CMPC CEO begins his term on the board of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development and proposes a “green recovery”

Under the framework of the first 2023 meeting of the WBCSD Executive Council in the Netherlands, Francisco Ruiz-Tagle, its only Latin American director, spent time with the CEOs of the main companies from around the world.

More than 430 thousand hectares burned, 7,784 people affected and 26 deaths are the current totals so are left in the wake of the fires in the Maule, Ñuble, Biobío and La Araucanía regions of south-central Chile. These are the worst recorded figures since the 2017 fire season in the area. That is why CMPC CEO Francisco Ruiz-Tagle in his first appointment to the Board of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) held in Amsterdam in the Netherlands proposed to the international entity the idea of considering a “green recovery” and “building back better” with the aim of resignifying the events that negatively affected Chile this past summer. He suggested looking at these events as an opportunity to improve and convert to a more sustainable system.

Ruiz-Tagle submitted his topics of interest and proposals in advance, as required by the WBCSD Council. In the document drafted by the CMPC CEO, he said that a “green recovery” means “rebuilding infrastructure and recovering the economy and ecosystems in ways that accelerate climate, nature and social action to ensure that vulnerable communities are not left behind.”

In that vein, the executive called on companies to play a crucial role, along with other public and private actors, in the efforts to rebuild after events such as fires. “With these setbacks likely to keep growing, it is critical that business strategies not only address recuperating lost ground, but work to deliver results that help bring these systems to an even better place than before the crisis,” he stressed in the text.

Composed of more than 200 leading companies in the world, the World Business Council for Sustainable Development is one of the leading global networks in the search for solutions to the problems afflicting our planet and setting business standard in terms of inequality, sustainability and the environment. In 2022, the paper company CEO was elected to serve as one of the group’s executive directors, a role he began to fill on January 1, 2023, becoming the only Latin American to be part of the organization’s board.

Dining with the King of the Netherlands

On Wednesday night before the board meeting, the WBCSD held a dinner with board members in honor of the King of the Netherlands, Willem-Alexander. At the meeting, Ruiz-Tagle spoke with the head of state about the importance of corporate sustainable management and of advancing toward the decarbonization of the economy.

CMPC has been part of the Council since 2011. In 2019, Ruiz-Tagle presented to the UN the roadmap of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the forest sector that was prepared by the Forest Solution Group of the WBCSD, an initiative in which the company participated with the CEO serving as Co-Chair.

The WBCSD is made up of companies from some of the most important global industries of all types from financial to automotive, and forestry, energy, large technology, mass consumer, laboratories and consultancies, and other sectors.

Apple, Amazon, Bayer, BMW, Bridgestone, Chevron, Danone, Google, IKEA, Honda, IBM, Komatsu, KPMG, Mastercard, McDonalds, Mercedes Benz, Microsoft, Nestle, PepsiCo, Pirelli, P&G, Philips, Santander, Shell, Stora Enso, Toyota, Unilever, Walmart and Volkswagen are a few of the companies in the group.