Sustainability begins with inclusionWORLD ENVIRONMENT DAY
- 13 June 2022
- Posted by: Competere
- Category: Senza categoria
WORLD ENVIRONMENT DAY: SUSTAINABILITY BEGINS WITH INCLUSION, WE MUST FOSTER COOPERATION TO CREATE RESILIENT SUPPLY CHAINS
Competere has hosted an international panel to highlight the importance of working with all players along supply chains. The support of the European Union is key
For World Environment Day, our message is this: if we want to promote true sustainability, we must work together to ensure the resilience of supply chains. The European Union must lead in fostering an inclusive and collaborative approach.
In order to understand where we are in the process of implementing sustainability policies, Competere hosted an exceptional international panel within its podcast Futuro Prossimo, featuring Gert van der Bijl, Senior EU Policy Advisor of Solidaridad, and Michelle Desilets, Executive Director of Orangutan Land Trust.
Gert van der Bijl brought the attention on how the extreme uncertainty that is currently dominating at the international level has pushed aside environmental protection, creating the perception that it is a secondary matter. In such a scenario, coordinated action, where the EU might play a leadership role, will become fundamental: “We must focus on strengthening our systems and making them resilient. The European Union, through its legislation on due diligence, must promote cooperation by engaging with local producers, governments, and all stakeholders working along supply chains. Solidaridad is working to guarantee sustainable production all along supply chains, starting from producers and their key role: in South-East Asia, for example, we are achieving great results in sectors like oil palm by working directly with the true protagonists of change – local producers.”
Michelle Desilets, Executive Director of Orangutan Land Trust, has mobilized her thirty-year experience in biodiversity preservation by presenting a strong and innovative vision. The starting point is the awareness that food needs are destined to increase with population growth. “We need to ensure that human activities do not harm biodiversity and species survival, but rather that they are able to coexist within their natural habitat. Taking care of biodiversity requires collaborating over development and doing so sustainably, sitting together with all actors involved and adopting a solution-oriented approach over one of mere opposition. An example of that is the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil, through which we are working to restore the ecosystem surrounding orangutans.”
“Guaranteeing a truly sustainable development is a lengthy and effort-intensive process. We must engage with all actors along supply chains, starting from smallholders, without whom any positive action is unthinkable. There is much work to be done to preserve our ecosystem and ensure sustainability. The European Union must support it through an inclusive approach that avoids simplistic and ideological solutions. A pragmatic, systematic approach is the only way to a prosperous future” – Pietro Paganini concluded.
