Vicente Wong, together with prominent leaders, highlights the role of sustainability in the business world

Samborondón, Ecuador.- As part of the Steps for the Future initiative, on June 5, the Business Leaders' Sustainability Agenda panel was held, bringing together Vicente Wong, CEO of Reybanpac; Carlos Cueva González, chairman of the board of Grupo Difare; Jerome Cardineau, general manager of Veolia Ecuador; and Juan José Yúnez, mayor of the city of Samborondón.

This event, held at the Universidad de Especialidades Espíritu Santo (UEES) before dozens of students and businesspeople and broadcast live on the El Universo newspaper's digital platform, served to open a dialogue on the role of sustainability in business strategy. In the case of Reybanpac, Vicente Wong stated that the sustainable model has been essential for long-term survival.

"We have seen this model as a balance between economic, social, and environmental factors. This allows us to be competitive and have a positive impact on others, despite global circumstances such as pandemics, wars, etc. At the end of the day, the company has to endure over time. If you don't take care of the resources around you, how are you going to continue producing and generating? That is why sustainability is the only way we see to remain over time and positively impact our communities, our people, and the environment where we operate," he said.

Along these lines, Juan José Yúnez, mayor of Samborondón, noted that while a company seeks to endure in the long term, cities, countries, and the entire world must do so even more. He also stressed that sustainability must be a cross-cutting theme in every action taken:

"Today, we have to start building and working toward a sustainable world, and in the case of local authorities, we have to be convinced that this is possible, and this has to go beyond elections: it has to be through actions that last and serve in the future. From the mayor's office of Samborondón, we set a sustainability guide in which we measure how well we are doing and where we want to go in order to generate change. It is important that these actions are defined regardless of who occupies the mayor's office," he explained.

Among the mayor's actions in the area of environmental sustainability, he highlighted the installation of a waste sorting plant to promote the circular economy in the city.
Jerome Cardineu, for his part, added that it is no longer enough for a company to be useful only to a shareholder or a customer, but rather it must have a multidimensional vision and be certain that a company can survive if it cares about others. “We also have to develop the ability to adapt to political situations, crises, or wars, because sustainability issues are long-term and we must not stray from our course,” he added.

In this sense, for Carlos Cueva González, sustainability is everyone's business: governments, companies, but also the general public, because we all must take care of nature, consume resources such as water responsibly, recycle, and so on. Thanks to this vision, Grupo Difare managed to issue a special sustainability bond, which was invested in renewable energy for one of its warehouses.

Another noteworthy example was the investment made by Reybanpac during the 1990s in social and environmental certifications, which enabled it to export to Europe in 2005, which is now the company's main market. “That is the importance of sustainability, if you see it within the value chain and not as an isolated issue. This stems from our purpose as a company, which is to nurture people and cultivate well-being,” emphasized Vicente Wong.

On the social front, Wong lamented the national unemployment rate, especially in rural Ecuador. It was precisely this need that gave rise to the AGROFUTURO program, developed with the Wong Foundation, which seeks to strengthen the technical agricultural training of adolescents and young people aged 15 to 29 in rural areas, thus facilitating their early access to the local labor market.

“We have linked the needs of companies with education, and as a result, 73% of high school seniors who have graduated from the program have found employment. In this way, we are reducing migration from rural areas to large cities”, he said.

In this area, Wong also highlighted the medical clinics located near Reybanpac's production farms, which provide quality care to employees, their spouses and children and, also the four Child Development Centers run by the Wong Foundation thanks to an agreement with the Ministry of Economic and Social Inclusion of Ecuador to ensure the proper care and nutrition of children aged 1 to 3 in rural areas, many of whom are the children of company employees.

“This shows that it is possible to connect the company with academy, trade associations, and government to provide solutions to the serious problems in society that affect us. It is not a necessity, it is an obligation,” he concluded.

Reybanpac, Veolia Ecuador, Grupo Difare, and Unilever Ecuador, which are part of the Steps for the Future initiative, also committed to continuing to promote sustainability in business and to lead from their respective sectors to build more responsible and equitable industries.