We started off this lovely Friday morning with a site visit to Vassiliko. Something unique about this company is that we were lucky to have not one, not two, but three presentations on 3 different parts of the business: cement works, the port, and VTTV liquid fuels. Vassiliko’s Cement Works in Cyprus is actually their largest production unit in Europe. This surprised me due to the size of Cyprus compared to that of larger companies in Europe. This site includes 5 cement silos, 5 steam silos, and 3 cement mills. Due to the high demand for concrete (the second most consumed material in the world) the port that Vassiliko owns operates 24/7. One thing about Vassiliko’s sustainability efforts that impressed me the most was that they have taken a huge step in investing in technologies that reduces reliance on fossil fuels, decreased carbon emissions, and diverts waste from landfills.
After the Vassiliko Cement Works and Port presentation, we learned about VTTV whose mother company is VTTI. Operating multiple jetties at Vassiliko’s port, VTTV acts as a place to hold excess oil that is not being used (this can be an example of safety inventory). VTTV also transports this gas/oil to other facilities in the Mediterranean. Instead of doing this by vessel like some companies do, VTTV does this by pipes (one of the 6 modes of SCM transport). This would be an example of sustainability because the oil and gas is able to move their product much more efficiently and with less resources than if used something above sea level. This reduces the carbon emissions that would be associated with that transportation which is a great example of sustainability.
After our lunch at a fish tavern, we attended our last site visit of the day to Cyprus Marine and Maritime Institution. This is a non-profit organization that invests the money that they earn back into research on Marine and Maritime issues, specifically within the realms of sustainability. One of the many projects that stuck out to me was Sea Centaurs (my handwriting is a little messy so I’m not sure if I spelled this right). I am nowhere near an engineer so I do not understand the workings behind this project, however I believe that I got the gist of it. The idea is to have an autonomous jetski that could boom system to collect marine pollution. This is the perfect example of a concern about sustainability because not only are they coming up with ideas onto how they can reduce the pollution in the water, but they are testing the idea out and focusing their energy on how to make it possible.
Although there are not many direct ways that an accountant plays a role in a company’s sustainability initiatives, they are in charge of the systems that keep track of the company’s environmental impacts. One thing that we learned in my financial accounting class was reporting their ESG performance. This stands for environmental, social, and governance impacts that a company has but does not have a financial value to put on their financial statements. Although these are not currently required by GAAP, I hope that at some point when I am a CPA these will be and I will have the opportunity to help my company lower their negative ESG impact.
