Business sustainability has already become an imperative in the business world. Companies are increasingly recognizing that sustainability is not only good for the planet and its inhabitants, but is also essential for long-term success. From the 2020 Davos forum came the concept to do good, doing well, or in other words, do good, doing well. Because, although the term sustainability is often tinted green, sustainability goes far beyond the environment. It covers and embraces social and good governance aspects. Criteria that, with the acronym ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance), mark the future of companies with a desire to permanence.
Dialogues at La Vanguardia, in collaboration with EY, brought together representatives from five companies to address sustainability, its challenges and opportunities. In addition to the hosts Antonio Capella, partner in EY's sustainability area, and Alfredo Eguiagaray, EY audit partner, the debate included the participation of Jordi Prat, Chief Financial Officer of Miquel y Costas; Ainhoa Burgos, Chief Sustainability Officer of Audax Renovables; Joaquim Bauló, Chief Financial Officer of Europastry; Isabel Amat, Director of Innovation and Sustainability of Reig Jofre, and Patricia Romero, CEO of Romero Polo. Five family companies, three of which are listed on the continuous market (Miquel y Costas, Audax Renovables and Reig Jofre), that operate in different sectors, but with the common purpose of doing good, doing well.
The challenges, Capella explained by way of introduction, are very powerful. Starting with what he described as an “ESG regulatory tsunami”, with a lot of regulations emerging, from the European directive on corporate information on sustainability, which will force companies to provide much more information than they offer now, to the proposal of directive on due diligence in sustainability, which must include the supply chain, passing through double materiality or the green taxonomy, which seeks to classify the sustainable activities of companies. However, to provide a note of optimism among so much regulation, he highlighted that Spain is “advanced compared to other European countries.”
As much as sustainability is a strategic axis of the five companies and that they were already working on different aspects, even anticipating the regulation that was to come, they admitted its dynamic role. “Regulation is the great lever for accelerating sustainability; “It makes organizations mobilize,” declared the finance manager of the Miquel y Costas paper company, reflecting the feelings of the rest of the participants. However, they warned of the risk of hyperregulation and the technical complexity of the rules.
“The current regulatory framework around sustainability is complex and requires numerous resources for its interpretation and implementation,” said Burgos, who even went so far as to point out that for Audax, being a company that produces and markets 100% renewable energy, and that has “sustainability in its DNA”, excessive bureaucracy makes it difficult to implement the regulatory framework itself that is intended to benefit the sector. Along these lines, the Europastry representative added that “bureaucratization has a cost, it is not free” and can put Europe at a disadvantage compared to the US or Asian countries.
Although Capella did not deny the dynamic role of regulation, he believed that what has definitely driven sustainability is the change that has occurred in the financial world. “The term ESG gained weight when the financial sector realized that managing it well minimized risks and maximized opportunities,” he stressed. Investors and funds, Prat acknowledged, ask the usual financial questions, but now they are more interested in sustainability reports.
In this sense, Eguiagaray admitted that sustainability is what interests boards of directors today, but he claimed the role of financial auditing. “Financial information has to be aligned with non-financial information. They are not two worlds apart,” he highlighted, adding that sustainability impacts future profitability, but also the financial statements,” because it not only affects the operating account but also the valuation of assets.
For sustainability to be successful, it has to be part of the company's strategy and be transversal throughout the organization and throughout the value chain. “Sustainability is about cultural change and strategy, it is a way to prepare for future challenges,” declared the representative of the pharmaceutical company Reig Jofre. In her opinion, this transversality gives “more coherence to the company's purpose” and offers the opportunity to do a long-range sustainable business.
Amat explained that sustainability is not only taken into account when designing a new product and its entire life cycle, including its destruction, but is also observed in the company's portfolio, in which they try to find the balance between essential and most innovative medicines. “Here we talk about gene therapy, but in other parts of the world they talk about not having essential medicines, such as antibiotics,” he declared, before emphasizing that the pharmaceutical company works so that therapeutic innovation can be accessible to as many people as possible. .
Aware that the construction sector has a great impact on CO2 emissions and the consumption of natural resources, Romero Polo is committed to improvements and optimization from senior management. “Even in times of crisis we have done our homework and we have anticipated requirements that clients are now demanding or that do not yet appear in the specifications,” stated its CEO, who highlighted that, with the increase in costs, This anticipation is done at the cost of the margin.
"But we value this DNA of a family business, which wants to survive for many years, and we are committed to it because the improvements and optimizations we carry out have both a social and environmental impact," he highlighted. In this sense, he also stressed that sometimes it is the employees themselves, of all generations, although usually the youngest, who drive improvements.
Bauló also pointed out that employees are increasingly demanding with what the company does and offers. Especially young people, who already take for granted, for example, equity or social equality and help to energize a respectful, equitable, safe work culture and professional development of people. Hence, good internal communication is important so that the staff feels, as Amat, Romero and Burgos pointed out, “the pride” of belonging to a company that works to be increasingly sustainable.
To the new generations, everyone agreed, we must “give them a purpose” which is none other than to fulfill the strategy and achieve the set objectives. “Seeing the impact of their work on society is an important lever for motivating and retaining talent,” said the head of innovation and ESG at Reig Jofre.
Talent management is, in everyone's opinion, a major challenge. “There is a talent crisis. Not because there is no talent, but because we manage turnover rates that have not been seen in a long time,” said Burgos. The new generations, he continued, demand a series of benefits from companies, starting with a good salary, and their demands are increasingly more individualized. “Before, it was the candidate who had to seduce the company, and now it is the company that has to seduce the candidate,” summarized Romero. For Amat, this rotation is also an opportunity to be “more resilient and adapt better to changes.”
The CEO of Romero Polo, after remembering that her father and founder of the group is proud that no technician left him, assured that, in labor and social matters, the future of construction involves making the sector attractive again. with the execution of economically viable projects, a reduction in schedules and greater flexibility and quality of life. And also work for equality. In the construction company, she explained, in addition to her as CEO, there are many women leading departments, projects and even construction and service operators.
The future purpose for the five companies is to continue growing sustainably. “The challenge is to grow by providing value to investors in a framework consistent with the mission and value of the company and to do so in a changing regulatory environment,” said Prat, for whom the paradigm shift in society highlights what Miquel and Costas has been doing this for years, which is providing the market with products that are environmentally sustainable. “Sustainability is a differential value of Miquel y Costas,” she emphasized, to then underline the uncertainty generated by the current global geopolitical and macroeconomic environment.
For Reig Jofre, the goal is to continue being an industry, “and an innovative industry,” that provides health to people and the planet. “Social and environmental commitment are levers of adaptation and resilience to have a sustainable business over time,” added Amat. For his part, Romero assured that his challenge “is to continue creating,” which is the mission of its owner from day one “and what excites him the most.” For Burgos, the future involves continuing to grow sustainably, contributing to the fight against climate change and decarbonization, fulfilling the defined strategy and working to generate positive impacts for society and the environment.
Bauló highlighted that the challenge is to ensure that “sustainability has value, that things are done with meaning, not just because regulation requires it.” In his opinion, the important thing is to be successful in transformative actions, which provide value to the client, the consumer, the workers,... and at the same time are aligned with the United Nations 2030 agenda. In decarbonization, for example, the world is moving in the right direction, but in other issues, costs or technical limitations mean that sufficient progress has not yet been made, he concluded.
