February 2th 2022

Speakers:

• Ines Garcia-Pintos, Independent Advisor in sustainable finance at Gabeiras&Asociados. She is an associate professor at the Complutense University of Madrid and other educational centers. She is a member of the board of trustees of the ECODES Foundation.

• Beatrice Borras, Public Affairs Manager of Danone

• Isabel Lopez Triana Co-founder and CEO of CANVAS
• Patricia gabeiras, Managing Partner of Gabeiras & Associates 

Summary:

There are more and more companies that want to align their mission with the generation of a social (or environmental) impact, pursuing a purpose that goes beyond the simple maximization of financial profit. are the calls companies with purpose. This type of company is developed in any sector, with any size, some are recently created and others have more years of history, but they are all united by the belief in the transforming capacity of business activity. In some countries around us, such as France or Italy, the legislation already recognizes the specificity of companies with a purpose and the need to encourage this business approach. In Spain, a campaign is under way to promote similar legislation that encourages the development of this type of company.

On January 12, it was celebrated in Fide a session of ESG Forum, in which we talk about "Companies with a purpose", accompanied by: Inés García-Pintos, Beatriz Borrás Vergel, Isabel López Triana and Patricia Gabeiras.

El session goal It was to broaden the knowledge of companies with a purpose, analyze how they differ from other more conventional types of companies and why specific legislation may be necessary to cover them and promote this model.

As a result of this session, from the ESG Forum we published 10 phrases from our speakers and moderator with which we seek to enhance the purpose as a driver of change for companies.

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March 22th 2021

Speakers:

• Richard Borreani, Head of sustainability in the Crop Science area of ​​Bayer

• Gabriel Castañares Hernandez, General Director of Palanca Policies for the Fulfillment of the 2030 Agenda in the Government of Spain

Moderator: Germán Granda, General Director of Forética and member of the State Council of RSE. Member of the Academic Council of Fide

Summary:

The session was about the SDGs and the role of business and government, and intervened as the first speaker Gabriel Castanares, firstly explaining the importance of the work being carried out by the Administration to mark the agenda of the Decade of Action, as well as the important role of the Autonomous Communities and Cities, local entities, the private sector and civil society in the participatory process from which the General Guidelines document has been derived.

The General Guidelines of the 2030 sustainable development strategy define the great challenges for Spain to meet the SDGs, as well as the accelerating policies and action priorities that are necessary to achieve the 2030 Agenda. They were approved on March 4 and the objective now is to define these policies within a period of one or two months to present them at the United Nations at the United Nations High-Level Political Forum.

At the level of Diagnosis of the current situation, the latest reports of the progress report (it focuses on the next areas of action) are:

In the economic-social dimension:

• High level of poverty compared to Europe, especially Infant. Almost a third of Spanish girls, boys and adolescents are at risk of poverty and social exclusion.
• Job insecurity and instability: high rates of non-voluntary partiality and labor poverty (there are 13% of people who work, but are at risk of poverty) that mainly affect the women.

In environmental dimension:

• Climate emergency situation: in the last twenty years there has been a serious increase in semi-arid and desertified surfaces in the Spanish territory, the number of days a year that exceed the thresholds of the heat wave has doubled, and the average temperature has risen 1.7ºC since pre-industrial times.
• It is necessary to improve certain areas, as shown by the figures for energy dependence abroad, 20 points above the European average
• With almost a thousand species threatened, it is essential to act to protect biodiversity.

It is also necessary to highlight the effects that the Covid-19 pandemic has had on the achievement of the SDGs in our country, mainly affecting:

• Regarding the ODS 1In Spain, there has been a large increase in poverty and a decrease in income, due to the stoppage of economic activities classified as non-essential. Some important measures in this regard have been the implementation of the Minimum Living Income, the Extraordinary Social Fund and the strengthening of primary care social services and the moratorium on non-mortgage consumer loans.
• Also due to the paralysis of these activities, there has been an increase in unemployment, negatively affecting the achievement of the ODS 8, decent work and economic growth. To alleviate these effects, some measures have been put in place such as ERTE, the extension of unemployment protection to certain groups, Social Security quota discounts or the extraordinary benefit for self-employed workers.
• Loss of income and non-payment of bills have led to a lack of access to basic supplies and even a risk of loss of housing, making it difficult to achieve the goals. SDG 6, 7 and 11.
• In the same sense, there have been serious disturbances in the production and distribution of food, as well as a generalized closure of school canteens.
• The serious overload of the health services, already weakened, has made it difficult to respond to the virus and thus the achievement of the ODS 3, Health & Wellness. It is necessary to highlight the essential role of transnational research, with results accessible to all.
• Given that job and economic precariousness especially affect women, and in Spain there are many people working informally, there has been a great increase in gender and socio-economic inequalities, moving away from the achievement of the ODS 10.
• Also in relation to gender issues, there has been an important increased vulnerability of womenboth economic (greater exposure to contagion due to greater female presence in health sectors and informal jobs, overload of care work, etc.) and social, since many women victims of sexist violence have been confined with their aggressor. It is essential to implement contingency plans against sexist violence and human trafficking, and protection measures for LGTBIQ + groups.
• Another gap detected has been access to digitization in economically vulnerable groups, which has made it difficult to access quality education (ODS 4) during the months of confinement.
• Given the pandemic situation and the short-term reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, there has been a reduction in commitment to climate action (ODS 13), for which the approval of the Climate Change and Energy Transition Law, as well as its different strategies (PNIEC, etc.) will be very important.
• Regarding ODS 16There has been a significant difficulty in access to justice and reparation measures, due to the paralysis of administrative procedures. To correct it, it would be necessary to implement procedural and organizational measures to streamline judicial and administrative processes.
• There has also been a retreat towards the exclusive attention of national problems, and an erosion of solidarity, thus making it difficult to achieve the ODS 17.

A comprehensive consultation with companies Spanish (needs, expectations regarding the Strategy, etc.), who have participated with good will and great ambition. The objective of this participation process is to detect the strengths and level of implementation of the SDGs in their strategies. In this regard, it is worth highlighting:

• Almost half of the companies surveyed claim to have a sustainability or CSR policy, and have identified their priority SDGs. Gender equality (equality plans, conciliation measures, etc.) is the area most worked on, while climate action (circular economy, health promotion, etc.) is in third place.
• A quarter have developed or are developing products or services that contribute to the SDGs in some way, that is, they are moving from words to action.
• In a third, social action projects have been developed.

However, it is also important to draw attention to the room for improvement, since only 27% of the companies consulted carry out some type of internal training on the SDGs, and there are still 39% of SMEs that do not carry out any measure related to the achievement of the SDGs.

It is evident that there are priorities in the economic plane, derived from the crisis, but in general companies are aware of the importance of sustainability, beyond the pandemic. They consider it important to strengthen relationships with their stakeholders, and they believe that in this way they will improve their reputation and financial results.

Finally, regarding the conclusions and priorities for the future, it is important to implement the SDGs among the self-employed, SMEs, which generally have fewer resources and options, but are a large component of the Spanish economic fabric. It is also necessary to incorporate more concrete measures, landing the 2030 Agenda in the daily action of companies. In terms of sectors, energy and utility companies are more committed to climate and environmental goals. At a general level, it can be concluded that gender, health and climate objectives are the priority areas.

He then intervened Richard Borreani, Head of sustainability in the Cropscience area of ​​Bayer, who places an important emphasis on the challenges that society still has ahead.

First of all, it highlights the increase in the world population (FAO estimates that in 2050 we will be close to 10.000 billion people, that is, about 2.200 billion more than now) and the aging of the population. The number of people over 60 will double. Furthermore, the climate challenge forces us to accelerate our efforts to address water scarcity and biodiversity loss, among many other issues.

As a world leader in health and food, Bayer's commitment is to contribute to solving some of the main challenges and to assume this responsibility by increasing its efforts to generate a positive impact on society and our environments through our actions based on the Goals of Sustainable Development (SDG) of the United Nations that mark our path in how to guide our efforts to help society and the planet.

Bayer's purpose "Science for a Better Life" guides the company's actions to help achieve a high quality of life on a healthy planet. To this end, they drive science and innovation. They develop solutions that address the most important ecological and social challenges and needs to achieve their "Health and Food for All" vision.

Bayer has important goals regarding access to health care, food security, support for small farmers and the empowerment of women. At the same time, it seeks to reduce the ecological footprint throughout its entire value chain, from our suppliers to our own production and the use of our products by consumers, patients and farmers. In this regard, they have set objectives related to decarbonisation, biodiversity conservation and further reduction of environmental impact. In line with the United Nations global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), they have set ambitious goals and want to be judged in the future on how effectively they achieve them.

More than 2.300 Bayer employees in Iberia contribute in a fundamental way to the purpose: 'Science for a better life'. Its work for innovation in the areas of health and food addresses two of the first SDGs: “Zero Hunger” and “Health and well-being”, and Spain's contribution to all of this is fundamental.

At Bayer Spain, gender parity in teams is very high (52% men, 48% women) and 40% of the management team is made up of women.

All work centers strive to reduce emissions, recycle, save water significantly, regardless of the type of center: factory, office or farm.

All this, without forgetting that there are only one hundred and six months to go to 2030.

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February 22th 2021

Speakers:

• Marcelo Catala, VP of Urbanization Solutions for EMEAA at CEMEX

• Daniel Raven, General Director of ASPRIMA, Mariano Fuentes, Delegate of the Urban Development Government Area of ​​the Madrid City Council

• irene ogea, Head of the Corporate Social Responsibility Department at Engie Spain.

Moderator: Germán Granda, General Director of Forética and member of the State Council of RSE. Member of the Academic Council of Fide

Summary:

The session was about Sustainable and Resilient Cities: The Responsibility and Opportunity of the Business Sector, and intervened as the first speaker Mariano Fuentes, first of all explaining the three main areas of urban action addressed by the Madrid City Council with the aim of making it a more prosperous and comfortable city.

1. Improvement of mobility and public space. In the Madrid to come, marked by the large green infrastructures projected around large communication nodes that facilitate mobility, we will finally lose the fear of looking up and finding tall buildings - the Madrid skyline of the future - with a sufficient supply of housing and services for citizens.
2. Renaturalization of urban spaces, an aspect that is often forgotten but important for the city to be greener, more walkable, more livable and more breathable.
3. Improvement of habitability in the city and reconstruction of the local economy through commerce, activity in the neighborhoods or the cultural offer.

Mariano points out that the period of confinement and the restrictions imposed on de-escalation have served to realize the importance of renaturalizing and making large cities like Madrid more livable and friendly. The COVID-19 pandemic and its triple crisis - health, economic and social - have put large metropolitan areas around the world in the eye of the hurricane and have served as a catalyst for change accelerating pre-existing global trends. Starting from the basis that cities will not be dismantled or a massive return to the countryside will occur, it is necessary to bear in mind that our strengths as cities are precisely what makes us weaker in the face of the arrival of diseases such as COVID -19. In this sense, signing of the Villa Agreements has served to ensure the future of the city and to ratify the key measures for the recovery of the crisis, allowing to combine mobility and urban planning (residential priority areas, bike lanes, etc.), as well as to improve the public space with more space for the pedestrian, more security in access to educational centers and making public space available to citizens to teach or telework.

Another important milestone has been the Color Island strategy, which was born as an integral commitment to transform and modernize Madrid through the renaturation of the city, the action against the climate change and the improvement of the environment urban; with the aim of stopping associating the city of Madrid with the idea of ​​a space affected by climate change, polluted, territorially unbalanced and that depletes its soils through unsustainable use.

Again, one of the lessons learned from the pandemic is the importance of the street as a shared space. Therefore, the objective of renaturalizing the urban space seeks to create environmental corridors, connecting walkways between green spaces, new parks and squares for families or new pedestrianized areas (more trees, more benches, more children's areas, more security, more lighting and more spaces. natural within the city). The Producing neighborhoods project, for its part, seeks to put into production those soils that have no use and find a productive agricultural activity.

It also highlights the important effort of the City Council to improve the sustainability of the city and the comfort of the buildings through the ADAPTA programs (pioneering plan that subsidizes the realization of works to adapt homes where people with reduced mobility or sensory disabilities reside) and REHABILITA (project to improve accessibility, conservation, energy efficiency, and health of buildings in Madrid).

Finally, Mariano recalls that the public sector cannot undertake all the improvements that the city needs: business activity is essential. The public-private partnership it enlarges and improves the objectives, in addition to making them more affordable, something important, since the City Council does not have the economic capacity to finance all the improvement projects of the city. It is civil society, especially through companies, who can lead urban development. The municipalities set the rules, draw a strategic course and manage economic and social priorities; But they work hand in hand with the private sector to make all citizens jointly responsible for what they want for their urban environment.

In second place, Daniel Raven focuses his intervention on the following points:

• It is essential that the Administration count on the private sector to carry out the necessary changes in today's cities and advance in sustainability and resilience. The urban regulations of the Town Halls are decisive in order to change and adapt cities in terms of sustainability.
• Cities are competitors with each other and have to be managed to attract talent and therefore investment and offer the level of welfare demanded by the inhabitants of the city itself or of others. In this sense, teleworking offers a very clear opportunity to those cities that go ahead in adapting the regulations so that business investments can be made with the aim of offering what society is demanding at all times.
• It is essential flexibility of urban planning in the change of uses to adapt to the realities of each moment and incorporate degraded areas of the city to the forefront with changes that make regeneration possible and made available to society and its agents because the resources arecasoyes, and in many casos have already had an impact that we must take advantage of.
• It is also vital Reduce bureaucratic procedures and digitize processes so that speed and systems are the same in the public and private sectors.
• La legal security it is key in the whole cycle. For cities to be truly sustainable and resilient, standards are essential.
• We must take advantage of the resources that have been allocated in the past to give an opportunity in the necessary changes in urban rehabilitation and regeneration.
• It is important to teach what is sustainability and resilience in schools and universities. Sustainability is not a term exclusively related to greenhouse gas emissions but goes further, it is therefore necessary to address it from schools, promoting the depth of the message from the bottom up, both in companies and in Public Administrations.
• We have a historic opportunity to take an important step by leveraging the European Union's Next Generation recovery and resilience funds to achieve our goals.

Then Marcelo Catala tells us about the importance of including the sustainability in the broad sense as an essential part of the Company's Vision, consistently reflected in a Strategy aimed at creating value for the different stakeholders and based on a Management Model that transversally involves all areas of the Company, for the sake of achieving Objectives tangible/measurable -aligned with the SDGs, as in the caso CEMEX specific.

And precisely for the achievement of the SDGs and the Green Deal, Marcelo emphasizes the relevance of ensuring a Sustainable Urbanization anticipating that cities will continue to be a key vital epicenter, despite the profound changes we have experienced in the last year that are making us rethink what the cities of the future should be like.

Marcelo therefore recognizes as an urgent challenge -which constitutes at the same time a phenomenal opportunity- the need to build healthier and safer, renatured, circular, smart and inclusive cities. It emphasizes the essential role of the Construction sector in this endeavor and explains how CEMEX is betting in a way determined by the innovation, digitization and a strong climate ambition as fundamental vectors to build cities that are more sustainable and humane.

He gives us some examples of innovative and sustainable solutions offered by CEMEX to respond to the needs of our cities - solutions that are already helping in Paris, London, Berlin, Warsaw, San Francisco or Mexico, and that it hopes will also contribute to the success of future projects in Spain (some as transformational as the from Madrid New North):

• Designing building materials carbon neutral (eg with the line vertua CEMEX) and that facilitate the renaturation
• Promoting the use of Special Mortars for the necessary renovation of the housing stock
• Boosting the industrialized vertical construction -more sustainable, efficient, fast and adaptable (eg with the creation of wallex)
• Facilitating a sustainable and inclusive horizontal mobility, both intra (eg with viapath for bicycles and pedestrians) and interurban (eg with high-tech prefabricated for rail transport)
• Digitizing construction processes (eg with the platform CEMEX GO)
• Reusing waste urban, both recycling them into new materials and facilitating production processes (eg as an alternative fuel)

Finally, Marcelo reiterates CEMEX's commitment to be one of the driving forces behind Sustainable Urbanization, pointing out throughout caso that the achievement of this great common objective will require the effort of all and very particularly of the Public-Private Collaboration. Along these lines, and in the short term to accelerate the exit from the crisis, he emphasizes the importance of a efficient and smart allocation of Next Generation EU Funds, focusing them on those projects and actors best trained to develop their potential and take our cities to the next level.

Finally, Irene Ogea highlights that making cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable is one of the objectives set by the United Nations in the 2030 Agenda (SDG 11). But to materialize this opportunity it is necessary to change the way in which cities are planned, financed, built and managed.

Cities play a fundamental role in the fight against climate change. Although cities occupy only 3% of the earth's surface, represent between 60% and 80% of energy consumption and 75% of carbon emissions.

Consider also the vulnerability of cities to climate change and natural disasters: floods, water stress, energy shortages, food shortages and air quality. Strengthening urban resilience is crucial to avoid human, social and economic losses.

While many national governments have set targets to align with the Paris Agreement, it should also be noted that cities have set ambitious targets. Cities have the advantage of having authority over land use, transportation, waste management, and water management. They are well positioned to implement sustainability policies. But to do so they have to face complex challenges.

Cities face an ongoing challenge related to rapid growth. This growth is accompanied by a increased demand for jobs, transportation and affordable housing, as well as a higher consumption of energy, water and waste.

In addition to the usual challenges and new demands for services, cities have had to cope with the COVID-19 crisis. In this sense The coronavirus pandemic has put cities to the test that have had to face not only new demands for services, but also almost unthinkable drops in revenue collection.

However, the COVID-19 crisis has also highlighted how changes in uses and habits in cities can lead to significant reductions in CO2 emissions, reductions in energy consumption and therefore savings in economic resources that can be achieved. derive to alleviate other types of vulnerabilities in cities.

Some of the following actions can help cities address current trends and external pressures, while implementing projects and policies that meet the needs of their citizens:

• Decarbonize transportation
• Strengthen construction requirements
• Increase access to green energy
• Implement regulations
• Set goals and report progress
• Build coalitions

ENGIE's goal is to continue leading the urban transformation process. To do this, consider seven principles for the design of a resilient city and net in emissions which are based on: putting the user at the center, flexibility, vision of the future, considering multiple energies, taking communities into account, working on adaptation to climate change and seeking innovative solutions in terms of financing.

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December 2th 2019

Speakers:

• Agnes Navarro, Director of Variable Income, Caixabank CIB

• Lorenz altenburg, Head of Fixed Income Syndication, Caixabank CIB

• Manuel Fresno Castro, General Director of Finance and Management Control, ADIF

Moderator: Germán Granda, General Director of Forética and member of the State Council of RSE. Member of the Academic Council of Fide

Summary:

The transition to a sustainable global economy requires increased financing of investments that provide environmental and social benefits to meet the commitments made by the Paris Agreement or the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) themselves.

From a business point of view, we are witnessing an explosion of products to respond to a very important demand.

Equity markets through Socially Responsible Funds (SRI) and fixed income markets with green, social and sustainability bonds play an essential role in attracting private capital to finance these global needs and, by aligning investments to a long-term strategic vision, generate greater profitability.

The issuance of these bonds does not stop growing in volume and number of operations and a record growth is expected in 2019 that exceeds 200.000 million dollars, also propitiated by the promotion of the Sustainable Finance Action Plan of the European Commission together with the growing incorporation of sustainability in the agenda of companies, governments and investors.

In Spain, growth is also exponential. ADIF Alta Velocity and Caixabank, together with other companies and public entities such as Iberdrola, Naturgy, Telefónica, the ICO and the Community of Madrid have been pioneers in these issues that are experiencing great growth globally.

In the session we had the opportunity to learn from experts from ADIF and Caixabank what these new financing instruments consist of and the differential nuances between them regarding the destination of their financing, what objectives they meet, how the projects are selected and evaluated to whom they are intended, their transparency requirements, what challenges they have and the reason for their success.

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November 4th 2019

Speakers:

• Ana Ercoreca, Active Labor Inspector and President of the Union of Labor Inspectors

• Anna Benavides, Director of Labor Relations and Government of MAPFRE

• Paul Carrillo, Director of HR Operations and Labor Relations at Orange.

Moderator: Carlos de la Torre, Of Counsel in the Labor Department of Baker McKenzie and Labor Inspector on leave, and member of the Academic Council of FIDE

Summary:

• The first, health and protection with the establishment of measures aimed at reducing the risk of disease transmission, such as how to calculate and respect the biological capacities of buildings, signaling and conditioning of work centers, health self-questionnaire prior to joining the work center, medical tests for the detection of COVID by the Company's Medical Services, installation of temperature control cameras, specific disinfection protocols, provision of hydroalcoholic masks and gels, capacity, MAPFRE's own tracking app (Radar COVID MAPFRE)
• The labor relations of flexibility by offering employees time bags and specific permits to attend to personal needs derived from COVID, teleworking, flexibility in the organization and development of their daily workday, continuous dialogue with the Legal Representation of Workers and actions aimed at managers for remote team management
• New ways of working through the promotion of the implementation of digital tools for collaboration, communication and management, with the necessary training support for the proper learning of their management and use.
• Communication with employees. Constant communication with employees has been maintained through the Intranet, email and the People APP. Likewise, the ASK MAPFRE channel was created through which all employees around the world could raise doubts and questions about how the Company was addressing the crisis, which were answered directly by the President and the General Director of the People and Organization Area.
• Change management. A multitude of actions have been carried out in the areas of health, cybersecurity, organizational reputation, work organization, training resources, communication models, volunteering or professional development to help employees face the new situation
• First of all, social. Collaboration and volunteer actions have been developed with food banks, the elderly, children admitted to hospitals and their families, people with disabilities and young people in situations of social exclusion, among others.

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29th October 2019

Speakers:

• Raymond Torres, Director of Situation and International Economy, Funcas

  Francisco Ruiz, Head of Public Policy, Google

Moderator:

Carlos de la Torre Garcia, Of Counsel, Labour, Baker & Mckenzie. Labor Inspector (on leave). Member of the Academic Council of Fide.

Summary:

The rapid and unstoppable advance of the digital economy is driving a radical change in the global and interconnected society that is progressively modifying the daily lives of people, as well as the economy as a whole and, on the one hand, opens up new opportunities and capabilities that will allow Greater social and economic development, but from another, can generate new challenges for companies to comply with their privacy and transparency obligations, and also develop good practices in the management of the data they obtain from consumers and customers.

During this session we have addressed, among issues: how the digital and AI revolution is transforming the way of producing and consuming; the impact on the company and employment, as well as the economic policy options to respond to the challenges and opportunities that are anticipated.

We have seen how global digitization and the development of Artificial Intelligence are also an opportunity in the labor market if we know how to manage it properly. Previous revolutions have shown us that, in the end, despite Luddite or Neo-Luddite pressures, the bottom line is positive, that is, more jobs are created than are lost. Making it possible is a responsibility of governments and of different public and private institutions, including companies. It is necessary to adapt the knowledge of the existing workforce and the one that will be incorporated in the coming years, to the needs of the market and new professions. In Google, most of the projects are focused on this, to prepare current and future generations that will join the labor market, to facilitate their employability with training in digital skills.

In short, we had the opportunity to analyze how AI can also offer companies opportunities to create value in their relationships with their stakeholders.