On 20 September, Isabel García Tejerina inaugurated Forética’s annual Forum on Trends in Corporate and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Sustainability.

On 20 September, the Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries, Food and Environment (MAPAMA), Isabel García Tejerina, inaugurated the annual Forum on Trends in Corporate and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Sustainability of Forética, CSR Spain 2017, where she has placed “the current moment” as “an opportunity for growth, if we combine sustainability, economically and socially, with development and progress.”

The minister pointed out that, under this combination, ” the Government’s numerous initiatives in the field of sustainability” are framed, both in terms of climate change and the promotion of the circular economy, highlighting the preparation that the Executive is making of the Law on Climate Change and Energy Transition and the Spanish Strategy for the Circular Economy.

“Both summarize what the economy of the future should be like: energy efficient, low carbon, and less and less waste-generating,” he said, also highlighting the broad participatory processes that are being carried out to develop both initiatives, involving key sectors and making environmental objectives compatible with social needs.  “With these approaches we have shown, for example, that economic growth is not linked to the increase in emissions. We are complying with the Kyoto commitments, and we will comply with the Paris Agreement,” said the minister, “and we have demonstrated our commitment to the energy transition and the decarbonisation of our economy,” she continued.

García Tejerina, in this sense, pointed out that, as a result of all these changes, “a future of opportunities and the potential to generate tens of thousands of jobs” is opening up, and stressed that “the economy of the future will be sustainable or it will not be”. He also stressed that the Government seeks to give certain scenarios in the medium and long term to companies and investors. “The participation of the whole of society is necessary to achieve a new sustainable and low-carbon model, and we want to accompany them in the investments that are necessary to undertake in the coming years,” he said.

As for the business sector, the minister considered that it has increasingly assumed the role “of active agent and transformer of society, through the instrument of corporate social responsibility”, the contribution of companies to the objective of achieving sustainable development, and that it begins with the sustainability of the company itself.

Forética is a strategic partner of the Spanish Business and Biodiversity Initiative, a platform of the Biodiversity Foundation of the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, Food and Environment whose challenge is to include the conservation and management of biodiversity in the business strategies of the different business sectors of the Spanish economy and to identify opportunities and alternative and innovative projects as one of the solutions to the current crisis.