Our Story
Learn our story, leadership, and mission shaping manufacturing in Mexico.
EHS Compliance for Manufacturing in Mexico
When you operate on a Tetakawi Manufacturing Campus, the environmental permits your process needs are held, filed and renewed by Tetakawi at each level of government, and the employer’s safety programs are run by us. Your floor and your EHS lead stay yours.
The Problem
Why Mexico’s EHS Rules Are Tighter Than You Expect
In Mexico, knowing the rules is not the hard part. Holding the permits is, because three levels of government each issue their own, each on its own renewal clock, and each sends its own inspector on its own schedule, whether or not you are ready for it.
Standards You Already Know
Many teams arrive expecting Mexico to be looser than home. The standards here are close to what you run at home, the inspections are real, and a missing permit can mean a closed gate.
A Permit at Each Level
Environmental impact, hazardous waste, discharges, civil protection, land use. Municipal, state and federal authorities each issue their own, none retires another, and each has its own date.
The Inspector Comes Anyway
Inspections here are routine, announced or not, and they do not wait for an accident. The authority wants the permit file, the training records and the manifests on the spot, not by email next week.
Our Solution
The Permits We Hold, the Floor You Run
Tetakawi’s entity holds the environmental authorizations your operation runs under, and our team on the Campus files them, renews them and meets the inspector when one comes. As employer, we run the safety programs the law requires. You run the floor.
The Permit List Your Process Writes
We start from what you send: your process, your materials and chemicals, the waste it generates, the equipment and the layout. From that comes a written list of the authorizations we identify for your operation, at municipal, state and federal level, with a work plan against it. We file each application and follow it to its answer. The fees each authority charges are your cost, and a study a permit calls for is quoted first.
The Renewal Calendar and the Permit File
Each authorization has its own validity, renewal and modification path, and we keep that calendar as a working plan for your operation. We file the annual certificates of operation, hold the permit file so it can be produced on the spot, and follow the rules behind those permits so that a change reaches you before it reaches an inspector. When your process or materials change, you tell us, and we review the list again.
Safety Programs Run as the Employer
Mexico’s labor ministry sets the workplace-safety standards, and Tetakawi, as the employer, runs the programs those standards require: the safety commissions, protective equipment and exposure monitoring, the brigades and drills, and the emergency-response program Mexican law calls civil protection. The statutory safety training an employer owes, and its record, is ours. Training on your process and your equipment is yours.
Waste Registered, Manifested and Disposed Of
We register your operation as a hazardous-waste generator, file the manifests and coordinate disposal through authorized contractors, from waste stores built to the standard. You choose the hazardous materials your process uses and tell us before the first delivery, so the registration and the manifests cover them. You keep the inventory and the safety data sheets, and you label, store and handle them. Disposal costs are yours.
Our Audits, and the Authority's Visit
Your EHS lead and our team audit the plant against its permit file with the rigor an authority would apply, and you get what we find, so it is fixed before an inspector arrives. When one does, we meet the inspector first, stand beside your EHS lead where permitted, and follow the matter to its formal close. Implementing each corrective action is yours; a fine arising from your process, materials or floor is your cost.
Benefits
The Authorizations Your Process Calls For, Filed and Renewed
Your Plant Runs on Filings Already Made
The permit that could close the gate has a calendar, a file and a team on your Campus behind it. Your EHS lead reads the same list we do.
- A written list of the authorizations your process calls for
- A permit file ready for an inspector or your auditor
- Findings from our own audits, with their corrective actions
- An EHS team on your Campus, steps from your floor
Onboarding
Your First Permit and Every Permit After
Your authorizations are one workstream in the single launch plan your Tetakawi project lead runs. The EHS team on the Campus files the startup ones and stays for renewals, audits and inspections. Your EHS lead works beside them.
1.
Process, Materials, Layout
You send us your process, the chemicals and materials, the waste streams and the layout, and you name your EHS lead.
2.
Permit List and Filings
We return the written list of the authorizations your own process calls for, and then we file the startup ones for you.
3.
Programs and the Work Plan
We form the safety commissions as the employer, and we agree the work plan and the renewal calendar with your EHS lead.
4.
Renewals and Audits
Permits renew on the calendar, we audit the operation and report the findings to you and to your own EHS lead.
Testimonials
EHS and Regulatory Compliance in Practice
Manufacturers on a Tetakawi Campus, on the permits, the inspections and the legal work that runs underneath their plants, and on the part that stays theirs.
“When you expand into Mexico, you don’t know what you don’t know. Tetakawi fills those gaps, from labor and shipping to compliance and tax, and when a question comes up they don’t have the answer to, they find it for us the same day. Having that expertise in place has been critical to our ability to operate and grow in Mexico.”
Jeremy Main, Senior Vice President, Consolidated Precision Products
“Internally we have our own standards, but we need to comply with local laws. Tetakawi does most of the legal documentation, the permits and any transaction that has to be done officially with the local government, so our compliance is partly their work and partly ours. It is a collaboration between TE and Tetakawi.”
Ricardo Gómez, Director of Operations, TE Connectivity
“We do things the way they’re supposed to be done: follow all of the legal requirements, and make sure BAE Systems has a very good name in the community, in the state of Sonora and in the country. Tetakawi is supportive, they’re a partner, and they give the complete package for us.”
Brian Berich, Director of Operations, BAE Systems
Integrated Services
The Integrated Services Behind Every Campus
Our on-site teams help you launch your operation, keep your building running, employ and pay your workforce, move your materials across the border, buy what your plant consumes, and keep your permits, filings and registrations current.
FAQs
EHS and Regulatory Compliance in Mexico FAQs
The questions we get most often from manufacturers looking at Mexico.
What do you do, and what stays ours?
We hold the permits and run the employer’s safety programs. The floor is yours.
Tetakawi’s entity holds the environmental authorizations your operation runs under, and our team files them and renews them. As employer we run the statutory safety programs: the commissions, the protective equipment program, brigades and drills. Your procedures, your training on your process and equipment, and your own EHS lead stay yours. The employer’s statutory obligations and the permits cannot move to you, because they attach to Tetakawi’s entity.
What do you need from us as we operate?
Tell us before the process changes, and keep your floor to your standard.
You tell us about hazardous materials before they arrive; the registration and the manifests cover only what you have told us about. You keep the inventory and the safety data sheets and handle them. Your procedures, your training on your process and equipment, and your own EHS lead’s audits stay yours.
What happens when an inspector arrives?
We meet them first.
Inspections here are routine, announced or not. We meet the inspector, stand beside your EHS lead where permitted, and follow the matter to its formal close. A filing we got wrong is ours to correct. A finding arising from your process, your materials or your floor is yours to fix, and a fine from it is your cost. The fees each authority charges, the studies your operation needs and waste disposal are your cost.
What happens when we change the process?
Tell us before the change runs, and we update the permits it touches.
A new material, a new waste stream or a new line can add a permit or change one already held. You tell us before it starts. We file what is new, update the manifests and the renewal calendar, and tell you what it changed. The studies a change calls for, and the fees each authority charges, are your cost.
How do we explore running our operation on a Tetakawi Campus?
Four steps, in order.
1. Get in touch. A conversation about what you are hoping to achieve in Mexico, and why now.
2. Measure ROI. We build the business case with you: the full cost of running your operation on a Campus, the risks and the trade-offs, and which Campus fits.
3. Site visit. Walk the Campus, meet the people who would run your account, talk with manufacturers already operating there, and meet the EHS team that would hold your permits.
4. Launch and grow. When you give the green light, the same team that helped you build the case guides the launch.
