Promoting economic growth that respects the environment or guarantees sustainable consumption and production patterns is part of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that were established by the United Nations in the fight against the Time for 2030 Agenda.

That means creating a new economic model now if you really want to reduce 45% of the carbon emissions needed to avert climate catastrophe. More and more companies and organizations in all sectors are aware that The challenge involves changing our business lines so that productive activity and sustainability go hand in hand, Ultimately, it’s about redefining business success.

philosophy revolves around that idea B Corp, the world’s largest responsible business movement And whose aim is to generate a positive impact on the society and the planet through its production model. b corp badge Already accredits 5,000 companies that meet its high standards Verified for social and environmental performance as well as transparency and legal responsibility.

On 27 May, Spanish companies leading in green strategies, along with personalities from academia, public administration, media, the third sector and citizens, met in 6th edition of Be Good Day, This is the name of the movement’s annual meeting in Spain, held at the Green Patio in Madrid and featured as an editorial unit. media partner Specific.

About 350 attendees and over 200 organizations gathered at this benchmark event on business sustainability and impact economics. During the various conferences, talks and workshops held during the day, Nayak discussed how to set up a roadmap for consolidating a new business model. A strategy, as explained by Pedro Tarak, co-founder of System B, “It’s not just about incorporating B corp companies, but about everyone thinking differently, forming alliances, Turn personal goals into simple opportunities and measure success in another way”.

After all, it’s “discovery”A new model in which economic benefits are balanced with social and environmental“, added Pablo Sánchez, executive director of Bee Lab Spain. In this desired scenario, the speakers agreed on the need for a type of company that operates for a purpose as the pivot of the new economy. In the opinion of Natalia Berenguer Danone, Secretary General of Europe, who translates An exercise in empathy with the real world: “It is to understand what is causing stress or pain in my country and what I can do as a company to reduce it.”

In this regard, Lead to Change CEO Javier Market stressed that “under the current concept of the company, not everything fits. A company and a business are not the same.” Being a company means having the ability to create corporate value, and social and environmental value at the same time, It’s a community of people centered around purpose.”

The industry’s redefinition around this idea is, for Berenguer, an opportunity to reclaim the trust of institutions after the 2008 crisis, when a section of companies focused their businesses only on profiting: “Institutions will need corporate resources to achieve real change,

However, one of the problems presented by companies’ change of chip towards a sustainable model is that, “as they grow, the purpose is lost”. This was disclosed by the CEO of Aced, Koldo Echeberia. so he insisted The Importance of Educating “For Vital Consciousness” And in the great challenge of governance in companies: “Either we integrate the set of values ​​and commitments among the factors behind any decision and we prepare managers on that path or we are going to continue with this schizophrenia.” Huh”.

activism

But the need for companies to transfer green education affects not only their leaders, but all of their employees, as Mario Rovirosa, CEO of Ferrer Pharmaceutical Company, explained: “The most important thing to us is that all of our employees are workers. This is changing our company, because it means there are 1,800 people who are thinking these words and thus, none of them, regardless of their rank, act as another worker”.

The director cited as an example that it is possible to see any day-to-day professional in this organization taking action to improve or change schools and even pick cabbage and spinach in an urban garden. that they have to make cities more sustainable. ,

Beyond Human Capital, other participants with the B Corp seal highlight Commitment to innovation to achieve a balance between economic benefits and environmental and social benefits, Thus, Holaluz co-founder and CEO Carlota Pai remarked that, prior to the outbreak of the pandemic, her company (the first European electricity company B Corp) did “a twist on algorithms to give customers more savings”. And he did so in the midst of a complicated prison situation in which, “all of a sudden, the energy consumption was uniform across the households.”

Faced with this situation, as he said, his company reinforced its objective Promote 100% green energy by launching the so-called rooftop revolution, by virtue of turning the maximum possible number of unused façades into spaces to install solar panels. This strategy, he argued, “is forever changing the way the country produces energy, by converting homes into green power generation plants“And it’s also a way for customers to “become an electricity producer and save an average of about 30% of the bill,” he emphasized.

a necessary law

The Be Good Day meeting also worked to discuss the need for a standard that helps identify committed companies, which already exists in other European countries such as France and Italy.

In a roundtable on the possible implications of this legal figure, Sarah Ladra, a member of the Board of Directors of Economists Against Crisis, explained the reasons why, in her opinion, A regulation is urgently needed to engage the industry in the fight against climate change: “If we want a more sustainable and fair economic paradigm, companies with an objective must play a major role, because in this landscape of uncertainty in which we find ourselves, they know how to measure and address environmental risks.” assessment and they have better access to sources of funding.”

Along the same lines, Patricia Gaberas, founding partner of Gaberas & Associates, said that “This legal amendment will be an accelerator to recognize that these companies are aligning themselves with environmental and social interests.“. And he explained the reason: “as soon as its typology is legally defined, the term can no longer be used in the usual way”.

According to Gabeiras, problems such as the fact that commercial law in Spain is “generally too conservative in legislating these innovations” or the difficulty in avoiding misleading advertising and strategy of grieving can be overcome, And he gave the Regulation of Responsible Finance as an example: “What is sustainable is being defined and, in fact, there is already a classification with which the indicators are being regulated to determine whether a product Sustainable or not.

Jorge Barrero, general director of the Kotak Foundation, also considered this regulatory requirement: “It seems that today there are companies that are ahead of the law, who feel that they have an obligation towards the consumers. But on the other hand, it can be read as a failure of the institutions.”

measure the impact

Several talks reviewed the relevance of analyzing the impact of business activity. For example, Luis García Moneda, an environmental, climate change and sustainability consultant, indicated that “Producing a positive impact on people and the environment is as important as measuring itTo verify, understand, communicate and improve upon that effect”.

As Yolanda Fulgueiras, director of national expansion at Lavola and her Madrid delegation, explained in another plenary session, interestingly, “when the big companies started implementing their decarbonization planswhich has an impact on its entire value chain,

For exactly this reason, B Corp promotes impact measurement tools so that “companies of any size can measure their contribution to the SDGs”.This was explained by Sofa Ismendi, Director of Programs and Alliances at Bee Lab Spain, who recalled many of his organization’s projects, with over a hundred companies seeking to identify their carbon and water footprints and reforms associated with the circular economy. I was successful.

Measurement is one of the axes to make this system change. But cooperation should also serve as a vehicle of change. This is how Carlos García, PR manager of Too Good To Go, remembered it, the technology company that has forged relationships with organizations from various sectors to fight against food waste: “Finally, alliances allow you to go far,