CataloniaBio & HealthTech presented its new Sustainability Workgroup yesterday, which will encourage companies in Catalonia’s biomedicine and health sector to be on the cutting-edge of sustainable development (economic, social and environmental) and to help have a positive effect on society.

The session included some twenty CEOs, CFOs, COOs and directors of Sustainability, Business Development, Communication, Sales and Marketing at CataloniaBio & HealthTech member companies. 

The WG will be a forum for debate and work where participants can discover and share trends, news, regulations and good practices on sustainability that affect the sector, seek out synergies among companies and promote joint projects. 

The group coordinators are Carme Lagunas, R&D Search and Evaluation advisor at Ferrer and member of the CataloniaBio & HealthTech board of directors, and Melqui Calzado, general secretary of the organisation.

“Sustainability is a factor that increases the value of companies, regardless of their size. The international community has made this area a strategic priority. We have to think long-term,” noted Carme Lagunas.

In fact, Ferrer is one of the big companies in the sector that have implemented a sustainability strategy that “involves the whole organisation transversally,” explained Marta Anglada, head of Sustainability at the pharmaceutical corporation in an inspiring talk titled The role of companies in sustainability. “Companies are the platform necessary to achieve real changes on the planet; the work of governments and NGOs isn’t enough,” she said. 

First activity: Shared Value programme

To conclude the session, Melqui Calzado announced that the Workgroup’s first activity will be the Shared Value programme. This is a unique opportunity for companies to take part in a programme that will help them self-diagnose their level of sustainability and design an action plan. 

During the programme, subsidised by ACCIÓ (Government of Catalonia), participating companies will be guided by Roots4Sustainability, one of the leading consultancy firms in sustainability advisory services. There will be an information session on 7 July.

CataloniaBio & HealthTech also has workgroups for Regulatory Affairs, Innovation and Internationalisation.