Conciencia Pinera

Para leer este post en español, ve aquí.

A little over two years ago we formed a team within 10Pines with the aim of undertaking initiatives related to corporate social responsibility.

During this time, we consolidated as Conciencia Pinera. The team carried out activities such as:

• Taking part in a workshop by the NGO Sumando Energías building solar water heaters with recycled materials for families living in low-income neighbourhoods.
• Handing out breakfast to homeless people around our office when winter hit our city.
• Participating in the campaign “Una Nochebuena para todos” (A Christmas Eve for all) donating food boxes to low-income families during Christmas.
• Carrying out a blood donation campaign for Hospital Garrahan.
• Donating hardware.
• Developing software ad-honorem for social non-profit organizations and entrepreneurships.
• Taking a company wide CPR training course.
• Carrying out environmental initiatives such as:
• Implementing environmental-friendly policies.
• Recycling training.
• Raising awareness on environmental issues and waste sorting (i.e. advertising around the office).
• Promoting reusable bags and tupperware usage.
• Building ecobricks out of our plastic waste.
• Eliminating the usage of single-use items in our courses and meetings.

Our main goal is for every member of the company to be aware of the social and environmental challenges that our world is facing and to commit ourselves to confront them!

In pursuit of that, we recently certified as a B Corporation. As members of such community, we have the responsibility to act on these challenges and strive to make a positive impact on society.

In this context, our team got together to rediscover our purpose, to set out goals, and plan our journey to fulfill them. We worked on our purpose, principles, participants, structure and practices under a Liberating Structures framework known as Purpose-To-Practice.

We defined five objectives that drive us.

• Protect the planet and the species that inhabit it.
• Promote responsible and sustainable consumption.
• Raise awareness about the importance and urgency of sustainable development.
• Advocate for equality of opportunity and reduce the gender gap in our industry.
• Work in collaboration towards the Sustainable Development Goals and to fulfill our purpose.

The Sustainable Development Goals are a “blueprint to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all” proposed by the United Nations and adopted by world leaders in 2015. Their aim is to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all people. Each Goal has specific targets that must be achieved in the coming years. You can read more about them here.

What is important about this 2030 Agenda is that “It stresses the need for the private sector to become a source of development at a global scale, thus underlining its role as a key agent and stating that it has the same responsibility as governments and private citizens. In this way, the SDGs play an important strategic role for companies by providing a universal and consistent framework to guide their contributions to sustainable development and create shared value”1.

With this in mind, we asked ourselves which of the SDGs we would like to commit to. Although these are ambitious goals, there are many things that we can do as a company. There are several practical guides for the private sector and various ways to contribute.

After defining our purpose and debating about which of the SDGs we would like to contribute, we decided on the following, which we thought best represented us as a group:

• Promote diversity.
• Be empathetic; encourage real interest in each other.
• Be persistent and principled.
• Collaborate and form alliances.
• Think long-term; always look for the most sustainable option.
• Advocate for the protection of the environment.
• Be proactive and courageous in generating opportunities that break the status quo.

Laying out these ideas allowed us to align our expectations so they serve as our motivation throughout this year. With a clear purpose and the principles of our team defined, we're ready to embark on a path of hard work filled with challenges.

Among many others, we aim to:

• Reduce our carbon footprint and become a carbon neutral company.
• Measure and reduce our impact on electricity and water consumption.
• Consume more responsibly, promoting local products and suppliers that are B Corporations.
• Strive for “Zero Waste”: reject, reuse, recycle and compost.
• Provide environmental and social awareness workshops for every member of the company.
• Promote conscientious personal consumption through a sustainable marketplace.
• Fight for gender equality and advocate for the integration of women and other minorities in technology.

This is us and these are our commitments. We invite you to be alert, to question your consumption habits and your daily actions, in order to reflect on them and make a change. The world needs more attentive, active and awake minds, hearts and wills.

“Those who do not move, do not notice their chains.” ― Rosa Luxemburg