The Biodiversity Foundation has supported the fifth edition of the CSR MarketPlace, a meeting point organized by Forética, within the framework of CSR Spain, in which companies and organizations share innovative solutions to business and responsible management challenges.
 
In this forum, attendees choose with their vote the best sustainability initiatives of the year in different categories. As a novelty, in this edition the category “Responsible with Biodiversity” has been included.
 
This section includes projects directly aimed at the integration of biodiversity in the company or initiatives linked to eco-efficiency, waste management, ecological tourism, the use of renewable energies, the reduction of CO2 and the fight against climate change or water management, among other topics.
 
During the inauguration of the fifth edition of the CRS MarketPlace, the director of the Biodiversity Foundation, Sonia Castañeda, accompanied by the general director of Forética, Germán Granda, stressed the importance of biodiversity in the development of the economy and the competitiveness of companies.
 
“Not only do companies need biodiversity but they are also affected if it is lost. All companies, regardless of their size, location or sector,” he stressed. Thus, 40% of the world economy depends on biodiversity and healthy ecosystems and it is estimated that losing biodiversity costs us 7% of the world’s GDP per year, he said.
 
In this context, Sonia Castañeda remarked that many companies act to conserve biodiversity and the MarketPlace is “the perfect showcase to learn what is being done and be inspired by good practices.”
 
“It is a forum of concerned companies, and therefore busy, that have begun to think differently and embarked on a journey of no return on the path of Social Responsibility with biodiversity as one more variable,” he stressed.
 
In order to help companies integrate biodiversity into their policy and management systems, the Biodiversity Foundation has launched various actions. Among them are the Spanish Business and Biodiversity Initiative, which has just celebrated its first anniversary and to which 17 large companies have already joined.  
 
In addition, it also has the first platform specialising in green business aimed at entrepreneurs and investors, the Emprendeverde Network. With a total of 5,200 members, this network has made it possible to verify that SMEs “are also strategic allies in the conservation of biodiversity”, said Sonia Castañeda.
 
The fifth edition of Forética’s CSR MarketPlace is part of the CSR Spain 2014, the benchmark event of the year in the field of Corporate Social Responsibility, which presents the trends that are marking the development of CSR at an international level, along with a necessary reflection on how companies in Spain are prepared for the challenges of sustainability and responsible management