La Salle Campus Barcelona, a founding member of the Universitat Ramon Llull, has organised a day to analyse, debate and teach about the relationship between companies and sustainability. The second edition of the La Salle Corporate Event, entitled ‘The leadership that the world needs: shared value in the age of uncertainty’, has reflected on the importance and benefits obtained by applying a sustainable model in business.
The event has shown that climate change is one of the great challenges to combat, and how, consequently, companies must reduce their impact on the carbon footprint to preserve the Earth's ecosystems. Professionals from different sectors, experts, philosophers and businessmen have shared reflections on the leadership that the world needs to face times of uncertainty, while showing the social actions and business models that relate their companies to sustainability.
Social actions, a basis for reducing the triple impact
The triple impact is a business strategy that not only seeks financial profitability, but also aims to generate a social, environmental and economic impact through the company's main activity. Elena de Carandini, President of the Fundació Comunitària Raimat Lleida and CEO of Castell de Raymat, gave a presentation in which she highlighted the importance of this model, exemplifying it with her company: "We analyse and measure the impact we have on the water footprint and, subsequently, we compensate for it."
De Carandini also explained the social actions carried out by the company with some schools and institutes in Lleida, where they promote talent scholarships for students. Their objective is that, from adolescence, students work on projects related to the UN SDGs so that they know their objectives and characteristics.
Una guia sostenible per a les empreses
Posteriorment, Agustí Miralles, director de Sostenibilitat a Uriach, i Xavier Vázquez, director de l'Executive Program a Project Management de La Salle-URL, han presentat una guia per als empresaris que busquen iniciar un projecte sostenible per a les seves empreses. Per fer-ho han fet servir el model de negoci d'Uriach, donant algunes claus per comptar amb un model sostenible efectiu. "Una de les claus és tenir un Project Manager, que converteix els somnis i idees de les empreses en realitats", ha destacat Agustí Miralles durant la seva exposició.
Philosophy, marketing, management and engineering to address sustainability
The event ended with a round table discussion with experts and professionals who analysed sustainability from different points of view. Raimon Puigjaner, co-founder and CEO of R4S Group; Joaquim Daura, Active Energy Management Director at Schneider; Laia Mas, former Director of Sustainability and Corporate at Danone; and Joan García del Muro, philosopher and essayist, related sustainability to sales analysis, reflection, the impact on the company and its reputation or the time and resources invested by a company.
The discussion allowed for a deeper understanding of the importance of sustainability in different business aspects, establishing a direct relationship between all the sectors that took part in the event: philosophy, marketing, management and engineering.
