O CEBDS Vision 2050 Seminar: The Future is made now, held on September 5th, in SP, brought together around 180 professionals from the 60 companies associated with CEBDS and leaders from Shell, Siemens, Neoenergia, Alcoa, braskem, Itau, COFCO and institutions such as Abag It is Openfruits. There was a consensus that the business sector faces short and medium-term challenges, as well as the urgent need to incorporate sustainable and cutting-edge processes and/or habits.
With several panels, professionals highlighted that Brazil cannot waste opportunities and that the technologies available on the market must be used as business allies. According to the president of CEBDS, Marina Grossi, the exercise of planning the future is extremely important and companies need to be inductors of new standards and lead the transition.
“Businesspeople must commit to these values. They are the ones who will make the difference for the customer and will end up affecting the results of the companies they lead”, stated Marina Grossi.
CEBDS Women's Leadership Awards Announced Winners
The winners of the 2019 edition of the CEBDS Female Leadership Award, in the Associated Companies category, were the executives Cristiane Lourenço, Manager of Sustainable Development and Partnerships in the value chain at Bayer Crop Science, Laura Cristina da Fonseca Porto, Director of Renewables at Neoenergia, and Teresa Vernaglia, president of BRK Ambiental. By popular vote, Glaucimar Peticov, executive director responsible for the areas of Human Resources, Marketing, Ombudsman and PMO at Banco Bradesco was the winner.
The Schneider Electric Women's Leadership Development projects, from Schneider Electric, and Menina-Mulher, from Alcoa, won the award in the New Leaders Initiative category. In its third edition, the recognition was designed with the aim of boosting Brazil's achievement of the Sustainable Development Goal - SDG 5, which aims to achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls by 2030. According to the president of Brazilian Business Council for Sustainable Development (CEBDS), Marina Grossi, the initiative is an opportunity to recognize women leaders of companies that contribute to achieving the SDGs and people and projects that dedicate efforts to promoting gender equality.
“This is one of the great challenges of our society that must be taken on by everyone and the CEBDS contributes to encouraging everyone's engagement in this topic which, in addition to being a fundamental right, is the necessary basis for building a peaceful, prosperous and sustainable”, highlighted Marina.
Leaders showed the importance of representation and equality
One of the aspects of human rights that has received attention from CEBDS concerns the underrepresentation of women and black people in companies, politics and the public sector in general. Mainly with regard to corporate responsibility, given the economic influence of these organizations. A survey by Global Justice Now concludes that, of the 100 largest economic organizations in the world, 31 are States and 69 are multinationals.
“The issue of human rights will be resolved when everyone is able to look at the world from this perspective and see how the world would be a better place. Brazil today is a champion of income concentration, which deepens the social abyss”, assesses Marcus Bicudo, CEO of Vedacit.
Therefore, it is up to companies to make commitments to benefits society, in addition to practices that allow business management in order to minimize negative impacts and enhance positive impacts.
How does the business sector see the energy transition?
The transition to a low-carbon economy is already a reality even in the most traditional fossil fuel companies, which are already investing in renewable energy. Brazil's need to resume sustained economic growth in the coming years will demand more energy, since GDP expansion and energy consumption are correlated.
The fundamental issue for the future, therefore, is the consolidation of investments in clean energy sources, reducing the share of fossil fuels, in order to meet the urgent demand for growth, especially if it is higher than current projections.
“One way to decarbonize the economy is electrification. Brazil has a competitive advantage of having renewable energy sources and the potential to grow. Renewables are breaking boundaries in auctions. It is also necessary to invest in energy efficiency. Neoenergia already has investments of R$ 500 million, mainly in low-income consumers and education projects”, said Solange Ribeiro, from NeoenergiaBR.
Female leaders discussed how to make the job market more inclusive
Guaranteeing gender equality, in addition to being a fundamental right, is a necessary basis for building a peaceful, prosperous and sustainable world, as indicated in Sustainable Development Goal 5. This was one of the consensuses in the Women's Leadership panel, held at the CEBDS Seminar 2019, which included the participation of Adriana Carvalho (UN Women), Ana Bavon (Business for People), Ana Lúcia Salmeron (Schneider Electric) and Maite Schneider (Trans Empregos). The debate was moderated by journalist Flavia Oliveira.
The issue permeates several themes on the Vision 2050 agenda and, in addition to specific legislation, demands engagement from the entire society. The purpose is to ensure women's full participation and equal opportunities for leadership at all levels of decision-making in political, economic and public life.
“How can we move faster to end inequality? The first secret is to work in a network. We need to bring all actors together, because a more equal world is better for everyone”, says Adriana Carvalho, project manager at UN Women.
What is the role of innovation in overcoming the challenges of climate change?
Climate change represents an unprecedented challenge for governments, the private sector, academia and civil society. The latest report released by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was scathing: unprecedented changes are needed to limit the average increase in global Earth surface temperature to 1.5 degrees Celsius. Committed to building solutions with the private sector, CEBDS turned its attention to the agribusiness chain, from production to the final consumer.
Phytosanitary problems, changes in the geography of crops, extreme events such as droughts and storms, loss of pollinators and abrupt changes in the water regime are some of the practical and local effects of climate change. In this context, which at first sounds discouraging, new initiatives seek to promote the insertion of climate intelligence, that is, how to make the sector more resilient to climate change, in the agriculture and food sector with the aim of increasing the availability of nutritious food by 50%, while reducing GHG emissions by 50%.
“Bayer is creating a global sustainability committee, with experts and stakeholders, looking for new ideas and challenges. In this sense, we are trying to bring a solution to produce more in a better way”, said Alessandra Fajardo, from Bayer.
