Created in 2008 by the Odebrecht Tax Planning team in partnership with the Engineering support area, the Odebrecht Technology Innovation Program (POIT) seeks to identify projects at construction sites that are developing new technologies for the construction process. This initiative is based on Law no. 11.196/2005, which provides tax benefits to companies that produce innovations within their development cycle. Of the 60 projects reviewed by POIT so far, 10 are eligible for tax breaks.

The sequence of procedures goes like this: once identified, a project is sent to the Engineering support area, which works together with the Pieracciani consulting firm to assess whether it is eligible for tax breaks under the law. “The program always gets a positive reception and is considered an enhancement of the engineering field,” says Valter Pieracciani, the director of the consulting firm.

“The cost of this research is paid for by the tax breaks received in the end,” says Hélio Guimarães, a former Odebrecht member who is now a consultant at Guimarães e Sieiro. Carlos Hermanny, the officer Responsible for Corporate Management at Odebrecht Infraestrutura, the Group’s infrastructure arm, highlights the importance of innovation for engineering and construction and emphasizes: “The challenge is to make the program go beyond the jobsites to include all areas of the company.”

One of the projects that received tax breaks through the POIT was the extension of the moles at the Port of Rio Grande in Rio Grande do Sul, southern Brazil. The need to survey the seabed led the Odebrecht team to build the equipment required to do the job, because that type of technology did not exist in Brazil, and importing it would have been costly. “We formed a committee of company members and outside consultants to evaluate the implementation of this project, which is called Essal. After that, we found out about the POIT and decided to participate,” explains Marcos Pitanguy, the Operations Manager for the project. “Looking back on it today, it was an extraordinary thing - the opportunity to invent something - and it makes us extremely proud,” he says. José Luiz Menezes, the Administration and Finance manager for the project, stresses that the team’s motivation goes far beyond tax relief. “It’s the ability to generate knowledge that motivates us to pursue innovation.”

And they are rightly proud: Essal is about to be patented - another advantage for projects included in the POIT. “It’s more than just a tax incentive. The aim is to make innovation part of a project’s day-to-day routine and encourage that practice,” says Dante Venturini, Director of Engineering at Odebrecht Infraestrutura.