“It takes a village to raise a child.” The director of the sustainability master’s degree at Eada Business School, Federica Massa, pulls a proverb to synthesize the goal of the Barcelona+B initiative. “Within a community there are diverse actors and the idea is that each one contributes with what they can”, explains the academic, who clarifies that, in this case, the objective is to make Barcelona a global benchmark for sustainability through of the company.
The business school is one of the legs of an alliance officially presented this Tuesday to achieve this goal. The Spanish subsidiary of BLabthe organization behind the certification B Corp (a global seal that identifies inclusive and sustainable companies), the Barcelona’s town hall, Eada Business School and the pharmacist Ferrer have incorporated Barcelona into the +B cities network, a public-private initiative whose purpose is to project the municipality as a benchmark for business change and transformation.
This was stated by the president of B Lab Spain, Raymond Puigjanerand the director of Barcelona+B, Elena Damia, who have listed in the presentation the four main objectives of the alliance: promote business transformation, create an active and committed network of actors, forge “fruitful and robust” alliances; within this network to act now, and integrate the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) into the local context of Barcelona.
“We make a call to businessmen and businesswomen, entrepreneurs, impact investment agents, academic agents, public administration… that all of you participate in Barcelona+B and that you extend this invitation to your circles”, Puigjaner has requested, who has also advanced that the lines of action on which they will focus this year and the next will be raising awareness in companies and institutions, the application of B Corp standards so that organizations can measure their contribution to the SDGs and the creation of opportunities for collaboration.
“We understand that we all have to promote this sustainable future & rdquor ;, the Commissioner for the Agenda 2030 of the townhall, miquel rodriguezin an act that has also had the participation of the former adviser of strategic agreements of the UN, Annette Richardson.
Resilience and recovery
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According to the research that Massa has put on the table, it has been shown that this type of collaboration works. “Companies with very stingy CEOs and very high salaries do not survive crises & rdquor ;, explained the professor. Companies with lower-paid managers or who are committed to helping the supply chain, on the other hand, tend to be more resilient and recover faster from crises.
“When one has a much greater objective than making money within a company, things begin to change & rdquor ;, has assured the CEO of Ferrer, mario rovirosa. This manager has been convinced that the real social change will come when companies overcome the ‘Friedmanian’ logic that the only objective of a company is to make money. “Either we start today or we will be the band of the Titanic, which plays while the band sinks & rdquor ;, Rovirosa concluded.