Margarida Couto believes in happy coincidences, considers that genuine enthusiasm positively contaminates and that each success is a good excuse to do more. Since she was a child, she was accompanied by a strong sense of social awareness, which has guided her throughout her personal and professional life. The girl who used to "steal" bread at home to give to hungry schoolmates, now is the outgoing president of GRACE (among many other things), spoke to VER and talks, in her passionate way, a little about herself and a lot about the journey she has traveled in the two worlds she has embraced: the corporate and sustainability worlds.

GRACE celebrated its 24th anniversary on February 25th. In 2000 called Grupo de Reflexão e Apoio à Cidadania Empresarial Reflection and Support (Group for Corporate Citizenship), it was formed by a very small group of organizations, mostly multinationals, at a time when corporate social responsibility issues were not yet on the agenda of the vast majority of business. Therefore, as the pioneer in the first major movement in favor of corporate social responsibility in Portugal, do you think that GRACE was more needed by the business ecosystem now or in the past?

It's not a very easy question because, in a certain sense, it seems to be more needed now, since sustainability issues have become undeniably essential for companies and GRACE was born to support its member companies on this journey. And if it's at this point that companies feel they cannot afford the journey, even for reasons of competitiveness and not just because they have a moral duty to do so, we might be tempted to think that GRACE is more needed now.

Read hereThe full interview with journalist Helena Oliveira by Margarida Couto.