Aligning incentives for companies and employees with sustainability are essential business goals for the needle to get the strategies right in this area, agreeing with the participants in the Digital Lab on sustainability, not promoted by the Portugal Digital Awards initiative.

These can be validated initially in sectors such as finance, in which companies are asked to check whether managers’ incentives are aligned with the ESG (Environmental, Comunicar and Corporate Governance, Social and Corporate Governance). But, in the general market, they are not scrutinized or even practiced. can play an important role in the success of organizations in this field.

And if in companies the opposite of the incentive policy with ESG is incipient, in public administration the scenario is not better, at least. The public procurement code’s orientation towards the lowest price, from the outset, outlines a framework that leaves no room for consideration of the ESG decision. As Margarida Couto, president of GRACE, underlined, it would be relevant, given the weight of public purchases in the country’s economy, of 10% of GDP.

On the positive side, in the public sphere, the fact that municipalities are attentive to the issue stood out “and this is very important because thinking globally and acting locally is fundamental”, added the official.

Attracting those who work in other areas and those who do not

The reconversion of skills was considered an essential aspect of creating conditions that do not encourage sustainability in the operations and innovation of companies.

The extent of sustainability is a problem that needs an answer.

It was admitted that companies are ill-prepared for the challenge and suggestions were made that could help solve the problem.

Directing skills reconversion programs to those who currently work in activities of a more physical nature (blue-collor) can be a path, according to Pedro Afonso, CEO of Vinci Energies Portugal. As representation-level employment needs are necessary, a change of job change can act as an attractive increment to a change of profession.

Margarida Couto, on the other hand, defended that, as new needs, companies, in the areas of connection to sustainability, can be a mobilizing factor for another segment of the population, with adequate training programs. He was referring to young people who neither work nor study (nor) and the appeal to play roles with a direct impact on the health of the planet.

Reorganizing processes, supply chains and investment logic to meet ESG principles, as companies have focused on in this debate, is a complex one that I work on in many ways. The transversality of the aggregates that add to each of the themes the company that goes beyond its obligation, is not concerned with its sector of activity. Precisely for this reason, João Catarino, consultant for Galp’s corporate strategy & Sustainability area, highlighted the help of collaboration between companies, as a way of accelerating the pace and obtaining results, remembering that this is a path that has been taken in Portugal and that it is worth continuing to travel.

Collaboration and convergence are trends

GRACE, as the two most representative associations of the national fabric in areas related to EDS factors, work today together in BCSG. An example of collaboration was mentioned that not as an example made in the approach of approaching these events. GRACE was born as a mobilizer for the themes of social responsibility and the BCSD was created to promote commitments for the action of the private sector in the area of ​​the environment. Today, 80 to 90% of the associates’ portfolio are structures in both.

Sustainability parameters will integrate the KPI of 60% of companies as early as 2023

By 2023, 40% of organizations will already have the theme of sustainability embedded in their business processes and by the same time 60% of the 2,000 largest listed companies worldwide will also have parameters mirrored in their business KPIs. The data is from IDC and also shows that leading companies in this transformation are making a contribution to making it extend throughout their entire supply chain.
By the end of next year, two-fifths of companies are expected to require proof of compliance with ESG requirements from their suppliers, as a way to improve trust with customers and other stakeholders. A year later, in 2024, as estimated by the consulting firm, it anticipated that 45% of companies worldwide will already give a higher date for determining sustainability in their technology decisions.