• H.M. King Felipe VI is honorary president of the Spanish Business Council for Sustainable Development, led by Forética as representative in Spain of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development.
• The Fourth Vice-President and Minister for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge, Teresa Ribera, inaugurates the Council's constitution meeting, in which the 25 Presidents and CEOs members of the Council launch a joint statement on the importance of promoting business leadership in sustainable development, to inspire and accelerate business action.
• The Council is constituted with the ambition of being the benchmark for business leadership in sustainability in Spain, generating a joint strategic response to the important challenges we face in environmental, social and good governance matters.

Madrid, February 10, 2021

A total of 25 Presidents and CEOs of large companies make up the Spanish Business Council for Sustainable Development, a body led by Forética, a leading business organization in the field of sustainability in Spain, as the representative in our country of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD).

H.M. King Felipe VI is honorary chairman of this Board, made up of companies such as Adif, Airbus, Banco Santander, Bankia, Bankinter, BMW, Grupo Cooperativo Cajamar, Enagás, Endesa, ENGIE, Ferrovial, Gestamp, GSK, HEINEKEN, Iberdrola, IBM, IKEA, ILUNION, ManpowerGroup, MSD, Naturgy, OHL, P&G, Sanitas and Solvay.

The Spanish Business Council for Sustainable Development is the high-level business meeting place where top company representatives generate a joint strategic response to raise ambition and enhance action in the face of important environmental, social and governance (ESG) challenges.

The first Executive Meeting of the Council was inaugurated by the Fourth Vice-President and Minister for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge, Teresa Ribera, and took place at the headquarters of Banco Santander Spain, the company that currently holds the global vice-presidency of the WBCSD, led by Raúl Grijalba as Chairman of the Council and Germán Granda, CEO of Forética. Within the framework of this meeting a joint declaration which includes the commitments made by the members of the Council with the aim of inspiring and accelerating business action towards sustainable development .

In this statement, the Council proposes, in line with the three priority sustainability challenges facing our society such as climate emergency, good corporate governance and social inequality :

• Companies should set an ambition to achieve net zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions if possible within this decade and by 2050 at the latest, and have a science-based plan to achieve this;
• To set ambitious short- and medium-term environmental targets that contribute to the recovery of nature and biodiversity by 2050;
• Integrate support for the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights through the implementation of a human rights policy and due diligence process;
• That integrate support for inclusion, equality, diversity and the elimination of all forms of discrimination;
• That they operate with the highest standards of corporate governance and transparency, through the disclosure of material sustainability information, and align Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) with environmental, social and governance-related risks.

Raúl Grijalba, Chairman of Forética and President of ManpowerGroup Spain, Portugal, Greece and Israel, states: "It is time to act. It is time to focus on strategies that ensure business sustainability and, above all, a clear contribution to society and the planet. That is why we are launching this Council, the high-level meeting place where the top representatives of the leading companies in sustainability in Spain convey a message of business leadership".

Germán Granda, CEO of Forética, adds: "Corporate action is essential to address our greatest environmental and social challenges. The momentum of the Council will help accelerate the adoption of ambitious sustainability goals as an opportunity to generate employment and well-being for society.

The constitutive meeting of the Spanish Business Council for Sustainable Development was inaugurated by Peter Bakker, President and CEO of the WBCSD, who highlighted the high level of commitment to sustainable leadership of the members of the Council, "undoubtedly a key differentiating element when it comes to drawing up a roadmap for business action in the critical decade ahead, which will enable the necessary systemic transformations towards the contribution and positive impact on the global sustainability goals to be achieved". In addition, Peter Bakker thanked Forética, as a partner of the WBCDS, for leading the constitution of this body in Spain.

Specifically, the Spanish Business Council for Sustainable Development is made up of the top representatives of the 25 companies that are Forética's promoters: Raúl Grijalba, Chairman of Forética and Chairman of ManpowerGroup Spain, Portugal, Greece and Israel; Isabel Pardo de Vera Posada, Chairman of Adif and Adif AV; Alberto Gutiérrez, Chairman of Airbus Spain; Luis Isasi Fernández de Bobadilla, Chairman of Banco Santander Spain; José Ignacio Goirigolzarri, Chairman of Bankia; Pedro Guerrero, Chairman of Bankinter; Manuel Terroba, Executive Chairman of Grupo BMW España y Portugal; Eduardo Baamonde, Chairman of Cajamar Caja Rural; Antonio Llardén, Executive Chairman of Enagás; José D. Bogas Gálvez, CEO of Endesa; Loreto Ordóñez, CEO of ENGIE Spain; Ignacio Madridejos, CEO of Ferrovial; Francisco José Riberas Mera, Executive Chairman of Gestamp; Cristina Henríquez de Luna, President and CEO of GSK in Spain; Guillaume Duverdier, Executive Chairman of HEINEKEN Spain; Ángeles Santamaría, CEO of Iberdrola Spain; Horacio Morell Gálvez, Chairman of IBM Spain, Portugal, Greece and Israel; Petra Axdorff, CEO & CSO of IKEA; Alejandro Oñoro, CEO of ILUNION; Ana Argelich Hesse, President and CEO of MSD; Francisco Reynés, Chairman and CEO of Naturgy; José Antonio Fernández Gallar, Second Vice President and CEO of OHL Group; Vanessa Prats, Vice President and General Manager of P&G Iberia; Iñaki Peralta, CEO of Sanitas and Bupa Europe & Latin America; and Jorge Oliveira, General Manager of Solvay for Spain and Portugal. Together they will work with the vision of maximizing the positive contribution of companies and organizations to achieve a sustainable future.

• Click here to access the Joint Council Statement
• Download the institutional photo of the members of the Business Council for Sustainable Development