"GRACE's mission is to support Members on their sustainability journey", Marta Bastos dos Santos The second episode of the Heróis PME podcast is now available.

The second episode of the Heróis PME Podcast, an initiative of Yunit Consulting, focused on sustainability and discussed how Portuguese companies implement it.

In the second episode featured Inês Santos, Head of Sustainability at Forteams LAB, Carlos Gonçalves, Chief Executive Officer of Dream and Instability at Casa Mendes Gonçalves, Marta Bastos dos Santos, a member of the GRACE Board representing EDP and Bernardo Maciel, CEO of Yunit Consulting and project manager SME heroes.

For Bernardo Maciel, the main purpose of the SME Heroes Awards is to "highlight the journey of companies" and it would be impossible not to create the Sustainability category: "Sustainability has been on the agenda for some time now and it was important to highlight it, not as a matter of trend or fashion, but mainly because we dreamed for the genesis of the SME Heroes Awards themselves to give visibility to success stories, of companies that are worth looking at and that can serve as inspiration for others who are starting out. The theme of sustainability follows the same logic, that is, being able to bring here some initiatives that are being carried out in Portuguese companies and that can serve as an example and barometer for others."

Bernardo Maciel, CEO of Yunit Consulting

Marta Bastos dos Santos, from Grace, the ESG and Sustainability partner for this sixth edition of SME Heroes, says that Grace's mission is to support its members on their sustainability journey. With more than 330 members of several sizes and from various sectors of activity, she ensures that ESG must be considered in all its dimensions and not just one of them, and that is why "it made perfect sense to focus on this category". Marta also adds that issues related to sustainability are becoming increasingly central to companies, whether large, medium or small: "Companies are increasingly aware that it is also a factor of competitiveness. Besides being part of the business, sustainability is seen as a strategy. More and more companies are taking this path. Sustainability means being enduring and I think that companies are realizing more and more that purpose and profit can go hand in hand."

Marta Bastos dos Santos, GRACE Board member representing EDP

Forteams LAB won in the Sustainability category in the fifth edition of the SME Heroes Award and Inês Santos confesses that the distinction was very interesting. "We believe it's an award that goes through the whole organization. Forteams has won seven sustainability-related awards in the last two years but this particular award, because of the way it's designed, is a much broader category and we felt we were missing an award of this caliber and I'm glad we managed to win it last year." Inês Santos also reveals that Forteams LAB continues to invest in circular economy projects and highlights a specific project developed in partnership with a French company: "What we do is collect club T-shirts that are leftovers from previous years' production or that aren't sold in the stores and we reuse them to make computer bags, suitcases, caps and so on, in other words, with the same raw material we make a whole series of things, new products."

Inês Santos, Head of Sustainability, Forteams LAB (winner of the Sustainability category in the 5th edition of SME Heroes)

Carlos Gonçalves also highlights the importance of the award for Casa Mendes Gonçalves. "For us, sustainability is either/or. We've been doing it in our area for a long time and this year, with great pride in the work of our colleagues, we're going to present a unique report that symbolizes the way we look at sustainability. It's our common thread and if we don't do it, we won't be here in the future." The Vila Feliz Cidade project is an example of this commitment to sustainability, with the aim of creating "profitable business models, producing food and regenerating the land, not using it up".

Carlos Gonçalves, Chief Executive Officer of Dream and Instability at Casa Mendes Gonçalves (winner of the Sustainability category in the 4th edition of HERÓIS PME)

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2nd episode of the SME Heroes podcast: SustainabilityOriginal article published in ECO online