translated from Spanish: Business and sustainability: a task of all actors

Today it is rare not to see news that accounts for some of the many social or environmental disasters that we as a society generate. Poverty, refugees, climate change, plastic pollution; air or water are increasingly appearing, all of which are in the raising of public awareness.
It seems that what some announced years ago is being fulfilled and we are heading for a major disaster, both socially and environmentally. The downsetting news is that society is putting the issue to value and seeking solutions.
In this scenario, solutions must necessarily come from multiple actors: governments, international organizations, families, communities and, of course, businesses.
So far the big picture has been that companies are to blame for pollution and overexploitation, forgetting, who claim this, that companies produce what consumers demand. If the consumer purchases a product made under conditions harmful, to the environment or society, he is “voting” so that that product continues to be produced under the same conditions, many companies will continue to produce it.
This is, unfortunately, almost normal, but some companies, let alone take another path, that of being socially responsible.
A company moves towards sustainability when its managers understand that they are part of the society and are not to take advantage of it; when they devote resources to reviewing their impacts on the socio-environmental environment and respond by trying to eliminate them and contributing with the generation of good social, environmental and economic practices.
There is already a litter of these companies that have decided to set different courses, even though they do not have the massive social recognition they deserve. For this reason, the Metropolitan Technological University, sponsored by the Ministries of Economy, Labour and environment, the Corfo, the Sustainability and Climate Change Agency, and the Sustainable Campus Network, in addition to the collaboration of universities Catholic of Valparaiso and Concepción, and the sponsorship of EY, have developed the Sustains Award, which seeks to publicly recognize companies whose actions allow them to be highlighted as sustainable.
For a company to know what state it is in on the long road to sustainability, is an act that will only bring you benefits. If a company, whether small, medium or large, wishes to know which foot it is in this area, it should be evaluated under the heading of the Sustains Award, as this will be able to design its action plan focused on reducing the social, environmental and economic gaps that its action generates.
If today’s reality is not known, companies will hardly be able to contribute to the sustainability the planet needs.

The content poured into this opinion column is the sole responsibility of its author, and does not necessarily reflect the editorial line or position of El Mostrador.

Original source in Spanish

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