About us

Our history

Hinicio is a strategy consulting firm focused on sustainable energy and mobility founded in 2006. Since then, we are globally recognized as a leading consultancy in the field of hydrogen and fuel cells.

Our history started supporting the evolution of the hydrogen and fuel cell industry in Europe with a small team of experts who shared a common vision: developing a clean hydrogen economy to contribute to achieving a more sustainable world. This team was led by Patrick Maio, co-founder of the European Hydrogen & Fuel Cell Technology Platform and current CEO of Hinicio, who then started working with the World Fuel Cell Council, coordinating some of the first hydrogen development projects in the EU.

Due to a rapid understanding of the vital role of hydrogen in the energy transition, Hinicio established its headquarters in Brussels, and soon after, it opened its second office in Paris. With these two offices in place, Hinicio expanded its services toward developing strategic studies and roadmaps to support public and private clients to prepare for the sustainable energy revolution across the world. By 2016, with a background of more than 150 projects in Europe and Asia, Hinicio got a membership to the FCH JU in Europe(now the Clean Hydrogen Partnership) and offered pioneering consulting services such as Go-To-Market Strategies, Business Models, and Project management assistance.

In 2014, after our consolidation in the H2 market in Europe, Hinicio started working on CertifHy as the first GO certification system for Europe, project that is now supported by the European Commission, and envisioned the expansion of the clean hydrogen interest in other regions. In 2015 Hinicio opened the first office in Latin America and set up additional commercial agreements in Asia and the MENA region. Due to our efforts, by 2022 we have offices in Belgium, France, the Netherlands, U.S.A, Chile and Colombia, we also have different commercial agreements in China and Mexico, and by 2022, we have worked in about 29 countries with more than 500 projects across the world.

Vision and values

At Hinicio, we see hydrogen as playing a central role in the future energy system to achieve climate objectives.

Our mission is to advise our clients and support the building of successful strategies, projects, and public policies, leading and accelerating the transformation of the energy system globally. We strive to be their preferred partner to help them achieve their climate objectives. To do so, we attract best-in-class human capital.

We are a company that fully believes in unity, structure and creativity as part of the main tools to promote change around the world. That is why we have developed a strong set of values and principles which guides our way to take decisions, advise our clients, support our allies and create healthy work environments. Our set of corporate values are:

Engagement

-We are engaged with our clients, people, shareholders, partners, and the planet.
-We are engaged and committed to finding solutions and deliver
-We strive to build trusted, long-term relationships

People First

-We work hard to Attract, Train, Develop, Retain and Grow our people
-We actively support and develop our people to work from their intrinsic motivation and passion for our mission, vision, and colleagues
-We create the right environment for colleagues to have fun and grow closer together as one team, cross borders
-We promote empathic relationships

Excellence

-We strive to become the best in class in what we do and how we do it
-We strive to exceed expectations, but not at any cost
-We strive for high quality in everything we do
-Excellence is no reason for excess. We manage our resources efficiently

Customer-Centric

-We grasp clients’ specific needs through active listening and thoughtful questioning.
-We take particular attention to helping anticipate client’s needs
-As an agile organization, we leverage our flexibility to our client's benefit
-We are open and available

Integrity

-We promote honesty internally and externally
-We say what we do and do what we say, remaining true to our values
-We do not hide problems: we surface them early on and do our best to solve them
-If we doubt, we look for advice from our peers and more senior colleagues

Result-Oriented

-We aim to deliver on Time / on Scope / on Budget / with the expected quality.
-We pay particular attention to clarifying goals.
-We measure progress regularly and provide feedback
-We propose pragmatic solutions

Sustainable Innovation

-We don't accept the status quo
-We embrace positive change
-Our innovations should be good for society and the planet
-Our innovations should be sound economically and environmentally

Locations & Alliances

With 15 years of experience in the industry, HINICIO is recognized as a leading consulting firm in sustainable energy and transportation with a dedicated competence centre on hydrogen in Europe, Asia and the Americas, distributed in 9 different locations.

+500 studies and projects in more than 29 countries

Experts team

We build on a unique team of high-level experts, including chemical, electrical, mechanical and software engineers, economists, environmentalists, policy experts and more.

Diversity, Equity, Inclusion

At Hinicio, we are committed to fostering, cultivating, and preserving a culture of diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Our human capital is the most important asset we have. The collective sum of the individual differences, life experiences, knowledge, inventiveness, self-expression, unique capabilities, and talent that our employees invest in their work represents a significant part of not only our culture, but our reputation and company’s achievement as well.

We embrace our employees’ differences in age, color, disability, ethnicity, family or marital status, gender identity or expression, language, national origin, physical and mental ability, political affiliation, race, religion, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, and other characteristics that make our employees unique.

Hinicio’s diversity initiatives are applied – but not limited to – our practices and policies on recruitment and selection; compensation and benefits; professional development and training; promotions; layoffs; terminations; and the ongoing development of a work environment built on the premise of gender and diversity equity that encourages and enforces:

Respectful communication and cooperation between all employees.
Teamwork and employee participation, permitting the representation of all groups and employee perspectives.
Work/life balance through flexible work schedules to accommodate employees’ varying needs.
Employer and employee contributions to the communities we serve to promote a greater understanding and respect for diversity.

HINICIATIVES | Our extra mile with purpose in the long run

Hinicio contributes to societal goals by engaging in volunteering and supporting fundraising efforts and ethically-oriented practices that benefit its employees, communities, and the planet.

We focus our efforts on the following initiatives:

Donations and corporate philanthropy

Donation of masks to a hospital in Belgium as a corporate response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Donation to a charitable organization in Colombia by our LATAM Business Unit to help indigenous communities in a state of vulnerability.
Donation for the purchase of renewable energy equipment in response to the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine.

Community volunteering

Planting trees initiatives during our team building activities in Europe and Latin America

Corporate social marketing

Since 2018, we have been sending Trees Gift Cards to our clients. Throughout this initiative, we already have planted around 5000 trees in Bolivia, Madagascar, Indonesia, and Nepal.

Socially-responsible business practices

Our goal is to become a net-zero climate impact company. We want to manage our environmental footprint. Therefore, in each of our offices, we lead our efforts for decarbonizing our internal activities, and we monitor our results.

About us

Our history