The sustainable agenda is installed in various areas. summoned by THE NATION to participate in the sixth chapter of the Sustainability meeting, which was held under the motto “The sustainable future is now”, different actors from the business and social world shared their experiences and spoke about the agenda for the future.

“The goal is a healthier planet, but the transition must be made by each country according to its level of development,” said Antonio Aracre, CEO of Syngenta for Latin America South, at the opening of the meeting. “Restricting activities that could generate wealth, work, development and production seems sacrilege,” he summarized. Therefore, he proposed to focus on education. “The richest 1% of the population emits more than twice as much carbon as the poorest 50%. The solution would be to change the consumption habits of that 1%”, he commented.

But in this work of education and transition other difficulties appear that, in the process, become priorities. According to Constanza Cilley, executive director of Voices! Research & Consultancy, young people predict a poorer Argentina in the next ten years and their main concern is not being able to progress. This, added to poverty and inequality, forces us to resolve these issues first before giving priority to the environment, although, as she added, the issue is already installed.

Without a general solution to these problems, there are proposals that try to address them from different areas of society.

Clearly there is much to be done and change begins both in people and in homes as well as in companies. According to Agustina Zenarruza, Pan American Energy’s Sustainability Manager, “the way we have to relate to the community is key”, because from the action of the companies we can help grow and empower those who integrate it. Referring to the possibility of helping to solve specific problems, she said that companies are a bridge between the identification of needs and organizations and governments, which have “the real power to scale and make changes.”

Sabina Zaffora, Sustainability Manager for Natura Hispanic Latin America, assessed that one of the great challenges has to do with measuring the impact of the company’s activity. “We have been working on this issue since 2010, and we launched a tool, which is an integrated report on social, human and environmental capital. That brings us management, ”she recounted. With that report, she added, it was possible to design the company’s movements and drive actions.

“There is no possible success in a business if there is not a positive impact in every sense: environmental, social and labor. We have been working on the issue of circular economy for 10 years, ”said Gisela Krasñansky, manager of Public Affairs at Danone.

That concept highlighted by Krasñansky is not alien to other companies. Cervecería y Maltería Quilmes promotes a full circular economy model”, explained Vanesa Vázquez, manager of Inclusive Growth and Sustainability. And she added: “In our industry, 64% of packaging is returnable and reusable. The consumer can take the container to the store, which will be reused 29 times and, once the cycle has been completed, 100% recycled”.

That same type of strategies applies Unilever. Natalia Giraud, head of Corporate Affairs and Communications for the Southern Cone of the multinational, highlighted the commitment to reduce the use of virgin plastic by half, which is being worked on. According to projections, by the end of this year, 20% of the plastic in Argentina will be recycled and from the national industry.”

The objectives set by companies in Argentina and in the world have medium and long-term goals. It is common to hear projects for 2030 and 2050, but there are also immediate ones. If the short goals are not achieved, it would not be possible to meet the 30-year schedule.

Carlos Galmarini, director of Public Affairs and Communication at Ford Argentina, said that, although the company’s great commitment is the electric car, there are changes that are taking place. “The Pacheco plant operates at 67% with renewable energy and aims to reach 100% by 2024. Ford has the goal of being carbon neutral by 2050 and of lowering 76% of the emissions that generate the greenhouse effect by 2035,” he pointed out. the.

The company Arcos Dorados has its projections for a few years, while several changes are taking shape. “We migrate all our packaging and eliminate 3,500 tons of single-use plastic per year; we change packaging, we certify the source of origin of the materials, we eliminate lids, straws and glasses”, reviewed Gabriel Serber, regional vice president of Sustainability and Social Impact.

Along the same lines, they work at L’Oréal Argentina with their Hairstylist For The Future program. Through training, they provide hairdressers in the region with “tools to reduce the use of water in salons by more than 45%, to lower emissions from energy use by 30% and to separate waste.” “We aim for 300 hairdressers to have incorporated at least one of these initiatives by 2023,” said Mariana Petrina, director of Corporate Affairs, Commitment and Sustainability of the firm.

With its sights set on 2025 and 2050, Nestlé set itself two central objectives: work with 100% recyclable packaging and achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions. “These are challenging goals and mark our agenda day by day. They imply working, articulating with the rest of the value chain and carrying out many chained actions to achieve them”, explained Verónica Rosales, Director of Communication and Public Affairs at Nestlé Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay. Several products have already had changes, after much internal debate. “We eliminated all plastic straws from the containers and changed the iconic red cap of Nescafé Dolca for a transparent one, which facilitates recycling”, summarized Rosales.

The road is long and the programs are configured according to the needs and possibilities of each company. Iveco Group Argentina managed to develop “a management model with an ecological mixture”, which “allows 95% of the industrial center’s waste to be processed”, in addition to having launched its CNG-powered truck in 2020. “Our job is to train our employees, to make them understand the importance of sustainability throughout the value chain,” said Santos Doncel Jones, president of the company.

But, for change, resources are needed and the financial intermediation sector must play its role there. “As of 2020, sustainability has been defined as a strategic priority,” said Hernán Carboni, director of Institutional Relations at BBVA Argentina. And he clarified that more than $7.4 billion in sustainable products have already been mobilized in 2021 and that in 2022 more than $8.8 billion will already be registered.

In addition to financing, the control and registration of the actions carried out are key throughout the path of transformations. Pedro López Matheu, Director of External Communications, Sustainability and Media at Telecom, highlighted the relevance of the integrated report. “It brings together the entire state of the company, plus the sustainability initiatives. When you go out to the international credit market, financial companies measure you and evaluate you for your sustainable initiatives”, defined the executive.

The behavior of each person is a fundamental trait on the path of transformations. Through the Climate Action 2050 plan, the Government of the City of Buenos Aires seeks to “reduce 53% of carbon emissions by 2030 and make the city resilient and carbon neutral by 2050.” The goal is possible to achieve if the neighbors contribute their own from each of the homes.

Juan Ignacio Salari, Chief of Staff of the Ministry of Public Space and Urban Hygiene of the City put the focus on the immediate, when speaking of the BA Recicla program. The goal is for people to separate waste so that 6,500 environmental reclaimers can take it to green centers and be recycled. “What we need most is that all the neighbors separate in their houses, that they compost, that they consume less. It’s simple, but it’s a huge challenge. We are committed to that, because it is with which we can reduce the amount of tons of waste, ”he summarized.

Carolina Ulla is the director of the Bachelor of Environment and Renewable Energies at the 21st Century University. According to her, this year the first batch of professionals is received. “The student can not only choose to focus on climate change or measure the carbon footprint, but she can also work in a solar or wind farm or in an NGO”, she synthesized.

In the case of companies, Clara Di Ció, Marketing and Communication Manager for South America at Rehou, said that there is a universe of customers who do not want to spend more energy and who are looking for long-term products, two aspects that converge in the care of resources and therefore the planet. It’s not just idealistic young people calling for sustainable products, but the motivation is with many consumers, she added. And she affirmed that there is “a genuine intuition” that leads to not wanting to spend more energy and to take care of the environment”.

Initiatives can be ambitious, effective and efficient and, at the same time, inspiring, if there is good communication. Silvia Stang, journalist from THE NATIONexplained with an example the importance of publicizing the concrete results of the actions and of identifying challenges that exist when communicating.

“I was in a meeting where a six-year-old boy said that at school they taught him to make bottles of love; It is about filling pet bottles, after consuming the product, with single-use plastics, such as noodle or rice containers, and squeezing them well, so that as much as possible enters, to later take them to a recycling center. harvest. The adults showed different attitudes, and it seemed to me that it was demonstrative of what happens in society and the barriers to overcome when communicating. Two people told about their techniques, because they made their own bottles; someone said that this practice could not contribute much, from an attitude of indifference. Another person marked: ‘And that, what do they use it for? Surely someone does your business afterwards’, from an attitude of lack of credibility and trust. And there were those who concluded that it was too much time and work to face this task instead of throwing everything away, showing the scant appreciation of what can be done, in this case individually, for the environment”, he told a panel moderated by the journalist Carla Quiroga.

The episode led her to reflect on the task of building motivation and confidence. And she concluded that caring for the planet must go hand in hand with caring for human beings in a very broad sense, in a world marked by inequalities and shortages.