Latin Trade has selected the five most sustainable companies in Latin America. The business publication will honor these companies with the 2019 Latin Trade IndexAmericas Sustainability Award. The winners of this year's recognition to excellence in environment, social, governance, contribution to sustainable development and to their outstanding sustainability practices are Grupo Argos, EDP Brasil, PepsiCo Latam, Citigroup Latam and Mexichem. These prizes, developed in partnership with the Inter-American Development Bank, will be awarded at a special ceremony in Washington, D.C., on April 11.
The winners share a rigorous method when it comes to building and managing a sustainable operation. Their boards set strict standards and clear goals on ESG (Environment, Social and Governance), as well as measure and monitor their progress towards meeting them. Their corporate culture places an uncompromising emphasis on ethics, human rights and is characterized by a strong drive to reach out to stakeholders and to promote transparent reporting.
Winners were selected by an editorial board from a universe of more than 7,000 firms, screened and narrowed down to 100 candidates by the Inter-American Development Bank on their IndexAmericas.
The combined actions of this year's honorees have impacted the region in many ways. These companies have mitigated climate change, preserved biodiversity and water resources (Argos: winner in the Environment category). They have tackled all forms of corruption, administrative improbity, money laundering, collusion, conflicts of interest, and promoted education and healthcare while increasing returns for shareholders (EDP-Social). They have shown how to truly build a company with purpose, where every corporate action zeroes in on crucial goals around people, the planet and its products (PepsiCo-Governance). They have financed environmental projects and defined precise reporting methods (Citigroup-Development), and have become involved in irrigation, key for water management and food production, and even took their stringent ESG culture to first world countries (Mexichem-Multilatinas).
"We feel that the Latin Trade IndexAmericas Sustainability Award is one of our most important activities. It helps us advance our self-imposed mandate of being instrumental in promoting sustainable development in the region. We believe that showcasing excellence in practices, managers and companies will help improve the way business is carried out in Latin America," said Santiago Gutiérrez, Executive Editor of Latin Trade.
Last year, the Latin Trade IndexAmericas Sustainability Awards went to France's Valeo (Environment), U.S.-based AES Corporation (Social) and Johnson & Johnson (Governance), Spain's Telefónica (Development), and Argentina's Globant (Multilatinas).
