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Clara Arpa Azofra, President of the United Nations Global Compact in Spain, introduces Isabel Guerra, an "exceptional woman with a tiny frame who wears a habit."

I represent the second generation of a family business, typical of the Spanish business fabric, founded by a very enterprising and visionary father, back in the 1960s.

Over all these years since the company was founded, my family has dedicated itself to consolidating it and ensuring its continuity with hard work and persistence, as have all those who have passed through it during this time, leaving their mark and their excellent work.

We have been through more than one crisis during these 50 years, and although the seas are somewhat choppy right now, we hope we can continue to sail through so that we can be useful to those who are supporting us and helping us with their work, effort and commitment to successfully navigate this storm.

It's not easy, but we remain committed and with hard work and persistence we hope it will bear fruit. Now, we have to switch course and make the right decisions for change. Tacking is not easy in such a hostile environment and to do so, we need to adapt to the changing winds. In such moments, the future can appear uncertain and somehow it feels very far away.

Since facing the Covid-19 pandemic two years ago, we thought that things couldn't get any worse, that the day would come when everything would return to normal. However, that situation seems more distant by the day.

Sustainability and development

The future will not be as before and we will have to adapt to it day by day. This is an opportunity to learn to do things differently, given this experience that we have all been subjected to, it is a chance to get away from "it's always been done that way". And I wonder if that "always" refers to the last 10, 20, 30 or 50 years...

When I was little, I remember that empty glass bottles were taken back to the store, shoes were taken to the cobbler's to have half soles put on and elbow pads were used on jumpers and knee pads on trousers.

"If it's not sustainable, it's not development"

Appliances were fixed at the local store. There were haberdasheries and seamstresses, of course, and shops selling all different colours of wool to knit hats, scarves and jumpers that would last you a lifetime. There were ragpickers and scrap dealers who each month recycled what the concierge collected from all the neighbours. I could go on. Ultimately, the throwaway mentality did not exist.

There is a motto that I like, “if it's not sustainable, it's not development.” During the last 70 years, society has developed as never before, in a way unlike any previous decade. We have witnessed the greatest population growth ever, more than 5,000 million inhabitants in the last 70 years, and the level of resources needed to reach the current level of society has multiplied exponentially.

Currently, according to the overshoot day initiative, which calculates the annual needs of the world's population for natural resources, we would need two and a half planets. It is estimated that by around 2030, the global population will be more than 8 billion, and just over 10 billion by 2050.

Crises and changes

We are facing a health, transport, raw materials and energy crisis, etc.

And we are also suffering a situation of instability of the kind not seen in Europe since the Second World War, according to experts. As part of this change in direction, as a society, we should also face our own change. A change that should involve the whole of society, where each person is responsible for their own behaviour.

Things will not be as before, nor will we be the same as a society. We will have to adapt, of course, but how? Firstly, by giving up and reducing our consumption of resources, behaving in a way that allows us to use them more efficiently, and secondly, learning ways of doing things with tools that allow us to be more efficient.

We will train in new skills and fields. For those of us who are of a certain age and used to a more analogue way of doing things, it is difficult for us to adapt to digitisation, but it is not just about typing fast on a touch keyboard, nor is it knowing how to handle applications on a smartphone.

We will have to face an environment that is uncomfortable for most, but it is incredibly useful for us to master digital skills that allow us to make machines talk to other machines so they are capable of using resources more efficiently. In this sense, artificial intelligence and data processing serve the same purpose.

The European Green Deal

We must control industrial, urban, personal activities... controlling at first and then continuing to reduce until we reach the zero emission of greenhouse gases. In our favour, we have the changes proposed by Europe in 2020 in terms of the European Green Deal. Its levers of change with respect to the economic sectors will make mid-century Europe a Green and Digital Europe.

Let's use what we have, the air and the sun to make our own energy and be independent, even if that means giving up and saving resources to make them more efficient. Let's help teams of people adapt and retrain those who are active and encourage each of them to get involved in their own future, if only because more training and adaptation means that work is more valued and stable.

For all of this, we need a change in mentality. We need training. We need you to convince us to put the best of this society at your service, for our actions, both individual and collective, to be in line with the profound change we need in order to turn the tide. The whole of society, involved as a single entity with one goal.

We need all those who work, who are in a position to make decisions, who in some way have influence on different areas of activity, to commit to implementing change so that, together, we can achieve this turnaround, a change of direction to get rid of the “it has always been done this way” mentality and move on to responsible production and consumption.

The 2030 Agenda and the SDGs

I am lucky enough to be a member of the board of directors of the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) and its President in Spain. This provides me with the vision and the chance to work closely with the international community on implementing the 2030 Agenda in the economic sectors and particularly in the private sector.

The Agenda continues to be a tool for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals published in 2015. These Goals will be in force until 2030 and we will not know for sure what we will have achieved by then or what the future will hold for us, a future that beyond that year seems far away.

Of those goals, all of which are a priority and cross-cutting, number 12 is the one that will be most popular, in my opinion, the one on Responsible Consumption and Production.

If we manage to act responsibly, both professionally and personally, if we go from clients where the price of the product or service prevails to consumers, if we have the capacity to exert our strength as buyers and make responsible choices, to the extent that we can influence as citizens, and according to the experts, the consumer is the one that decides… we will be able to turn the tide and manage, despite the tremendous difficulties, to weather this storm with a different attitude, with another purpose and another destination.

"Time for real change"

As my colleague Cristina Aranda said in a previous article, “it is time for real change”. Let's train ourselves in all of the new and necessary fields, let's do so without fear, let's commit ourselves as individuals to influencing this change on a daily basis through our behaviour and commitment. Let's include everyone, let's be diverse, let's commit to what is ours and try as a society, as people, so that no one is left behind.

"It is time for real change"

As I said at the beginning, I belong to a family business, one of the three million small and medium-sized companies that make up the industrial fabric of our country. I consider myself a businesswoman by birth and I would like the next generation, and I have no doubt that it will be a wonderful generation, to be more prepared and adapted, to find that new green and digital future, because we have managed to weather our storm, and prepared to bravely and fearlessly face their own future storms.

And without further ado, I would like to introduce the next link in our chain, Isabel Guerra, an impressive woman.

Firstly because of her art, which is so incredible it makes you think that the person who makes such pieces cannot be from this world.

Secondly, because of her personality, strong, firm and consistent, which is so unusual as to be considered other-worldly.

Thirdly, you would never think that something like this, so unparalleled, with such a confident character, could come from a woman with a tiny frame who wears a habit. She is one of the people I am most proud to know and share with you.

*Clara Arpa Azofra. CEO of ARPA Equipos Móviles de Campaña and President of the United Nations Global Compact.