Regarding the transactions closed, Air Liquide is the largest gas and services industry in the world and, as such, is a company that is extremely concerned about the environment. One of the most important items for the production of our product is energy. Although we capture the gas from the atmosphere, the entire process that this product goes through to be ready to be supplied to our customers involves a lot of energy during the process of separating molecules.

Thus, last year we closed a major commercial agreement with a big player in the renewable market so that we can use renewable energy in this process. The wind energy generated will allow Air Liquide to reduce the CO2 emissions associated with its operations. In comparison, the value is equivalent to the electricity consumption of almost 3,000 Brazilian homes. This agreement represents a new step in the actions that Air Liquide has already been taking to ensure increasingly sustainable operations. At the Group level, and in the context of its Sustainable Development Goals, Air Liquide aims to reduce its scope 1 and 2 CO2 emissions by one third by 2035 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.

In addition to the above, regarding actions and cases within the Legal Department, over the past year we have implemented improvement actions that have exponentially improved our performance and internal customer service, such as: the legal project in the field, which brings us much closer to the business areas and allows us to provide much more practical assistance in legal matters; and a new litigation project, which basically consists of reviewing the strategy of all strategic processes, thus achieving savings of more than BRL 2 million for the company.

What measures has your company taken to embed sustainability practices into its core business operations, and how does the role of the general counsel contribute to driving and ensuring sustainable practices within the company?