Today, abertis held a conference on corporate social responsibility companies at Castellet Castle, the headquarters of the abertis foundation.

The meeting addressed the issue of the profitability of CSR policies from various points of view, given by experts such as Alan D. Solomont, the US Ambassador to Spain; Susan Solomont, former director of The Philanthropic Initiative; Miguel Ángel García Martín, the Director-General for Self-Employed Work, the Social Economy and Corporate Social Responsibility of the Spanish Ministry of Employment and Social Security; ESADE lecturer Josep Maria Lozano; Jordi Sevilla, senior consultant at PwC; and Edoardo Gai, head of Sustainability Services at SAM Group. Salvador Alemany, Chairman of abertis, and Francisco Reynés, CEO of the Group, also took part.

Jordi Sevilla, senior consultant at PwC, opened the conference, stating that “social responsibility is actually part of the definition of a company”. “A great deal of the concept itself is intangible, but there are aspects that can be made tangible through actions,” he asserted.

According to Miguel Ángel García Martín, the Director-General for Self-Employed Work, the Social Economy and Corporate Social Responsibility, “our concept of companies themselves must change”. He also highlighted the role that government can play in the area of corporate responsibility.

Meanwhile, Edoardo Gai, head of Sustainability Services for SAM Group, pointed out “the importance of conveying information about sustainability to investors” as one of the keys for showing the profitability of sustainability. According to Gai, sustainability is “truly important” at times of economic difficulty, “as is the case today”.

ESADE lecturer Josep Maria Lozano defended the idea that social responsibility “depends on how the company approaches its own project; companies must be farsighted, and it is unthinkable for them to be integrated into society without taking CSR into account”.