1 de 5 | The six participants in the second session of the eForum during the round table. | J. MOREY
2 de 5 | Exhibitors. In addition to the speakers, several organisations were present at the eForum with exhibitors. In the picture, the sustainable shirts and clothing firm Galohabrand, visited by President Prohens. | J. MOREY
3 de 5 | Exhibitors. The Office for Energy Transition. | J. MOREY
4 de 5 | Exhibitors. The waste management company Adalmo. | J. MOREY
5 de 5 | Two of the attendees have their photograph taken at the 'photocall'. | J. MOREY
"Sustainability pays off most of the time". Bringing change and green transformation to companies and cities was the focus of the second session of the eForum, under the title Corporate Leadership and Sustainable Urban Development. The conclusion is that it also pays off in terms of results, as May López, development director of Business for Sustainable Mobility, argued. Business representatives, such as Bartomeu Colom, operational director of Urbia Services, and Pep Lluís Cobos, director of integrated management at Melchor Mascaró, also took part. Both gave specific examples of how reducing the carbon footprint or the environmental impact of companies can lead to greater economic efficiency. They also spoke of the need to create alliances to bring more people into the transformation and to offer the maximum number of alternatives.
LUCIA DALMAU Journalist
Dalmau opened the session by inviting us to "transform and commit ourselves". "Only the alliance between institutions, citizens and governments, the business sector and associations will make it possible to promote this fair model", he said. He focused his speech on the importance of communicating and how to do it: "We take it for granted that people understand all the concepts that we handle, but we have a lot of work to do to crush and translate this data. Otherwise, they don't see that we are directly affected and the climate crisis is about health, food and jobs". He advocated linking the message to "quality of life" and understanding that "although the environmental crisis is transversal, some people suffer more than others". One recommendation: always talk about solutions: "Communication is the lever to combat the climate crisis. I must always talk about what I can do.
Lucía Dalmau.
EVA GARNELL Founder of Acción en Verde
Eva Garrell, head of the Impact programmes at B Lab Spain and founder of Acción en Verde, raised the mix between digitalisation and sustainable development as the two great axes of change in the world: "Both worlds are together but companies don't always bring them together". He reminded that, right now, not acting in both fields already has an economic cost for companies: "We are already in that crisis therefore and it affects the organisation"; also in digitalisation. "There is no turning back. Thus, he invited to approach both concepts as a single challenge and an opportunity at the same time. He focused these possibilities on artificial intelligence as a tool capable of helping: "It is giving us more knowledge, more data. It is helping us to assess the seriousness of the situation we have". He gave as an example that, for any business organisation, it is almost impossible to analyse the thousand different indicators of its environmental impact. In that task, an AI can handle and help with one of the problems he pointed out. "Sustainability is often too technical. A lot of times companies don't see how they have to do it." "It's going to be the crucial sector," he said, although he warned of a paradoxical rebound effect on energy consumption.
Eva Garrell.
MAY LOPEZ Companies for Sustainable Mobility
"Mobility is not only how I move but how I get others to move for me". May López is leading the development of the grouping of more than fifty companies nationwide in favour of sustainable mobility. She began with examples of the sector's effect on greenhouse gas emissions and the expected increase in transport in particular due to the impact of e-commerce. Also because of the return of goods that are ordered online and end up being destroyed. "Transport is the only sector that has not stopped growing," he said. He also put the hearing before the "regulatory tsunami", with the presence of five hundred different environmental regulations. "We don't have a solution for everything right now, but that is not an excuse for not planning. Among the examples, in Spain, there are 40 million journeys to work alone, many of them by one person in one car. "Maximum inefficiency". "In 2035 it will not be possible to sell cars that emit C02, the sooner they start to adapt the better. Another legal change he commented on: low emission zones. "For the first time we are going to know what air quality we are going to have and we are going to be able to see municipal management. He said that, just as a house is revalued because it has an infrastructure nearby, it can also do so because of an improvement in air quality, "or we choose a school where our children will breathe better". From there, he invited people to "take advantage" of the opportunities of this change and highlighted two essential ideas: "Reclaiming spaces for citizens and giving value to local commerce".
May López.
BARTOMEU COLOM Operations Director of Urbia services
"It is profitable". Tomeu Colom stressed the benefits of change for companies and the need to go a long way to go, "with workers or suppliers". He gave as an example the advantages for the company of implementing electric mobility in part of its fleet since 2015: less maintenance, less expense. "Being energy independent is very important, in addition to the durability of the electric vehicle and how efficient it is". He pointed out that it is common to encounter resistance to change: "We often fight misinformation" and gave as an example the reluctance of employees to drive these vehicles: "Then they don't want to give them up". "We have been working on these processes for many years. This commitment to sustainability makes us better" and, at the same time, implies a "change in the culture" of the company itself.
Tomeu Colom.
PEP LLUÍS COBOS Melchor Mascaró
The director of integral management of the Mallorcan construction company gave as an example some of the projects carried out and the firm's capacity to advise. For example, in the repair of the Cala Ratjada promenade, a solution was proposed that saved 60 percent of the carbon footprint of the work. "That's 1,500 fewer lorries on the road". He explained the role of construction companies in the change, "in the what and the how". "We are important because any change needs infrastructure and that's what we do, we build it". Among these, he explained how the separation of the rainwater and sewage networks in Son Castelló at night has been tackled, to take advantage of the fact that there is less traffic, which also means that fewer vehicles can be used. "Many times in the short term it is going to be a disadvantage," he said of the regulatory changes, but he was also confident in the profitability of the commitment to sustainability in the medium and long term.
Pep Lluís Cobos.
GUILLEM TABERNER Councillor of Marratxí
The Marratxí town planning councillor, Guillem Taberner, said: "Town councils have the challenge of convincing citizens. To raise awareness: people live well but don't know that they can live better". He addressed the situation of the municipality, where the main challenge for sustainability has to do with transport in the face of the existence of a disintegrated nucleus.
Guillem Taberner.
"These are slow, progressive changes, you can't change the city from one day to the next. He also spoke of the need to give citizens alternatives: "You can't remove a traffic lane without putting in a public transport route". He assumed that the future lies in gaining space for pedestrians and reducing it for vehicles, and that these changes are an "improvement" for cities.
No comments
To be able to write a comment, you have to be registered and logged in
Currently there are no comments.