This pioneering initiative will allow companies to be more competitive, learn about the European taxonomy, find sources of financing, increase cooperation and achieve new business opportunities in a local and global market.
To continue with the commitment to support the sustainable development of Bizkaia companies and adapt to the changes they need, the Bilbao Chamber of Commerce has created Cámarabilbao ESG Hub, a new line of work to accompany the business fabric of the Territory in the deployment of a sustainable strategy for its growth and competitiveness open to the participation of all public and private organizations in Bizkaia both as users and as partners of the project.
This new initiative responds to the Chamber’s determined commitment to sustainability, a position endorsed by the creation this past July of the Sustainability Commission, made up of members representing 25 companies in the Plenary and which has the support of its Bodies. of Government formed, precisely, by the companies of Bizkaia.
Likewise, the latest Chamber survey that was launched to companies in the Territory indicated that companies in Bizkaia consider sustainability to be a lever for growth but, at the same time, the majority are unaware of ESG criteria. This reinforced the idea of promoting the Cámarabilbao ESG Hub project of the Bilbao Chamber of Commerce, responding to its own nature, seeking and structuring projects that responded to the needs detected to develop the competitiveness of Bizkaia companies.
Environmental, social and governance sustainability – or ESG – are fundamental pillars for economic and social development, and companies cannot be oblivious to this. The Chamber of Commerce believes that “companies are engines of growth, but they must also be generators of employment and well-being, leaders in innovation and creators of value for all their stakeholders.” With this new area of work, the Chamber adapted to what companies may need and has anticipated, in parallel, what is to come so that they do not fall behind their competition and do not incur errors or illegalities. “On the one hand, we must avoid – he emphasizes – that our companies compete under inferior conditions or are discriminated against compared to other more lax environments in this matter, such as Asia and America. We must adapt, both in speed and depth, the reality of the large company that competes in global markets and the SME that operates more in the domestic and local markets and that is a supplier to the former.”
Sustainability, on the other hand, is “an opportunity for new businesses and markets, because it will satisfy the needs of clients and consumers who demand to work and buy with sustainable companies.”
For all these reasons, this initiative, a pioneer in this field in the Basque Autonomous Community, was born with the aim of helping companies face the multiple challenges posed by the integration of ESG criteria in their management and to comply with the legal regulations relating to This current matter promoted by the European Union, including the obligation to have a Sustainability Plan in 2026. Likewise, it will help them find sources of financing and prepare for the regulations planned on the 2028 horizon to move towards a modern economy and efficient in the use of resources, free of net greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, in which economic growth is decoupled from the use of resources and thanks to which no person will be left behind.
In short, Cámarabilbao ESG Hub wants to be a plural forum in which, with the support of top-level professional experts, companies and stakeholders with an ESG focus have the opportunity to train, acquire and share knowledge; identify good practices and policies to encourage and promote sustainability; increase public-private collaboration and between members of the Hub to create strategic alliances, “as well as become a platform for the dissemination among Bizkaia companies of the financial, reputational, legal compliance and market access advantages that the ESG management and that the companies in our Territory are leaders in this matter.”
