, and based on simple questions, such as if I have a fever or muscle aches, the worker can detect contagion symptoms,” explains García Espinel. “If you are infected or have worrisome symptoms, we can remotely change the color of your passport.”

If you are at risk, your access passport will automatically turn yellow. “Subsequently, you will be instructed to telework and take the relevant medical tests at your health center,” the expert adds.

“In this way, employees with a green passport have the peace of mind of being in a work environment without people affected or at risk,” explains García Espinel, who emphasizes that this passport must be combined with external care.

“The management of the passports of an entire staff is done centrally, remotely and in real time through control centers,” he adds. “Thus, in the event of any incident or question regarding access, the worker can be assisted almost instantly”.

The health authorities of many countries have dedicated themselves to retracing the path of an infected person to isolate cases of covid-19.

This method, a kind of reverse tracing, is also replicated in the workplace. And, like the self-diagnostic functionality, it will determine the color of each employee’s digital passport.

You only need two mobiles with the same software installed. “From the moment two workers are in contact [something that the program establishes based on the distance and the time they have been together], the mobiles exchange a series of random codes sent by bluetooth.

This allows you to know, tomorrow, what codes have been close to the infected person and to notify all those people who have been close to warn them that they are at risk, ”explains García Espinel.

The system traces contacts between employees in an automated, anonymous and decentralized manner. The access passport of those who have been at risk will turn yellow. “The protocol calculates a risk score based on each contact,” continues the expert, “always guaranteeing privacy.”

Geolocation allows to know precisely which corridors and rooms an infected person has traveled or which are the areas of a company with the highest traffic.

“With geolocation, it is possible to know which are the areas, within some offices, with the highest occupational occupation”, García Espinel abounds. “This is essential to focus disinfections and cleanings of the work environment in which an affected employee has been present in those places.”

Even if we go back to the office, physical distance will still be something to respect. In order not to lose sight of this security measure, there are applications that will notify us when we breach it.

“If you are very close to another employee or do not maintain the security meter and a half, the mobile, for example, will vibrate and alert that you are skipping the protocol,” says García Espinel.

These functionalities and technologies are already grouped in a mobile app that Prosegur is testing in its own work centers. An application that, according to García Espinel, will soon be commercialized in the business world with the mission of protecting workers and clients in a simple and effective way.

Of course: “Having an app without assistance in any type of incident or problem does not work”, warns the expert. “The key is that all processes are monitored in real time by professionals from their control centers. It is this combination of technology and supervision that gives value to the system ”.