Alejandro Chiappe, Lead Partner of Advisory, and Patricia Terraza, Area Manager attended different presentations about environment, society and corporate governance (ESG); sustainable business operations; emissions, energy and the path to net zero greenhouse gas emissions; sustainable solutions to social problems; supply chains and sustainable transport; and the shift from the perspective of corporate social sustainability (CSR) to ESG.
Each of the sessions was led by mentors in the field and executives from different industries such as finance, life sciences, agriculture and food, among others. In them, Patricia tells us that "the various planned paths towards global sustainability with viable solutions today were discussed. Key ideas were provided on the reality of carbon neutrality and the achievement of global sustainability".
There is a growing interest of the Society in knowing and valuing the efforts of the different actors in the production chain to more adequately manage the impact that the different activities produce on the planet.
Basically, the most important developments go through the increasing use of renewable energies that impact different areas of production and distribution directly or indirectly.
This trend is expanding to the value generation chain through the development of suppliers that must comply with certain environmentally friendly production practices.
These initial developments have found certain financing alternatives to accompany the necessary investments that these environmental commitments demand for their implementation and sustainability, since the impacts on costs are initially incremental while waiting for the generation of longer-term benefits.
These financing alternatives translate into the issuance of so-called "green bonds" that project a significantly lower rate of return for the investor but tend to satisfy the expectations of the same investors regarding improvements in the environmental footprint. According to the analyzes revealed in the conferences, there is a growing profile of investors guided more by the intangible of generating an activity that is friendly to the environment, than by the monetary return on investment.
Within this framework and given the first steps in initiatives of this nature, it is becoming more necessary for the declarations of the achievements of the companies mobilized by these initiatives to demonstrate to the Company and its investors the achievements achieved.
These achievements initially arise from statements by company management, but there is a growing trend to certify such evidence through an external opinion by independent actors. Although there is currently no specific standard that guides these certifications, a battery of procedures are applied to validate the actions and data that arise to provide certainty about the reliability of the information. As in any impact evaluation measurement process, it is increasingly necessary to have specific references on the baseline that allow a clearer judgment on the effects of the implemented measures.
It is expected that in the short term the different professions involved will generate a multidisciplinary methodological matrix tending to unify the processes of data verification and generation of baselines in the different industries.
I highlight the importance of energy in sustainable development and the need to achieve carbon neutrality, not only through renewable energies, but also, energy efficiency must be promoted, solutions must be developed to decarbonize sectors that are difficult to abandon. The sustainability of the critical mineral (eg lithium) must also be addressed, and lastly, political sustainability is crucial to support this transition.
Sustainability 2100 is organized by Informa and is defined as a global event where "people and organizations come together to learn more about the fight for a more sustainable future, as well as network and be inspired to find solutions to the environmental crisis and create a better future for all”.
This first edition also had the participation as a speaker of Niresh Rajah, Managing Director and Head of Data, RegTech and digital consulting practice at Grant Thornton UK.
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