18/11/2015

Managers, businesspeople and entrepreneurs discuss social commitment at the third edition of BDAY

Around a dozen companies and foundations took part on Tuesday 17 November in the third edition of BDAY, organized by the Faculty of Economic and Social Sciences, which this year focused on social commitment in the corporate world.

The event, held in the Aula Magna of UIC Barcelona, was aimed at young professionals and future entrepreneurs. The Faculty's students got first-hand insight into the experiences of managers, businesspeople and entrepreneurs in the field of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). 

The first round table comprised Sonia Mulero, assistant manager of the Banco de Sabadell Foundation; Esther Sarsa, head of Sustainable Development for the Danone Group in Spain; Pablo Sánchez, founding partner of Roots for Sustainability and representative of B Corp. in Spain, and was moderated by the lecturer Inés Alegre. During this first table, the speakers discussed how to generate a social impact from within companies. All of them agreed that generating an impact is not just about having a CSR policy but taking care of its own staff – training them, paying them a decent salary and creating a pleasant working environment. 

The second round table focused on good practices in corporate social responsibility. The speakers were Manuel Giraldo, director of Sustainable Development at Aguas de Barcelona; Miguel Carmona, general manager of luneta; and Marta Muñoz, personnel and HR manager at NEXICA. All of them gave examples of good practices in this field within their own companies. 

After a coffee break, it was the turn of entrepreneur Xavier Verdaguer, founder of Imagine Creative Center. Verdaguer explained how every year, through his creativity methodologies, he attracts people with different profiles to join him in San Francisco (USA) to come up with creative solutions to social challenges. He also explained the case of the Vínculos project which was nurtured at Imagine and ended up winning New York's Bloomberg Philanthropies Award. 

Finally, Diego Fernández, the  co-founder and director of Impact Hub Barcelona, explained the HUB project, which is part of the global network of HUBs in another 70 countries and involves more than 15,000 social entrepreneurs around the world.