Focusing on the how, not the why, sustainability must be a priority. That was the focus of the panel. Sustainability for a competitive advantage: Sustainability perspectives and trends held this Tuesday morning within the framework of the forum Latin America, the United States and Spain in the global economy organized in New York by EL PAÍS and the Spain-United States Chamber of Commerce. Representatives of companies in the areas of transportation, trade and financing shared their strategies to work towards a greener future in their respective sectors, all agreeing that sustainability must be closely linked to social impact, since it is the most vulnerable communities that suffer the consequences of climate change.
“We cannot talk about sustainability without considering the social aspect,” said Alicia Montalvo, director of Climate Action and Biodiversity at the Development Bank of Latin America (CAF). “In our case, we are a development bank whose shareholders are the countries that receive loans and technical cooperation, which means that we have to listen to people,” she added.
For CAF, this exercise of listening, Montalvo continued, has allowed them to identify that environmental problems in Latin America “are closely linked to social inequalities.” “The communities most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change are the poorest communities, indigenous communities, ethnic communities, which do not have access to adequate infrastructure,” Montalvo specified. “So we have to be really sensitive and understand what the problems are. Regardless of climate change or biodiversity, the problem is usually poverty and lack of access to basic services,” he emphasized.
For her part, Teresa Parejo, Director of Sustainability at Iberia, the company sponsoring the forum together with DLA Piper, Inditex, Indra, NTT Data and Total Protect in collaboration with the Organization of Ibero-American States (OEI), stressed that social impact “must be integrated” into the strategy of each business. “That is the way to focus all the power of the company so that the company can contribute and be transformative towards a more inclusive and fair world,” she added. In the case of Iberia, its sustainability strategy is focused on the decarbonization of air activity. “It is very difficult for an airline to become greener, but that does not mean that it is not possible,” she said.
For Javier Treviño, senior vice president of Corporate Affairs at Walmart for Mexico and Central America, social impact must focus on “regeneration,” that is, “leaving a net positive impact” on the communities in which companies operate and contributing to them. He gave Walmart’s presence in Mexico as an example: with 3,000 stores throughout the country, some six million Mexicans shop at Walmart every day and the company works with some 33,000 local suppliers, many of them small and medium-sized businesses. “So when I talk about regeneration, it has to do with how we can work with our own employees, with the communities and with our suppliers to go further in the commitment and fulfillment of the objectives we have in terms of zero emissions and also our zero waste objectives,” he explained.
The challenges
After hearing the proposals presented by each, moderator Ricardo Martínez, leader of Sustainability and Climate Risk at Deloitte Risk & Financial Advisory, posed the key question: how is all this paid for? Who finances these plans? That is the main challenge, the speakers agreed.
“There is a huge financial challenge to transform the entire economy, but we can turn that challenge into an opportunity,” said Parejo of Iberia. “However, not a single company, not even the private sector alone, can cope with this. This is only possible through public and private collaboration,” he added.
Along the same lines, Montalvo, from CAF, stressed that it is crucial to understand that “sustainability is an essential component of competitiveness.” “Sustainability is not an expense, but an investment,” he said. He added that beyond the need for the public and private sectors to collaborate in this area, it is also important for consumers to get involved.
“In a perfect world, consumers should reward those companies that are truly committed to sustainability and are making a big effort, because otherwise, in a competitive market, it is very frustrating when you see that the public is not really committed, or they say they are committed, but in reality, they choose others who perhaps are not making such a big effort,” explained the CAF expert.
María de los Ángeles Useche, commercial director of Total Protect, agreed on this point and also stressed the importance of consumers understanding that there are many companies that want to be more sustainable but find it difficult to finance their plans.
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